Lifeboat Foundation

Far below you lies a sphere of solid iron and nickel about as wide as the broadest part of Texas: the Earth’s inner core. The metal at the inner core is under pressure about 360 million times higher than we experience in our everyday lives and temperatures approximately as hot as the Sun’s surface.

Earth’s planetary core is thankfully intact. But in space, similar cores can collide with other objects, causing the crystalline materials of the core to deform rapidly. Some asteroids in our solar system are massive iron objects that scientists suspect are the remnants of planetary cores after catastrophic impacts.

Measuring what happens during the collision of celestial bodies or at the Earth’s core is obviously not very practical. As such, much of our understanding of planetary cores is based on experimental studies of metals at less extreme temperatures and pressures. But researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have now observed for the first time how iron’s atomic structure deforms to accommodate the stress from the pressures and temperatures that occur just outside of the inner core.

Congress is making its biggest push ever to stop drunk driving with President Biden’s huge infrastructure bill. As we previously reported, one of the provisions included a mandate for anti-drunk driving technology in new cars. Now, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has passed Congress with the measure intact, Autoblog (AP) reports, and it’s expected to be signed by the President soon. As part of the legislation, carmakers will have to include technology to detect and stop drunk drivers by as early as 2026.

First, though, the Department of Transportation will have to determine the best solution to curtail intoxicated drunk driving. Specifically, the bill requires something that will “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.” That sounds similar to infrared camera solutions already used today by GM, Nissan and others, Sam Abuelsamid, principal mobility analyst for Guidehouse Insights, tells the AP. It goes without saying that we’d need something more advanced than breathalyzers, which are already used as a punishment for convicted drunken drivers.

Around 10,000 people die every year in the US from drunk driving accidents, the NHTSA says. Now that we have smarter sensors and plenty of camera technology to monitor driver behavior, it makes sense to explore solutions that could help prevent those sorts of accidents. Within a decade, it should feel as commonplace as seatbelts.

High level partnerships and a focus on using artificial intelligence and big data to find solutions to complex problems are backing VXV’s quiet climb to new all-time highs.

There may not be a lot going on here hardware-wise, but that’s part of the charm of this design.

The degradation and regeneration of myelin sheaths characterize neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis. Cholesterol is an indispensable component of myelin sheaths. The cholesterol for the regenerated myelin sheaths must therefore either be recycled from damaged myelin or produced again locally.

In a recent study, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, led by Gesine Saher, found that in the case of chronic damage, unlike in acute damage, hardly any cholesterol is recycled. Instead, the new production of cholesterol determines the efficiency of the repair. Unexpectedly, not only the myelin-forming cells themselves but also nerve cells make an important contribution to regeneration.

Cholesterol synthesis in nerve cells ensures the replenishment of newly myelin-forming cells. This could impact the therapeutic success for myelin disorders such as multiple sclerosis.

Do you know what a computer can do in that time?

The same goes for the broader economy. Lower subsidies, higher taxes and pricier labour have eroded some of Saudi Arabia’s traditional selling points for firms. It is unclear what will replace them.

Until the government banned the practice, residents of Abha would chop down juniper trees for firewood, to stave off the winter chill. As part of the regional tourism project, developers plan to plant 1m trees to reforest the mountains. It will be a long time before visitors can appreciate them: they grow just 5cm a year in the region’s dry climate, says Turki al-Bishri, a local guide. For all the talk of rapid change, the slow-growing juniper may offer a better glimpse of Saudi Arabia’s economic future. ■

This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “No tourist Mecca”.

Tesla announced that it reached a new milestone with its Supercharger network: it now has over 30,000 fast-chargers around the world.

Earlier this summer, we reported on how Tesla is gearing up for a giant Supercharger expansion ahead of opening the network to other EVs.

Following Tesla’s confirmation of this, the automaker started hiring many new charging design managers in charge of opening new stations in the US.

A model of facilitated diffusion and the theory of Anderson localization help explain how the Cas9 protein explores DNA in search of its targets.