China Claims Fusion Power Found in Moon Rocks

Freedomist Editor September 21, 2021

China Analyzing Moon Rocks as Potential Fusion Power Source

From futurism.com
2021-09-17 15:22:53
Tony Tran
Excerpt:

Chinese scientists are studying lunar rock samples to assess whether or not they’re a good fuel source for nuclear fusion.

Researchers at the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology are analyzing a 50-milligram rock sample, according to Space.com, obtained during the country’s Chang’e-5 lunar return mission. The scientists are analyzing the rocks for an isotope called helium-3, which some scientists believe could be a viable fuel for fusion power plants. While it’s rare on Earth, some researchers believe the Moon might be a rich source of the isotope.

The main objective of the study is to determine the content of helium-3 in the lunar soil, the extraction parameters of helium-3, which indicates at what temperature we can extract the helium, and how helium-3 gets attached to the lunar soil,” institute researcher Huang Zhixin told China Central Television, a state-controlled broadcaster.

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Why Primate Mothers Keep Their Dead Chldren with Them for Months

Freedomist Editor September 20, 2021

Primate Mothers Sometimes Carry Their Dead Babies With Them for Months – Here’s Why

From scitechdaily.com
2021-09-17 17:16:06
University College London
Excerpt:

Some primate species may express grief over the death of their infant by carrying the corpse with them, sometimes for months, according to a new UCL-led study — with implications for our understanding of how non-human animals experience emotion.

Published on September 15, 2021, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the researchers compiled data from anecdotes reported in 126 publications on primate behavior. In the largest study of its kind, researchers undertook the most extensive and rigorous quantitative analysis to date of a behavior known as “infant corpse carrying” in primate mothers, looking at 409 cases across 50 species.

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Older Site Source of Stonehenge Rocks and Evidence of Use, an Elite Cemetary

Parker Davis September 16, 2021

Stonehenge ‘history reshaped’ after mass burial find suggested site was ‘elite cemetery’ | Science | News

From www.express.co.uk
2021-09-08 11:54:08

Excerpt:

England‘s most famous stone circle has long since captivated the imaginations of millions around the world. Earlier this year, researchers came a step closer to solving the mystery behind the man-made rock formation after uncovering the remains of the Waun Main site in Pembrokeshire’s Preseli Hills, southwest Wales. It soon proved to be one of Britain’s biggest and oldest stone circles, and could be the original building blocks of Stonehenge.

Researchers believe the stones could have been dismantled and rebuilt 150 miles away on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, where the structure stands today and has stood, it is believed, since as far back as 3000 BC.

This came as a breakthrough, yet archaeologists are still not fully sure what purpose Stonehenge served.

There is strong evidence, however, that it was used as a burial site, with remains from an excavation just a few miles away and at the site itself explored during the Smithsonian channel’s documentary, ‘Secrets: Stonehenge Mystery’,…

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Translating the Past with the Help of Artificial Intelligence

Ivo Fysic September 16, 2021

There are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of ancient documents from major civilizations from around the world that sit on shelves for wont of a translator. The number of people that can translate ancient text to modern languages is not that many, so the process of translating all these texts could take a century or more.

Not so fast, or maybe let’s go faster, say researchers from Macquaire University in Australia, who are working with artificial intelligence to train it to translate as much as possible with minimal human dependence. So far, the early results have produced promising results, though the ai still needs significant human aid to get it right.

How Do Archaeologists Crack the Code of Dead Languages?

From feedproxy.google.com
2021-09-10 19:00:00
Benjamin Plackett
Excerpt:

There are efforts to make translating ancient languages a more modern pursuit. Researchers at Macquarie University in Australia teamed up with experts from Google to use artificial intelligence with the aim of speeding up the process of translating ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs into English and Arabic.

“What the machine does well is to recognize where there are hieroglyphs and where there aren’t any. That’s not trivial because it means that the machine doesn’t just see gobbledygook,” says Camilla Di Biase-Dyson, a lecturer in Egyptology at Macquarie University who was involved in the project. “The problem is that it isn’t based on a great deal of training data. In order to snap a photo of an Egyptian tomb wall and translate it quickly, the machine will need a lot more data.”

For now, it still requires a lot of human input to make sure the end result is a reliable translation, but if the software is exposed to enough sample data, it’s possible that it may not need human help in the future.

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Entangling Crystals Reveal Dark Matter Appearance

Parker Davis September 13, 2021

Quantum crystal could reveal the identity of dark matter

From www.space.com
2021-08-31 21:48:29

Excerpt:

Using a quirk of quantum mechanics, researchers have created a beryllium crystal capable of detecting incredibly weak electromagnetic fields. The work could one day be used to detect hypothetical dark matter particles called axions.

The researchers created their quantum crystal by trapping 150 charged beryllium particles or ions using a system of electrodes and magnetic fields that helped overcome their natural repulsion for each other, Ana Maria Rey, an atomic physicist at JILA, a joint institute between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder, told Live Science….

The team figured out a way to get around this limit with entanglement, where quantum particles’ attributes are inherently linked together.

“By using entanglement, we can sense things that aren’t possible otherwise,” Rey said.

