Science & TechnologyS


Evil Rays

A nanoantenna for long-distance, ultra-secure communication


Osaka University
Fri, 12 Nov 2021 21:03 UTC
Researchers from Osaka University have improved the transfer efficiency between quantum information carriers, in a manner that's based on well-established nanoscience and is compatible with upcoming advanced communication technologies.
Semiconductor
© 2021 Oiwa labFig.1 Conceptual illustration of efficient illumination of photons to semiconductor lateral quantum dots, by using a surface plasmon antenna and excitation of electrons in the quantum dots.
Information storage and transfer in the manner of simple ones and zeros — as in today's classical computer technologies — is insufficient for quantum technologies under development. Now, researchers from Japan have fabricated a nanoantenna that will help bring quantum information networks closer to practical use.

In a study recently published in Applied Physics Express, researchers from Osaka University and collaborating partners have substantially enhanced photon-to-electron conversion through a metal nanostructure, which is an important step forward in the development of advanced technologies for sharing and processing data.

Classical computer information is based on simple on/off readouts. It's straightforward to use a technology known as a repeater to amplify and retransmit this information over long distances. Quantum information is based on comparatively more complex and secure readouts, such as photon polarization and electron spin. Semiconductor nanoboxes known as quantum dots are materials that researchers have proposed for storing and transferring quantum information. However, quantum repeater technologies have some limitations — for example, current ways to convert photon-based information to electron-based information are highly inefficient. Overcoming this information conversion and transfer challenge is what the researchers at Osaka University aimed to address.
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Cassiopaea

China-Russia Consortium space weather center established in Beijing


GlobalTimes.cn
Wed, 17 Nov 2021 02:18 UTC
space
© IC
The China-Russia Consortium (CRC) space weather center was established in Beijing on Tuesday, a move to accelerate the development of meteorological services for international civil aviation and enhance China's international influence in the sector, according to the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

By cooperating with Russia to take part in international affairs and fulfill international duties, China will raise its international influence in the sector of space weather aviation services, Yu Rucong, deputy director of CMA said.

It is hoped that the two sides will further cooperate in data sharing, product integration and forecast verification to provide more accurate and practical products and services to global civil aviation users, Yu noted.

Comment: Considering the uptick in unusual phenomena on our planet, the apparent increase in space weather events, and what this may portend, this is a rather timely development: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Health

Therapy dubbed 'dancing molecules' successfully repairs severe spinal cord injuries in research mice

Peter Coffaro
OrthoFeed
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 21:40 UTC
nerve repair paralysis
© Samuel I. Stupp Laboratory/Northwestern UniversityResearchers administered a single injection to tissues surrounding the spinal cords of paralyzed mice.
After single injection, paralyzed animals regained ability to walk within four weeks

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new injectable therapy that harnesses "dancing molecules" to reverse paralysis and repair tissue after severe spinal cord injuries.

In a new study, researchers administered a single injection to tissues surrounding the spinal cords of paralyzed mice. Just four weeks later, the animals regained the ability to walk.

By sending bioactive signals to trigger cells to repair and regenerate, the breakthrough therapy dramatically improved severely injured spinal cords in five key ways: (1) The severed extensions of neurons, called axons, regenerated; (2) scar tissue, which can create a physical barrier to regeneration and repair, significantly diminished; (3) myelin, the insulating layer of axons that is important in transmitting electrical signals efficiently, reformed around cells; (4) functional blood vessels formed to deliver nutrients to cells at the injury site; and (5) more motor neurons survived.
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Beaker

The world's oldest cases of mercury poisoning revealed in Copper Age Iberia


Heritage Daily
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 21:03 UTC
cinnabar mercury ore
© Moha El-Jaw - ShutterstockA lump of cinnabar ore from which mercury is extracted
A recent paper published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology and in which researchers from the University of Seville participate, explores the complex relationship between humans and mercury over time.

In this article, entitled "The use and abuse of cinnabar in Late Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia", a team of 14 specialists in biology, chemistry, physical anthropology and archaeology have presented the results of the largest study ever carried out on the presence of mercury in human bone, with a sample of a total of 370 individuals from 50 tombs located in 23 archaeological sites in Spain and Portugal dating from Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age and Antiquity, thus encompassing 5000 years of human history.
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Syringe

Best of the Web: Pfizer whistleblower sinks vaccine trial integrity

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Mercola.com
Mon, 15 Nov 2021 20:24 UTC
pfizer
Story at-a-glance
  • According to a whistleblower who worked on Pfizer's Phase 3 COVID jab trial, data were falsified, patients were unblinded, the company hired poorly trained people to administer the injections, and follow-up on reported side effects lagged way behind
  • Brook Jackson was the regional director of Ventavia Research Group, a research organization charged with testing Pfizer's COVID jab at several sites in Texas. Jackson repeatedly "informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns, and data integrity issues," and when her concerns were ignored, she finally filed a complaint with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • The FDA did not follow up on her complaint. Ventavia was not one of the nine trial locations audited, and Pfizer did not bring any of those issues up when applying for emergency use authorization for its COVID shot
  • Documentation shared by Jackson shows a Ventavia executive had identified three site staff members who had falsified data
  • After being notified of Jackson's complaints, Pfizer contracted Ventavia to conduct four additional trials — one for COVID shots in children and young adults, one for the COVID jab in pregnant women, a booster shot trial, and an RSV vaccine trial
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Fireball 4

