How did the so-called tiger stripes – huge parallel cracks – form in the icy surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus? A new study from the Carnegie Institution for Science provides some answers. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/enceladus-saturn-moon-tiger-stripe-explained…
Tag: Berkeley
Even 50-Year-Old Climate Models Correctly Predicted Global Warming
sciencehabit writes: Climate change doubters have a favorite target: climate models. They claim that computer simulations conducted decades ago didn’t accurately predict current warming, so the public should be wary of the predictive power of newer models. Now, the most sweeping evaluation of these older models — some half a century old — shows most of them were indeed accurate. “How…
China Gene-Edited Baby Experiment ‘May Have Created Unintended Mutations’
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The gene editing performed on Chinese twins to immunize them against HIV may have failed and created unintended mutations, scientists have said after the original research was made public for the first time. Excerpts from the manuscript were released by the MIT Technology Review to show how Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui ignored…
Genetically-Engineered Microbe No Longer Needs to Eat Food To Grow
“Synthetic biologists have performed a biochemical switcheroo,” reports Science magazine: They’ve re-engineered a bacterium that normally eats a diet of simple sugars into one that builds its cells by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2), much like plants. The work could lead to engineered microbes that suck CO2 out of the air and turn it into medicines and other high-value compounds. “The implications…
A new way to measure gravity: Using floating atoms
A team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has found a new way to measure gravity—by noting differences in atoms in a supposition state, suspended in the air by lasers. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their new technique and explain why they believe it will be more useful than traditional methods. …
Deep Sleep May Help the Brain Clear Alzheimer’s Toxins
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The brain waves generated during deep sleep appear to trigger a cleaning system in the brain that protects it against Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Electrical signals known as slow waves appear just before a pulse of fluid washes through the brain, presumably removing toxins associated with Alzheimer’s, researchers reported Thursday in the…
California Launches First Statewide Earthquake Early Warning System
hcs_$reboot writes: Everyone in California will now receive earthquake alerts on their phones seconds before the ground begins to shake, giving residents up to 20 seconds of warning before shaking begins. Developed by seismologists at the University of California, Berkeley, the MyShake application (residents will need to download the app to receive the alerts in areas without cell phone coverage) is…
Berkeley City Council Unanimously Votes To Ban Face Recognition
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation: Berkeley has become the third city in California and the fourth city in the United States to ban the use of face recognition technology by the government. After an outpouring of support from the community, the Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance introduced by Councilmember Kate Harrison…
Ask Slashdot: Could Climate Change Be Solved By Manipulating Photons in Space?
Slashdot reader dryriver writes:
Most “solutions” to climate change center on reducing greenhouse gas emissions on Earth and using renewable energy where possible. What if you could work a bit closer to the root of the problem, by thinking about the problem as an excess number of photons traveling from the Sun to the Earth? Would it be completely physically impossible to…
Google Loans Cameras To Volunteers To Fill Gaps in ‘Street View’
NPR explains why a man “applied to borrow a 360-degree camera through Google’s Street View camera loan program.” Kanhema, who works as a product manager in Silicon Valley and is a freelance photographer in his spare time, volunteered to carry Google’s Street View gear to map what amounted to 2,000 miles of his home country. The Berkeley, California, resident has filled…