ProPublica has determined that dozens of state and local agencies have purchased “SCAN” training from a company called LSI for reviewing a suspect’s written statements — even though there’s no scientific evidence that it works. Local, state and federal agencies from the Louisville Metro Police Department to the Michigan State Police to the U.S. State Department have paid for SCAN training….
Tag: authors
How Chinese Sci-Fi Conquered America
From a report: When the English translation of “The Three-Body Problem” was published in 2014, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work of speculative fiction. President Barack Obama praised the novel, calling it “just wildly imaginative.” Mark Zuckerberg recommended it to his tens of millions of Facebook followers; George R.R. Martin blogged about it. Publishers around the world chased after translation…
Reptiles Known as ‘Living Rocks’ Show Surprising Cognitive Powers
Giant tortoises can learn and remember tasks, and master lessons much faster when trained in groups. From a report: Tamar Gutnick and Michael Kuba at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel, and Anton Weissenbacher at Schonbrunn Zoo in Vienna trained Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoides nigra) and Aldabra tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) to bite a ball of a particular colour — blue, green or…
Earth is Getting Windier — Which Helps Wind Turbines Generate More Green Energy
“The world is getting windier,” reports WBUR, citing a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. And they add that this could actually be a boon to wind farm operators, “since faster wind means more efficient wind turbines.” Researchers analyzed decades of weather data and determined global wind speeds have risen dramatically over the past 10 years… Princeton University…
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Are Still Rising, UN Report Says
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Greenhouse gas emissions have risen steadily for the past decade despite the current and future threat posed by climate change, according to a new United Nations report. The annual report compares how clean the world’s economies are to how clean they need to be to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change…
Ride-Hailing Apps Have Allowed More Binging and Increased Demand For Bartenders
A study published last week analyzed ridesharing’s effects on binge drinking and found that it increased heavy drinking by around 20% and increased employment at bars and restaurants by an average of 2%. The Economist reports: A new study by three economists — Jacob Burgdorf and Conor Lennon of the University of Louisville, and Keith Teltser of Georgia State University –…
‘Doughnut-Shaped’ DNA Makes Cancer More Aggressive
“DNA conveys information not only in its sequence but also in its shape,” the authors said. Source: https://www.livescience.com/ring-shaped-dna-cancer-aggressive.html
How The Expanse is still putting humans at the heart of sci-fi
As sci-fi series The Expanse returns for a fourth season, on Amazon Prime, its authors (writing as James S.A. Corey) reveal how real physics and human frailty make for a rich world Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24432573-400-how-the-expanse-is-still-putting-humans-at-the-heart-of-sci-fi/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
‘Sci-fi Makes You Stupid’ Study Refuted by Scientists Behind Original Research
The authors of a 2017 study which found that reading science fiction “makes you stupid” have conducted a follow-up that found that it’s only bad sci-fi that has this effect: a well-written slice of sci-fi will be read just as thoroughly as a literary story. From a report: Two years ago, Washington and Lee University professors Chris Gavaler and Dan Johnson…
What Shape Is the Universe? A New Study Suggests We’ve Got It All Wrong
An anonymous reader quotes Quanta magazine: A provocative paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy argues that the universe may curve around and close in on itself like a sphere, rather than lying flat like a sheet of paper as the standard theory of cosmology predicts. The authors reanalyzed a major cosmological data set and concluded that the data favors a…