Read it.

Lifehacker.

When confronted with the need to tie something off, most people resort to simply tying as many half-assed knots as they can in the vague hope that the sheer frictional complexity will stymie the natural forces of entropy.

This approach can work, as long as you’re okay with sacrificing your dignity and the effectiveness of said knots—but it’s much better to learn how to tie some of the most useful of the roughly 4,000 knots known to humankind.

Here are 11 knots every adult should know how to tie.

Marriage is apparently not one of the essentials.

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Ammonia (NH3) serves as the foundation for the creation of chemical fertilizers used for agricultural crops. For over 100 years, the global production of ammonia in large quantities has relied on the Haber-Bosch process. This industrial breakthrough has had a major impact on agriculture, enabling the feeding of a rapidly growing human population. However, the Haber-Bosch process is extremely energy-intensive, requiring high pressure levels of 80-300 atmospheres and temperatures ranging from 572-1000 F (300-500 C) to break nitrogen’s strong bonds. Additionally, the steam-treatment of natural gas involved in the process contributes significantly to the release of carbon dioxide, a key contributor to climate change.

“We were shocked to see that we could generate ammonia in benign, everyday temperature-and-pressure environments with just air and water and using something as basic as a sprayer,” said study senior author Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science and a professor of chemistry in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. “If this process can be scaled up, it would represent an eco-friendly new way of making ammonia, which is one of the most important chemical processes that takes place in the world.”

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Researchers recently discovered that they could give young, healthy animals Alzheimer’s disease by transferring the gut microbiome of human subjects with Alzheimer’s into germ-free rats.

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This week we’re going to take a detour into understanding the structure of academia, in particular the different kinds of ‘professors’ and their academic ranks in the American system, with a particular focus on ‘non-tenure track’ faculty (which is to say, as we’ll see, ‘most teaching faculty.’) This is intended as the first in a series of posts mixed into the normal diet over the next few months looking at the structure of the modern American university from the inside. The fact is that while quite a lot of people go to college, few students acquire much of any sense of how their college or university is structured, and so there is a tendency for a lot of folks to believe they know how academia works who don’t, in the same way that most people who eat at fast food restaurants cannot, in fact, operate their kitchens.

More than you probably ever really wanted to know about university faculty and the way they screw damned near everybody.

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DNA accumulates mutations. The protective ends of chromosomes erode away. Mitochondria, the cell’s energy factory, falter and break down. The immune system goes haywire. The reserve pool of stem cells dwindles, while some mature cells enter a zombie-like state, spewing toxic chemicals into their environment.

The picture sounds dire, but it’s not all bad news. Aging is a complicated puzzle. By finding individual pieces, scientists can assemble a full picture of how and why we age—and engineer new ways to stave off age-related symptoms.

Check it out.

An AI-powered tool that will analyze your accent and score your pronunciation accuracy.

No indication whether it has an Ebonics setting, so it’s probably wacist.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

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Swedish startup Luvly is developing an ultra-efficient electric microcar — and like the furniture made by its compatriot Ikea, Luvly’s tiny EV will ship flat.

Read it.

“For the first time, we can show that mitochondria, the vital energy producers within brain cells, particularly neurons, undergo damage, leading to disruptions in mitochondrial DNA[LP1] . This initiates and spreads the disease like a wildfire through the brain,” says Shohreh Issazadeh-Navikas and adds:

“Our findings establish that the spread of the damaged genetic material, the mitochondrial DNA, causes the symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson’s disease and its progression to dementia.”

Computer World.

Forced back into the office, many employees have admitted to showing up for just a few hours — enough time to swipe in with their employee badge, have a cup of coffee, and be seen in the workplace — then heading back home to do their work, according to a new study.

Coined as “coffee badging,” the trend showed up on a new survey of 2,000 full-time US workers conducted by videoconferencing tech vendor Owl Labs.

Owl Labs said its seventh annual State of Hybrid Work report revealed that more than half (58%) of hybrid workers said they are coffee badging to meet the minimum in-office requirement each week. Another 8% of respondents said they haven’t been coffee badging but would like to try it.

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A Chinese nuclear submarine crew is believed to be dead after its vessel was ensnared in a trap in the Yellow Sea that was reportedly intended for British sub-surface vessels.

Citing a highly-classified United Kingdom report, the Daily Mail reported that the death of the 55 Chinese sailors was the result of a catastrophic failure of the submarine’s oxygen systems.

“Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea,” the U.K. report reads, according to the Mail. “Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.”