In this case, she and her colleagues entangled the motions of the beryllium ions with their spins. Quantum systems resemble tiny tops and spin describes the direction, say up or down, that those tops are pointing.

When the crystal vibrated, it would move a certain amount. But because of the uncertainty…

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95 Percent oof Ocean Surface to Change by 2100 on Current Carbon Path

Parker Davis September 2, 2021

A secret group of researchers called US-based researchers have produced a theory that, based on current carbon emission projections, by 2100, 95 percent of the oeath’s ocean surface will change, which, they say, will lead to this terrifying conclusion, “Without (emissions) mitigation, novel and disappearing climates in the sea surface will be widespread around the globe by 2100,” said Lotterhos. (from article linked below).

Nowhere in this article does this suggest the death of life in the oceans, rather, it suggests changing of life in the oceans. Perhaps scientsts have a hard time arguing that the biological life patterning throughout our known existence as a planet is capable of adapting and producing new patterns where new circumstances arise.

Carbon emissions will change ocean surface climate by 2100 by 95 percent: Study- Technology News, Firstpost

From www.firstpost.com
2021-08-30 12:22:56
Agence France-Presse
Excerpt:

Up to 95 percent of Earth’s ocean surface will have changed by , tthe end of the century unless humanity reins in its carbon emissions, according to research published Thursday.

Ocean surface climates, defined by surface water temperature, acidity and the concentration of the mineral aragonite — which many marine animals use to form bones and shell — support the vast majority of sea life.

The world’s seas have absorbed around a third of all carbon pollution produced since the Industrial Revolution.

But with atmospheric CO2 levels increasing at a rate unprecedented in at least three million years, there are fears that ocean surface climates may become less hospitable to the species it hosts.

US-based researchers wanted to see what effect carbon pollution has already had on ocean surface since the mid-18th century. They also projected the impact of emissions through to 2100.

To do so, they modelled global ocean climates across three time periods: the early 19th century (1795-1834); the late 20th century (1965-2004); and the late 21st century (2065-2014).

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Rare Earth Element That Glows in Your Phone Now Easier to Find with New Tool

Parker Davis August 31, 2021

New sensor detects rare earth element terbium

From www.futurity.org
2021-08-31 14:16:44
Gail McCormick-Penn State
Excerpt:

A new luminescent sensor can detect terbium, a valuable rare earth element, from complex environmental samples like acid mine waste.

The sensor takes advantage of a protein that very specifically binds to rare earth elements. It could help develop a domestic supply of these metals, which smart phones, electric car batteries, and energy efficient lighting require. A paper describing the sensor appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Terbium, one of the rarest of the rare earth elements, produces the green color in cell phone displays and also has a role in high-efficiency lighting and solid-state devices. However, there are a variety of chemical, environmental, and political challenges to obtaining terbium and other rare earth elements from the environment.

Developing new sources of these metals also requires robust detection methods, which poses another challenge. For example, the gold standard method of detecting rare earth elements in a sample—a type of mass spectrometry called ICP-MS—is expensive and not portable. Portable methods, however, aren’t as sensitive and do not perform well in complex environmental samples, where acidic conditions and other metals can interfere with detection.

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America is an Evolution Nation

Freedomist Editor August 30, 2021

For the first time in history, the American people are now Evolutionists, at least the majority of us are. More than half of Americans now believe evolution is a thing while almost half still believe evolution is not a thing.

That transition happened in 2016, and the gap is now only growing.

More than half of Americans now accept evolution

From www.futurity.org
2021-08-25 18:05:57
Morgan Sherburne-Michigan
Excerpt:

The level of public acceptance of evolution in the United States is now solidly above the halfway mark, according to a new study.

The research is based on a series of national public opinion surveys conducted over the last 35 years.

“From 1985 to 2010, there was a statistical dead heat between acceptance and rejection of evolution,” says lead researcher Jon D. Miller of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. “But acceptance then surged, becoming the majority position in 2016.”

Examining data over 35 years, the study consistently identified aspects of education—civic science literacy, taking college courses in science, and having a college degree—as the strongest factors leading to the acceptance of evolution.

“Almost twice as many Americans held a college degree in 2018 as in 1988,” says coauthor Mark Ackerman, a researcher at Michigan Engineering, the School of Information, and Michigan Medicine. “It’s hard to earn a college degree without acquiring at least a little respect for the success of science.”

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Microbiomes Might Create More Genetic Possibilities for Organisms

Parker Davis August 27, 2021

The microbiome extends host evolutionary potential

From www.nature.com
2021-08-26 09:08:05

Excerpt:

Dawkins’ “Extended Phenotype” recognized how organisms modify surrounding environments and ecological communities^11,12. Through environmental modification, an organism’s phenotypic effects are extended beyond its own genome, suggesting evolution is influenced through interacting ecological communities. This theory, developed for free-living ecosystems, also applies to host-microbiome interactions^12,13. The microbiome, with its consortium of genomes, extends the genetic repertoire of the host to form what some are now calling the “Extended Genotype” because the host integrates the extended effects of the microbiome into its phenotype^{3,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22}. This extended genetic repertoire may shape the distribution of host phenotypes within a population, and consequently, shape the evolutionary potential of the host.