An anonymous reader shares a report: The predation of livestock by carnivores, and the retaliatory killing of carnivores as a result, is a major global conservation challenge. Such human-wildlife conflicts are a key driver of large carnivore declines and the costs of coexistence are often disproportionately borne by rural communities in the global south. While current approaches tend to focus on…
Tag: element
A Closer Look At Elon Musk’s Neuralink Surgical Robot
Earlier today, Elon Musk demonstrated his startup Neuralink’s brain link device working in a pig named Gertrude. While the science and the device itself were front-and-center at the presentation, the surgical robot the company debuted is equally as important because it’s designed to handle the full surgical installation process. “That includes opening up the scalp, removing a portion of the skull,…
Quarter moon or a half moon?
Half the moon always faces us. And half the moon is always lit by the sun. But, in the language of astronomers, there are no ‘half moons.’ Source: https://earthsky.org/moon-phases/is-it-a-quarter-or-a-half-moon…
A stepping stone for measuring quantum gravity
A group of theoretical physicists, including two physicists from the University of Groningen, have proposed a ‘table-top’ device that could measure gravity waves. However, their actual aim is to answer one of the biggest questions in physics: is gravity a quantum phenomenon? The key element for the device is the quantum superposition of large objects. Their design was published in New…
Google Beats Song Lyric Scraping Lawsuit
Genius Media Group was pretty clever when it used digital watermarks to show that Google had been copying its huge collection of song lyrics. One of those watermarks spelled “redhanded” in Morse code. That Google was caught lifting another site’s song lyrics made international news — and even merited a mention during Congress’ Big Tech hearing late last month. But was…
CNO Neutrinos From the Sun Are Finally Detected
An anonymous reader quotes a report from SyFy: For the first time, scientists have detected neutrinos coming from the Sun’s core that got their start via the CNO process, an until-now theorized type of stellar nuclear fusion. […] The Borexino neutrino observatory is 1400 meters under the rock below the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy. It has an 8.5 meter wide…
NASA sounding rocket finds helium structures in sun’s atmosphere
Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. But scientists aren’t sure just how much there actually is in the Sun’s atmosphere, where it is hard to measure. Knowing the amount of helium in the solar atmosphere is important to understanding the origin and acceleration of the solar wind—the constant stream of charged particles from the Sun….
NASA Researchers Demonstrate the Ability To Fuse Atoms Inside Room-Temperature Metals
Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have now demonstrated a method of inducing nuclear fusion without building a massive stellarator or tokamak. In fact, all they needed was a bit of metal, some hydrogen, and an electron accelerator. IEEE Spectrum reports: The team believes that their method, called lattice confinement fusion, could be a potential new power source for deep space…
Stet!, the Hot New Language Game
The game Stet!, a spinoff of the book “Dreyer’s English,” is an excellent way to prepare for a copy-editing test and pairs well with a gin-and-tonic. Mary Norris, writing for The New Yorker: Nerdsday fell on a Tuesday this year, and I invited a friend over for a doubleheader: a round of Stet!, the new language game based on “Dreyer’s English,”…
Iter: World’s Largest Nuclear Fusion Project Begins Assembly
Thelasko writes: The world’s biggest nuclear fusion project has entered its five-year assembly phase. After this is finished, the facility will be able to start generating the super-hot “plasma” required for fusion power. The $23.5 billion facility has been under construction in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, southern France. Advocates say fusion could be a source of clean, unlimited power that would help tackle the…