Asteroid-driven showers might be more common than previously thought

Theo Nicitopoulos
Astronomy
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 18:23 UTC
Asteroid Bennu
© NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed MartinBennu ejecting particles from its surface on Jan. 19, 2019.
Every day, thousands of small rocks — dust grain- to pebble-sized — cross paths with Earth's atmosphere and burn up. More organized collisions, known as meteor showers, are visible to us when the planet passes through whole clouds of rocky debris.

These fragments were long thought to come strictly from comets whose crusts had been heated by the Sun and cracked open. But early in 2019, NASA's OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft (short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer) captured images from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu that flipped that line of thinking on its head.

The images showed small bits of rock launching off the asteroid's surface. Some of the rock fell back to the surface and some went into orbit around Bennu for several days, but about 30 percent was ejected with enough speed that its pieces escaped the asteroid's gravity and began to orbit around the Sun.

"This was surprising," says Robert Melikyan, a graduate student at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. "Bennu doesn't have a lot of volatile material that can heat up and break up the way comets do."

Melikyan and a team of researchers modeled the evolution of the asteroid's dust cloud in a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets earlier this year and found that the particles both spread out around Bennu's orbit and follow a similar elliptical path around the Sun.
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Galaxy

New study suggests wormholes may be viable shortcuts through space-time after all, new study suggests

Paul Sutter
Live Science
Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:26 UTC
Black hole
© NASA / JPL-Caltech
Wormholes, or portals between black holes, may be stable after all, a wild new theory suggests.

The findings contradict earlier predictions that these hypothetical shortcuts through space-time would instantly collapse.

The sea change comes because tiny differences in the mathematics of relativity, which is used to describe such wormholes, end up dramatically changing our overall picture of how they behave.

A game of metrics

First, some background on how general relativity operates. Relativity is like a machine. Put in certain objects — say, a mass or an arrangement of particles — and the machine spits out how that collection will behave over time due to gravity. Everything in general relativity is based on movement in space and time: Objects start at certain physical coordinates, they move around, and they end up at other coordinates.
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Comet 2

Signs of a Tunguska like event in Chile 12000 years ago

Anton Petrov
YouTube
Mon, 15 Nov 2021 22:17 UTC
Halley's Comet
© Wikimedia
Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a detection of a bolide explosion in Chile 12000 years ago.


Links:

Widespread glasses generated by cometary fireballs during the late Pleistocene in the Atacama Desert, Chile

81P/Wild
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Black Cat

Computer pioneer warns the metaverse 'could make reality disappear'

Chris Ciaccia
dailymail.co.uk
Wed, 10 Nov 2021 18:05 UTC
the metaverse
One of the world's leading computer engineers believes the metaverse, the idea that caused Mark Zuckerberg to rebrand his whole company, could one day 'make reality disappear.'

In a recent op-ed, Louis Rosenberg, a computer scientist known for developing the first functional augmented reality system at Air Force Research Laboratory and founding virtual reality company Immersion Corporation, believes that by integrating virtual reality and augmented reality and having people interact in the digital realm for a significant portion of their day, it could 'alter our sense of reality' and distort 'how we interpret our direct daily experiences.'

'Our surroundings will become filled with persons, places, objects, and activities that don't actually exist, and yet they will seem deeply authentic to us,' Rosenberg penned in the piece, published by Big Think.

Although he did not specifically mention old Zuckerberg or Meta by name, Rosenberg made a clear reference that he is deeply worried about the 'platform providers' that will have the infrastructure.

'...I am concerned about the legitimate uses of AR by the powerful platform providers that will control the infrastructure,' Rosenberg added.
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Evil Rays

'Trigger warning' device for classrooms and parties sounds alarm when it detects offensive language or jokes

Chay Quinn
Daily Mail
Sun, 14 Nov 2021 10:17 UTC
themis
The Themis will emit irritating sounds when it detects offensive speech has been said around it.
A new trigger-warning detector which sound alarms when it detects offensive speech has been unveiled at Dubai Design Week.

The Themis is a lamp-sized device intended to 'moderate' debate in classrooms and universities and 'manifest political correctness' into a product.

The small device could even be used to police language at dinner parties and family gatherings and its developers have said it hopes that Themis will encourage 'self-critique'.

Comment: One would hope that the Themis is a network-ready device, so the authorities can be alerted any time offensive speech is detected. An annoying 2-minute alarm isn't really a sufficient penalty for the egregious crime of wrong speech. After all, self-policing isn't as effective as actual policing.

See also:

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