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Junpeng Mi and his colleagues working at Donghua University, China, used CRISPR gene-editing technology to recode the silk-creating properties of a silkworm. First, they took genes from Araneus ventricosus, an East Asian orb-weaving spider known for its strong silk. Then they placed these complex genes – genes that involve more than 100 amino acids – into silkworm egg cells. (This description fails to capture how time-consuming, technical, and laborious this was; it’s a procedure that requires hundreds of thousands of microinjections.)

This had all been done before, and this had failed before. Where Mi and his team succeeded was using a concept called “localization.” Localization involves narrowing in on a very specific location in a genome. For this experiment, the team from Donghua University developed a “minimal basic structure model” of silkworm silk, which guided the genetic modifications. They wanted to make sure they had the exactly right transgenic spider silk proteins. Mi said that combining localization with this basic structure model “represents a significant departure from previous research.” And, judging only from the results, he might be right. They successfully synthesized “fibers exhibited impressive tensile strength (1,299 MPa) and toughness (319 MJ/m3), surpassing Kevlar’s toughness 6-fold.”

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A team of scientists, led by a Japanese pharmaceutical startup, are getting set to start human trials on a new drug that has successfully grown new teeth in animal test subjects.

Toregem Biopharma is slated to begin clinical trials in July of next year after it succeeded growing new teeth in mice five years ago, the Japan Times reports.

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Samsung claims its new product is able provide domestic hot water of up to 75 C when the outdoor temperature is between -10 C and 35 C. It relies on an enlarged heat exchanger that the company claims is capable of transferring more heat compared to a conventional outdoor unit.

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Scientists have transformed cancer cells into healthy muscle tissue in the lab using CRISPR gene-editing technology — and they hope new cancer treatments can be built on the back of this experiment.

In a study published Aug. 28 in the journal PNAS, researchers found that disabling a particular protein complex in cells of rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) — a rare cancer in skeletal muscle tissue that mainly affects children under age 10 — in the laboratory causes the tumor cells to turn into healthy muscle cells.

Although the research is still in its early days, this process of “resetting” cancer cells into healthy cells, broadly known as differentiation therapy, has already been tested in other types of cancer, such as bone and blood cancer. Four drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat the latter disease and generally work by inhibiting a specific protein in the cancer cells.

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When a fragrance wafted through the bedrooms of older adults for two hours every night for six months, memories skyrocketed. In fact, participants in this study by neuroscientists from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), reaped a 226% increase in cognitive capacity compared to the control group. The researchers say the finding transforms the long-known tie between smell and memory into an easy, non-invasive technique for strengthening memory and potentially deterring dementia.

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If, of course, drinking from creeks and streams is what you want to do.

Gates of Vienna.

The Koran, Islam’s book, is “dripping with murderous levels of hatred”, as a critic put it. “Kill them,” it commands, of non-Muslims, kafirs, “Kill them wherever you find them.” (2:191, 9:5) “Between us [Muslims] and you enmity and hatred forever.” (60:4) “When you meet the kafirs strike the necks.” (47:4) Kafirs are “filthy” (9:28), “the vilest of beasts” (8:55), “a clear enemy to you” (4:101): “Do not take them as allies.” (4:89) “Let them find harshness in you” (9:123); “Fight the unbelievers until they pay the jizya [extortion tax] … in a state of subjection.” (9:29) Muslims are “the best of peoples raised up for mankind” (3:110), “merciful to each other, ruthless to the kafir.” (48:29)

These are not quaint Old-Testament-type exhortations from their historical time, like “Slaughter the Amalekites and Hittites.” The Koran, all of it, forms part of Islamic law. These are current instructions of Islamic law. “Muslims must kill kafirs wherever they are unless they convert.” said Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt. “Islam says: kill all of the kafirs. Jihad stands for killing all kafirs. Prophet had sword to kill people,” thundered Ayatollah Khomeini. “Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us,” wrote Osama bin Laden. “Jews and Christians are filthy. Their lives and property can be taken by the Muslims in jihad,” preached Yasir Qadhi in Tennessee. “Allah, strike the Jews and… the Christians, Allah, count them and kill them to the last one” — Al-Aqsa TV (palwatch.org 2010-12-03).

Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
A Muslim waits there
To try to kill you.

Fox Business.

The U.S. manufacturing sector is in the midst of revitalization as global supply chains reshuffle in response to changing economic conditions and geopolitical shocks, reversing a decades-long trend of American industrial capacity moving overseas.

