The SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY News Thread

[ganbaru]

Oklahoma scientists say earthquakes linked to oil and gas work
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0NC2F220150421

Mindfulness therapy as good as medication for chronic depression -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0NB2KO20150420

[AnimeFan188]

Chinese scientists just admitted to tweaking the genes of human embryos
for the first time in history:

"A group of Chinese scientists just reported that they modified the genome of
human embryos, something that has never been done in the history of the world,
according to a report in Nature News.

A recent biotech discovery — one that has been called the biggest biotech
discovery of the century — showed how scientists might be able to modify a
human genome when that genome was still just in an embryo.

This could change not only the genetic material of a person, but could also change
the DNA they pass on, removing "bad" genetic codes (and potentially adding
"good" ones) and taking an active hand in evolution.

Concerned scientists published an argument that no one should edit the human
genome in this way until we better understood the consequences after a report
uncovered rumors that Chinese scientists were already working on using this
technology.

But this new paper, published April 18 in the journal Protein and Cell by a Chinese
group led by gene-function researcher Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University,
shows that work has already been done, and Nature News spoke to a Chinese
source that said at least four different groups are "pursuing gene editing in
human embryos."

See:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chines...205300657.html


I wonder if they'll name their first genetically-enhanced human Khan?

[SaintessHeart]

That is misreporting already. The original Nature article cited that "The researchers say that their results reveal serious obstacles to using the method in medical applications."

Reading it linguistically with PC, this means that it is a failed experiment. And besides, splicing a genome doesn't mean it is edited. The edit has to carry forward in a growing embryo.

[aldw]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

That is misreporting already. The original Nature article cited that "The researchers say that their results reveal serious obstacles to using the method in medical applications."

Reading it linguistically with PC, this means that it is a failed experiment. And besides, splicing a genome doesn't mean it is edited. The edit has to carry forward in a growing embryo.

Yahoo is notorious for its misleading articles titles, even the commentariat points this out repeatedly.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by aldw

Yahoo is notorious for its misleading articles titles, even the commentariat points this out repeatedly.

There is the internet. Read directly from nature and google what you don't know. Is it that hard?

Besides Yahoo is not the only one. I remember reading my local papers about Rapelay saying that it gives points for raping girls (it doesn't, go play the game) and our local scientists developed substitute blood around '05/'06 (when the original patent goes back into the 1990s).

Reading newspapers is hard these days because mainstream journalists don't know how to do cross-referencing, unlike science or war journalists who dig for counterpoints to come up with 10k+ word reports.

Oh fck not Engadget too.

[Ithekro]

The Eugenics Wars will be a little late this timestream.

[aldw]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

There is the internet. Read directly from nature and google what you don't know. Is it that hard?

Besides Yahoo is not the only one. I remember reading my local papers about Rapelay saying that it gives points for raping girls (it doesn't, go play the game) and our local scientists developed substitute blood around '05/'06 (when the original patent goes back into the 1990s).

Reading newspapers is hard these days because mainstream journalists don't know how to do cross-referencing, unlike science or war journalists who dig for counterpoints to come up with 10k+ word reports.

Oh fck not Engadget too.

Oh, I cross-reference articles all the time, especially if they come from ideologically slanted or ignorant writers to begin with, but nonetheless it's not excusable for websites to post misleading article titles in any case.

[Ithekro]

Here was some kind of news about the EMDrive possibly generating some sort of warp field. Anyone have any idea what that is about?

[AnimeFan188]

Our iPhones will soon be more intelligent than we are:

"Ray Kurzweil made a startling prediction in 1999 that appears to be coming true:
that by 2023 a $1,000 laptop would have the computing power and storage capacity
of a human brain."


"Kurzweil, a renowned futurist and the director of engineering at Google, told me a
few days ago that the hardware needed to emulate the human brain may be ready
even sooner than he predicted — in around 2020 — using technologies such as
graphics processing units (GPUs), which are ideal for brain-software algorithms. He
predicts that the complete brain software will take a little longer: until about 2029.

The implications of all this are mind-boggling. If Kurzweil’s right, then within 14
years, the smartphones in our pockets will be as intelligent as we are. In fact, if we
focus just on computational intelligence (leaving aside emotional and other forms of
intelligence), our phones will match us in just seven years — about when the iPhone
11 is likely to be released. It doesn’t stop there, though."

