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May 23, 2019

Atom smasher could be making new particles that are hiding in plain sight

Posted by in category: particle physics

A hunt for long-lived particles ramps up.

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May 23, 2019

‘Einstein Was Right: You Can Turn Energy Into Matter’

Posted by in categories: information science, nuclear energy, particle physics

E=m c

Albert Einstein proposed the most famous formula in physics in a 1905 paper on Special Relativity titled Does the inertia of an object depend upon its energy content?

Essentially, the equation says that mass and energy are intimately related. Atom bombs and nuclear reactors are practical examples of the formula working in one direction, turning matter into energy.

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May 23, 2019

Black-hole jets begin to reveal their antimatter secrets

Posted by in categories: cosmology, particle physics

The first simulations of matter and antimatter particles swirling around a rotating black hole hint at the origins of the enigmatic jets. The first simulations of matter and antimatter particles swirling around a rotating black hole hints at the origins of the enigmatic jets.

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May 23, 2019

Physicists Created Quantum Structures That May Have Birthed Dark Matter

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

Some cosmologists have predicted the existence of “walls bounded by strings” in the aftermath of the Big Bang, and now a team of physicists have created these quantum structures on Earth for the first time.

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May 23, 2019

Air Force Treating Wounds With Lasers and Nanotech

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, military, nanotechnology

Forget stitches and old-school sutures. The Air Force is funding scientists who are using nano-technology and lasers to seal up wounds at a molecular level. It might sound like Star Trek tech, but it’s actually the latest in a series of ambitious Pentagon efforts to create faster, more effective methods of treating war-zone injuries. Last \[…\].

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May 23, 2019

Scientists create new standard genome for heavily studied worm

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

A new Cornell University-led study finds that the genome for a widely researched worm, on which countless studies are based, was flawed. Now, a fresh genome sequence will set the record straight and improve the accuracy of future research.

When scientists study the genetics of an organism, they start with a standard genome sequenced from a single strain that serves as a baseline. It’s like a chess board in a chess game: every board is fundamentally the same.

One model organism that scientists use in research is a worm called Caenorhabditis elegans. The worm—the first multicellular eukaryote (animal, plant or fungus) to have its genome sequenced—is easy to grow and has simple biology with no bones, heart or circulatory system. At the same time, it shares many genes and molecular pathways with humans, making it a go-to model for studying gene function, drug treatments, aging and human diseases such as cancer and diabetes.

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May 23, 2019

Bipolar disorder may be linked to Parkinson’s disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience, sex

People who have bipolar disorder may be more likely to later develop Parkinson’s disease than people who do not have bipolar disorder, according at a study published in the May 22, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“Previous studies have shown a relationship between depression and Parkinson’s disease, but few studies have looked at whether there is a relationship between and Parkinson’s,” said study author Mu-Hong Chen, MD, Ph.D., of Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan.

For the study, researchers examined a national Taiwanese health database for people were diagnosed with disorder between 2001 and 2009 and who had no history of Parkinson’s disease, for a total of 56,340 people. They were matched with 225,360 people of the same age, sex and other factors who had never been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or Parkinson’s disease as a control group. Then the two groups were followed until the end of 2011.

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May 23, 2019

Behold the mayo: Experiments reveal ‘instability threshold’ of elastic-plastic material

Posted by in categories: engineering, materials

Arindam Banerjee, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics at Lehigh University, studies the dynamics of materials in extreme environments. He and his team have built several devices to effectively investigate the dynamics of fluids and other materials under the influence of high acceleration and centrifugal force.

One area of interest is Rayleigh-Taylor instability, which occurs between materials of different densities when the density and pressure gradients are in opposite directions creating an unstable stratification.

“In the presence of gravity—or any accelerating field—the two materials penetrate one another like ‘fingers,’” says Banerjee.

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May 23, 2019

Facebook: Fake account removal doubles in 6 months to 3B

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Facebook removed more than 3 billion fake accounts from October to March, twice as many as the previous six months, the company said Thursday.

Nearly all of them were caught before they had a chance to become “active” users of the social network.

In a new report, Facebook said it saw a “steep increase” in the creation of abusive, fake accounts in the past six months. While most of these fake accounts were blocked “within minutes” of their creation, the company said this increase of “automated attacks” by bad actors meant not only that it caught more of the fake accounts, but that more of them slipped through the cracks.

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May 23, 2019

Smart device detects food contaminants in real time

Posted by in categories: business, food

Some consumers place importance on locally grown or organic food. Others want the products they purchase to look and taste good. Yet others focus on low prices. However, no matter what their other requirements, everyone would like their food to be free of contaminants, which makes it quite worrying that over 97 percent of European food products contain pesticide residues. The problem is that current contamination testing processes can be long and expensive, and can only be conducted by specialist personnel.

A new device developed by the INSPECTO project team may now offer an affordable, fast and reliable solution to this problem. Coordinated by Inspecto Solutions Ltd, the EU-funded project has introduced a portable device that identifies in real time chemical contamination in food.

The scanner device can detect chemicals at specified by regulatory authorities. It also makes it possible for businesses to tailor their testing to their needs, scanning for specific sets of liquid or solid contaminants. Being able to conduct multiple scans in one day means they don’t have to wait for results. What’s more, the person operating the device doesn’t have to be a skilled chemist or technician, meaning that expensive and lengthy lab tests are eliminated. Farmers are able to measure pesticide residue levels on their crops and food producers can check for contaminants when purchasing produce. Additionally, supermarkets can conduct tests before distributing fruits and vegetables and quality assurers can enforce contaminant policies in the field.

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