Manufacturing firms began to offshore their operations from the U.S. to countries with lower labor costs several decades ago. But the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and concerns over China potentially looking to compel Taiwan’s unification with the mainland by force have driven efforts to reshore manufacturing – in addition to government incentives and rising labor costs overseas.

SciTechDaily.

A joint research team from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and collaborators recently developed a stable artificial photocatalytic system that is more efficient than natural photosynthesis. The newly developed system, which replicates a natural chloroplast, is capable of transforming carbon dioxide in water into methane, a useful fuel, very efficiently using light. This represents a significant breakthrough with potential contributions toward achieving carbon neutrality.

 

NewAtlas.

LiquidPiston says its new XTS-210 solves the efficiency, lubrication and fuel type issues of Wankel rotary engines. This supercharged, liquid-cooled two-stroke claims 5X the power of an equivalent size or weight diesel engine, and 3X the torque.

Targeted at military, commercial and aerospace applications, the XTS-210 is about the size of a basketball, weighs in at 19 kg (42 lb), and displaces 210 cc. It’ll run on multiple fuels, including diesel and kerosene/jet fuel. The company is shooting for about 20 kW (26.8 hp) and 29.4 Nm (21.7 lb-ft) of torque, both at 6,500 rpm.

Read it.

A group of U.S. researchers has developed a new “cancer-killing pill” that could target and kill solid tumors while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

That’s according to their preclinical research findings, published Aug. 1 in the Cell Chemical Biology journal.

Titled “Small Molecule Targeting of Transcription-Replication Conflict for Selective Chemotherapy,” the study found that a drug the researchers developed was able to selectively disrupt DNA replication and repair in cancer cells.

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The UK’s Royal Mail today shared images of the eight Special Stamps they are issuing to celebrate Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, marking the 40th anniversary of The Colour of Magic, first book in the series. The stamps can be pre-ordered now, and will be available for general purchase on August 10.

FreeThink.

In addition to blocking every virus the team has challenged it with thus far, their E. coli has also been designed so that its modified genes cannot escape into the wild, which does indeed sound like the plot of a lost Michael Crichton novel. (In fact, the parallels to Jurassic Park are there, but we’ll get to that.)

“We believe we have developed the first technology to design an organism that can’t be infected by any known virus,” genetics research fellow and study author Akos Nyerges said.

“We can’t say it’s fully virus-resistant, but so far, based on extensive laboratory experiments and computational analysis, we haven’t found a virus that can break it.”

Read it.

I’ll bet you didn’t know that there even is a ‘National Chicken Wing Day’.

Is this a great country or what?

Read it.

Boston startup Galy has inked a deal with Japanese manufacturer Suzuran Medical Inc. to use the startup’s lab-grown cotton in its products.
Suzuran says it plans to use thousands of tons a year of Galy’s “Literally Cotton” fibers as part of a 10-year, $50 million partnership.
“It’s huge,” says Luciano Bueno, Galy’s founder and CEO. “It’s the first-time lab-grown cotton will enter any market worldwide.”

SciTechDaily.

Publishing in the journal Nature, the Liverpool researchers have shown that a mathematical algorithm can guarantee to predict the structure of any material just based on knowledge of the atoms that make it up.

Developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Liverpool’s Departments of Chemistry and Computer Science, the algorithm systematically evaluates entire sets of possible structures at once, rather than considering them one at a time, to accelerate the identification of the correct solution.

This breakthrough makes it possible to identify those materials that can be made and, in many cases, to predict their properties. The new method was demonstrated on quantum computers that have the potential to solve many problems faster than classical computers and can therefore speed up the calculations even further.

The Independent.

A huge phosphate rock deposit discovered in Norway contains enough minerals to meet the global demand for batteries and solar panels for the next 100 years, according to the mining company that controls it.

Norge Mining said up to 70 billion tonnes of the non-renewable resource may have been uncovered in south-western Norway, alongside deposits of other strategic minerals like titanium and vanadium.

Read it.

A Japanese research team is making progress on the development of a groundbreaking medication that may allow people to grow new teeth, with clinical trials set to begin in July 2024.

The tooth regrowth medicine is intended for people who lack a full set of adult teeth due to congenital factors. The team is aiming to have it ready for general use in 2030.

Freethink.

A research team at the USDA has developed new lines of cotton that are naturally flame-resistant — even putting themselves out when lit.

The ability could help cut back on the use of flame retardants, chemicals applied to a vast array of commercial products, like clothing, carpets, upholstery, and mattresses, to prevent cotton’s flammable fibers from burning people if there’s a fire — but which come with a variety of negative health and environmental impacts.