See:

http://venturebeat.com/2015/04/23/ou...t-than-we-are/

[SaintessHeart]

[ganbaru]

These five ideas will either fix global warming or break the planet
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...ldnt-try-them/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

These five ideas will either fix global warming or break the planet
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...ldnt-try-them/

I like the iron dust idea. Right now, China has stopped buying iron ore from producers in places like Australia, and there is huge surplus stock of that sitting around.

We can grind them up and throw them into the sea.

And here is some rad old-school method - read the blinking lights, hack them

New Browser Hack Can Spy On Eight Out Of Ten PCs

And this one :

This 13-year-old found the math formula for capturing the sun's energy

If anyone had done an interest in math, the Fibonacci sequence is an unique set of numbers that for some strange reason, occurs in almost every natural mathematical pattern (the other being the Golden Ratio, both related actually).

And this kid just took the simplest equation and turn it into the strangest idea.

EDIT :

Nintendo Emulator Developer Passes Away

Apparently some troll drove her to suicide. Rach was a transgirl - rumoured has it that someone just posted that she should go jump off a bridge.

[SineMora]

NASA Accidentally takes a step in Warp Drive Technology.

Now if we can pinpoint the closest most Earthlike or even bigger planet to land in.

[ganbaru]

Tesla moves into batteries that store energy for homes, businesses
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0NM34020150501

[erneiz_hyde]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Tesla moves into batteries that store energy for homes, businesses
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0NM34020150501

Apparently Tesla is Stark Industries

This is a very exciting piece. I always thought that the future lies in nuclear. I'm surprised that you can theoretically power the whole of USA in a comparably tiny amount of landmass. And open sourcing patents? Wow.

Of course, there will most likely be opposition. But I sincerely hope this vision could be realized in our near future.

[AnimeFan188]

Pathways, Timelines and Superintelligence Scenario:

"Wait but Why summarizes some of the timelines and definitions for artificial super-
intelligence. The general consensus among AI researchers is that Artificial
superintelligence could arrive around 2060.

Nick Bostrom defines superintelligence as “an intellect that is much smarter than the
best human brains in practically every field, including scientific creativity, general
wisdom and social skills"."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/05/pat...lines-and.html


========================================


US Startup X-energy developing innovative Xe-100 “pebble bed” high
temperature gas-cooled reactor:

"X-energy, a Greenbelt-based nuclear engineering company,recently convened a
group of world-renowned nuclear experts to discuss best-practices in pebble fuel
fabrication. X-energy will use the spherical elements to fuel their Xe-100
gas-cooled nuclear reactor in the mid-2020s. The Xe-100 is a “pebble bed” high
temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR).

The Xe-100 is a helium-cooled “pebble bed” HTGR that operates at 125MWth and
produces approximately 48MWe.

The Xe-100 will benefit from decades of research and safe operation in pebble
bed reactors internationally, and X-energy plans to bring the remarkable features
and benefits of pebble fuel to the United States for the first time. The Xe-100 will
be ultra-safe, small-scale, compact, versatile, and able to respond in real-time to
fluctuating grid demands."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/05/us-...eveloping.html

[SaintessHeart]

Helium?

I am waiting for the journalists and the staff to be interviewed......in high squeaky voices.

[KataStars]

This is sort of pseudo-theoretical science, but an interesting read nonetheless. I think it makes a good deal of sense, most great discoveries started as 'pseudoscience' anyways. I won't even try to explain it, the article speaks for itself.

http://www.colinandrews.net/Consciou...Article04.html

[SaintessHeart]

Australia deploys electronic noses to catch vandals

What is the punishment? Feeding kangaroos?

[Cosmic Eagle]

https://citizenlab.org/2015/04/chinas-great-cannon/


So China is now actively attacking sites outside it with content it doesn't like. And unlike Russian attempts, it doesn't seem part of an offensive campaign so much as "I DON'T LIKE THIS! REMOVE IT!"



Time to just sinkhole the whole nation and cut them off from the greater net....They would be happier with it anyway.