Comment Re:When does... (Score 1) 57
A OLD modified Russian ICBM launched a satellite into orbit. The ball bearing payload could go the same way. It's high fantasy but I can write what I want. No one reads the shit anyways.
Submission + - Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won't Let Go of It (nytimes.com)
joshuark writes: In a new twist on the phrase "going viral" or stealing code, the NYT reports a virus has "stolen" a human gene, and will not let it go. In the article "This Virus Stole a Human Gene and Won’t Let Go of It" reports that scientists have found a human gene lurking in a virus that causes skin infections. Thus using our own DNA to infect us.
The molluscum contagiosum virus, which causes sores on skin, swiped a gene from humans about 100,000 years ago according to a new study.
The way that viruses replicate makes them particularly good at thieving DNA. The viruses infect a cell, then co-opt its machinery by injecting their own genes. Sometimes this process goes awry, and a stretch of the host’s DNA gets bundled into the new viral genes. This molecular error can pose a threat to human health.
The molluscum contagiosum virus, which causes sores on skin, swiped a gene from humans about 100,000 years ago according to a new study.
The way that viruses replicate makes them particularly good at thieving DNA. The viruses infect a cell, then co-opt its machinery by injecting their own genes. Sometimes this process goes awry, and a stretch of the host’s DNA gets bundled into the new viral genes. This molecular error can pose a threat to human health.
Comment When does... (Score 2) 57
When does a "terrorist" organization release about 4 tons of nylon ball bearings into orbit ? It would clean out the skies of nuisance satellites while being very difficult to track or clean up. I've been working on a short story with that theme.
Comment HYPE !!! (Score 1) 15
The market for drone deliveries is not large. The item has to be small, light, and balanceable, while also being worth enough to deliver via drone, while the population has to be dense enough to warrant it, but not to dense as to pose a flight hazard. This is silly hype.
Comment Re:My advice (Score 1) 120
And yet when Sony removed Linux support for the PS3, a change that affects 'virtually zero of their customers,' Slashdot was calling for lawsuits.
Comment Holy shit, have some self awareness (Score 2) 120
My advice: don't lament Raspberry Pi RAM upgrades, especially given they're only slightly harder to perform now. Very few hackers ever performed them, the main audience for them turned out to be dodgy hardware resellers online, and in most cases, repair doesn't seem to be impeded at all, either. Think of the users that will no longer be fooled by a shady seller on Amazon, especially now that the perverse incentives for board mods and reusing harvested RAM chips are at their highest.
This doesn't pass the 'would you say the same thing if it wasn't your baby' test.
Comment Like the WB Super Genius... (Score 1) 259
Just watched Wiley vs. Acme. The SUPER GENIUS in the White House ordered some SUPER INTELLIGENCE from the ACME catalogue. It will work out well as always.
Comment Re:Changes Over Time (Score 1) 43
Email would be totally secure if not for the retard users who can't NOT click on ANYTHING. You can't secure an environment populated by entitled morons. All you can do there is clean up after them and move on.
Comment The dabblers are wandering off. (Score 1) 149
Is this necessarily a bad thing? For quite some time, coding has been pushed as a way to make yourself marketable. For a lot of people who have no particular passion for it—nor for anything else, which is why they're dabbling in everything—but were only in it because they thought it was a good career move, it is smart to look for greener pastures now. The real question is, what adjacent fields are easy to slide into, but AREN'T equally vulnerable to the unblinking gaze of AI once there is the critical mass to justify the effort? Are there any?
Submission + - New tin-based solar cells trap heat 1,000 times longer, could beat 33% limit. (interestingengineering.com)
fahrbot-bot writes: Interesting Engineering is reporting that researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands found that tin-based perovskite solar cells can slow heat loss from high-energy “hot electrons” by a factor of 1,000 and could push solar cell efficiency beyond the theoretical 33 percent limit.
When sunlight strikes a panel, photons jump-start electrons into action. The most energetic photons create super-charged hot electrons. Theoretically, these high-voltage powerhouses should generate far more electricity, but, in practice, they are fleeting. In fractions of a trillionth of a second, these high-energy particles rapidly cool, dumping their bonus energy as waste heat before ever leaving the solar cell.
