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An RNA-Peptide World

“I don’t want to replace the RNA world theory,” Carell said. But “I think we need an extension” to make it more plausible. He thinks that rather than evolving their complexity separately, RNA and peptides did it together as a single molecule, complementing each other’s functions.

As scientist extraordinaire and author of an empire of science-fiction books, Arthur C. Clarke is one of the farthest-seeing visionaries of our time. His pithy quotations tug harder than those of most futurists on our collective psyches for their insights into humanity and our unique place in the cosmos. And none do so more than his famous Third Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

This observation stimulated me to think about the impact the discovery of an extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) would have on science and religion. To that end, I would like to immodestly propose Shermer’s Last Law (I don’t believe in naming laws after oneself, so as the good book says, the last shall be first and the first shall be last): “Any sufficiently advanced ETI is indistinguishable from God.”

God is typically described by Western religions as omniscient and omnipotent. Because we are far from possessing these traits, how can we possibly distinguish a God who has them absolutely from an ETI who merely has them copiously relative to us? We can’t. But if God were only relatively more knowing and powerful than we are, then by definition the deity would be an ETI!

Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) are among the most widespread rechargeable battery technologies, due to their high energy densities and performances. Despite their versatility and advantageous characteristics, these batteries often require specific times to charge and speeding up these charging times has so far proved challenging.

The main reason for this is that during fast charging, plating could form on the batteries’ graphite anode, which could pose safety risks. In fact, lithium plating reactions on graphite anodes, which can also occur at , during overcharging or following malfunctions, can lead to the formation of non-cyclable lithium metal and salts, which could ignite causing fires or battery explosions.

Researchers at University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently carried out a study investigating potential ways to reduce these risks and enable the creation of safe fast-charging LiBs. Their paper, published in Nature Energy, outlines a series of simple techniques for quantifying irreversible Li plating on the graphite anodes inside LiBs.

Not peer-reviewed yet but a submitted paper.

The ‘presented images’ were shown to a group of humans. The ‘reconstructed images’ were the result of an fMRI output to Stable Diffusion.

In other words, #stablediffusion literally read people’s minds.

Source 👇

That’s if no ‘significant actions’ are taken.

According to a recent report, if no significant actions are taken, half the world’s population will be obese or overweight by 2035. Globally, 38 percent of the Earth’s population— almost 2.6 billion people —are overweight or obese. If situations do not alter in the future, the rate is expected to rise to 51 percent in just twelve years’ time, as per new reports published by World Obesity Federation.

Furthermore, the obesity rate is particularly rising among children and countries with low-income rates.


Ahmet Yarali/iStock.