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Category: futurism – Page 1,049

Soil bacteria found to produce mosquito repelling chemical stronger than DEET

A trio of researchers at the University of Wisconsin has discovered that a common soil bacterium produces a chemical that is more effective in repelling mosquitoes than DEET. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, Mayur Kajla, Gregory Barrett-Wilt and Susan Paskewitz describe their search for the chemical made by the bacteria and their hopes for its future.

DEET has been the leading mosquito repellent since the late 1940s and multiple studies have shown it to be safe to use—still, some believe its synthetic nature suggests it might be causing harm. Because of that, scientists have continued to look for a natural repellent. In this new effort, the researchers report that they have found a naturally occurring that is even more repellent than DEET, though it will have to undergo extensive study to see if it is safe to use.

The researchers report that their study began with Xenorhabdus budapestensis, a type of bacteria that takes up residence in soil-dwelling nematodes. The nematodes actually use the bacteria to help them parasitize insects. The researchers wanted to learn more about how the bacteria help kill insects and, in the process, found that were quite averse to its presence. This suggested the bacteria produced a chemical that caused the mosquitoes to stay away.

Opal-filled fossils reveal timid, dog-size dinosaur that lived down under

When Mike Poben, an opal buyer and and fossil fanatic, bought a bucket of opal from an Australian mine, he was surprised to find to find what looked like an ancient tooth in the pile.

Later, he also found a fossilized jaw piece — one that was shiny and glistening with opal.

After showing the two opalized specimens to paleontologists in 2014, Poben learned that they were part of a previously unknown dog-size dinosaur species, a new study finds. This dino lived about 100 million years ago in Australia, back when the landscape was lush and dotted with lakes. [Photos: Meet Wade, the Long-Necked Dinosaur from Down Under].

Inside China’s Future Factory | Hello World Shenzhen: Part One

Over the past 40 years, the fishing village of Shenzhen has been reborn as a futuristic metropolis bursting with factories. Bloomberg Businessweek’s Ashlee Vance travels to the heart of China’s tech revolution to witness this new reality firsthand, as part of a three-episode exploration of the city. In part one of Hello World Shenzhen, Vance gets a worker’s view of life in a startup and then explores one of the city’s famous electronics markets to learn how people survive (and in some cases make fortunes) in such a frenetic, competitive environment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/hello-world

Credits:

Creator & Host
Ashlee Vance

Director
David Nicholson

Producer

Continue reading “Inside China’s Future Factory | Hello World Shenzhen: Part One” | >

CERN Unveils Design for 62-Mile-Round Atom Smasher More Powerful Than the Large Hadron Collider

A scientific collaboration has released a concept design for the Large Hadron Collider’s successor, an enormous new experiment that would sit inside a hundred-kilometer (62-mile) tunnel.

The design concept plans for two Future Circular Colliders, the first which would begin operation perhaps in 2040. The ambitious experiments would hunt for new particles with collision energies 10 times higher than those created by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The concept design is the first big milestone achieved by the scientific collaboration.