“This means that the energy is lost before the hot electron exits the solar cell material,” said Jan Anton Koster, Professor of Physics of Novel Semiconductors and Devices at the University of Groningen.
Using a specialized solar cell material called tin-based perovskite, Loi’s lab performed a feat many thought impossible: she slowed the heat loss down by a factor of 1,000. Suddenly, the extra energy lingered for nanoseconds instead of vanishing in picoseconds.
The study findings were published in the journal ACS Energy Letters.
When sunlight strikes a panel, photons jump-start electrons into action. The most energetic photons create super-charged hot electrons. Theoretically, these high-voltage powerhouses should generate far more electricity, but, in practice, they are fleeting. In fractions of a trillionth of a second, these high-energy particles rapidly cool, dumping their bonus energy as waste heat before ever leaving the solar cell.
“This means that the energy is lost before the hot electron exits the solar cell material,” said Jan Anton Koster, Professor of Physics of Novel Semiconductors and Devices at the University of Groningen.
Using a specialized solar cell material called tin-based perovskite, Loi’s lab performed a feat many thought impossible: she slowed the heat loss down by a factor of 1,000. Suddenly, the extra energy lingered for nanoseconds instead of vanishing in picoseconds.
The study findings were published in the journal ACS Energy Letters.
Comment Re:Don't hate the player, hate the game (Score 1) 75
You're right, they could have made that choice. However, they would have priced themselves out of the market, as while they would have gained a small uptick in 'I want a cool Linux computer' sales, they would have faced a massive loss in 'I want a game console' and 'I want a Blu-Ray player' sales, which were the two primary drivers of PS3 sales.
Console price is king. There's a reason Sony's entire console launch presentation for the original PlayStation at E3 in 1995 was, and I quote, '$299.'
You can find it on YouTube, if you're interested.
Comment Re:Loss of pulse detection? (Score 1) 22
Unless the watch can initiate chest compressions and AED functions, simply calling emergency services when you lose your pulse isn't going to accomplish anything.
Comment Re:Don't hate the player, hate the game (Score 1) 75
And then they pulled the Linux support when they realized how many people were buying PS2s for Linux, and not buying games, thus costing Sony money under the 'razors and blades' paradigm.
Submission + - Google fined more than €400m by Irish regulator over its use of location da (theguardian.com)
AmiMoJo writes: Google has been fined more than €400m (£345m) over the way it processed users’ location data, following claims that the tech giant had manipulated users into agreeing to be constantly tracked on their mobile phones. The fine, imposed by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), comes after complaints from multiple European consumer organisations that Google was following every step users took.
The DPC launched its inquiry six years ago and set out to find out whether Google had a valid legal basis for its use of location data. It found that Google users could have been unaware that their location was being used to influence them with adverts or to gather details about their health and interests.
The DPC launched its inquiry six years ago and set out to find out whether Google had a valid legal basis for its use of location data. It found that Google users could have been unaware that their location was being used to influence them with adverts or to gather details about their health and interests.
Submission + - The brain is actually two completely separate organs (stanford.edu)
Beeftopia writes: From Stanford Medicine:
"For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years."
The adult brain has three main regions: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. Scientists could never create hindbrain neurons.
"Previous attempts to make hindbrain neurons likely tried to coax forebrain and midbrain progenitors into hindbrain cells, which our study shows is not possible,” said researcher Rayyan Jokhai.
"The researchers’ breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development, during a stage called gastrulation when the body first takes shape. Jokhai and Dundes discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain."
With this knowledge, researchers were able to create hindbrain neurons.
"For centuries, scientists have thought of the brain as a single, unified organ. But new research led by Stanford Medicine reveals that what we call the brain is two distinct organs that evolved independently over hundreds of millions of years."
The adult brain has three main regions: the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain. Scientists could never create hindbrain neurons.
"Previous attempts to make hindbrain neurons likely tried to coax forebrain and midbrain progenitors into hindbrain cells, which our study shows is not possible,” said researcher Rayyan Jokhai.
"The researchers’ breakthrough came from studying the earliest moments of embryonic development, during a stage called gastrulation when the body first takes shape. Jokhai and Dundes discovered that the hindbrain follows a separate developmental path, running in parallel to — rather than branching off from — the pathway that creates the forebrain and midbrain."
With this knowledge, researchers were able to create hindbrain neurons.