Steven Hayward at Power Line.

The Supreme Court’s long expected ruling on the Harvard and University of North Carolina race-based admissions practices was just released. A 6-3 vote, along predictable lines, backs up Chief Justice John Roberts’s very strong opinion, which relies on the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. I’m still making my way through the concurrences (Thomas decided to write a long concurrence giving the originalist ground for the ruling, as well as a history of the 14th Amendment, sensibly thinking that a lot of people today—and perhaps the Democratic appointees to the Court, don’t really know it very well) and dissents. Stay tuned.

Freethink.

Scientists are still figuring out why tirzepatide causes weight loss. One theory is that they “accidentally” created a new hormone.

Good news for black women.

FreeThink.

3D-printing robots are being A major housing development, built using 3D-printer robots on-site, is taking shape in the US state of Texas. The 100-house project on the outskirts of Austin is the product of a partnership between US house-building giant Lennar, and 3D printing company ICON. to build a 100-home housing development in the US state of Texas.

Bad news for Latinos, who make up 90% of the workforce of construction companies, especially in Texas.  Every silver lining comes with a cloud.

Read it.

Warming temperatures and thawing sea ice could soon allow for the expansion of maritime routes through the Arctic region at certain times of the year. Polar powers looking to capitalize not only on the shortened shipping lanes but also on the natural resources that exist there are eyeing up this geopolitically strategic space, with Russia and also China, which is a part of the Arctic Council and a self-defined ‘near-Arctic state’, having become two of the most prominent players in the region.

Currently, the main shipping route between Asia and Europe passes from China to Rotterdam via the Suez Canal. But the fragility of the transit route was revealed in 2021 when the Ever Given ship blocked the passage, halting traffic for 7 days. And so a new route through the Arctic could save time for the transportation of goods.

In 2018, Beijing released a white paper on how China could extend its Belt and Road Initiative to the Arctic region, suggesting that polar stakeholders could work together on connectivity and economic and social development, including the exploration and exploitation of resources such as oil, gas and minerals, as well as on scientific research into the effects of climate change on the region. According to Deutsche Welle, the United States is worried about what this means, while Russia “smells business.”

NewsMax.

Robert Hanssen, the former FBI agent turned spy whom the bureau describes as the most damaging in its history, was found dead in his prison cell on Monday, U.S. authorities said.

Hanssen, 79, was sentenced in 2002 to life in prison after pleading guilty to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years.

Prison staff initiated life-saving measures after finding Hanssen unresponsive on Monday morning but were not successful, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. It did not provide a cause of death.

CalTech.

A space solar power prototype that was launched into orbit in January is operational and has demonstrated its ability to wirelessly transmit power in space and to beam detectable power to Earth for the first time.

The Guardian.

Archaeology is facing a time crunch. Thousands of years of human history risk imminent erasure, from tiny hamlets to entire cities – temples, walls and roads under grave threat of destruction. Urban sprawl and industrial agriculture are but two culprits, smothering ancient settlements beneath car parks and cattle pastures. International conflict and climate change are also damaging vulnerable sites, with warfare and water shortages destroying pockets of history across the world.

The endless excavations of yesteryear are no longer the best solution. Big digs aren’t the big idea they once were: mapping the human archaeological record is now moving upward, into the sky.

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The agricultural industry is no stranger to automation. Robotics was first introduced into the industry to help guide vehicles in the 1920s, and it’s now common for farmers to use GPS-guided planters, sprayers, and combines, not to mention the wide array of automated machines used elsewhere in the agricultural supply chain.

But there’s one job that has been prohibitively difficult for robots: picking soft fruit. It requires a delicate and dexterous touch, as well as the ability to maneuver around the plants so that the fruit can be accessed from the best angle.

The UK-based startup Dogtooth Technologies is developing robots with just such abilities. What’s more, the robots are able to gently pick berries at night and then deliver them to a chamber where the fruit can be inspected for defects. Freethink explores Dogtooth Technologies and the future of robot farming in this episode of Hard Reset.

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In 2002, Florida adopted a phonics based reading strategy due to Charlie Crist. Scores started to rise. Other southern states started to following suit, including Mississippi long deried as the worst in the nation.

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The USA is confronted with three epic-size problems: (1) the need for production of energy on a scale that meets the current and future needs of the nation, (2) the need to confront the climate crisis head-on by only producing renewable, green energy, that is 100% emission-free, and (3) the need to forever forestall the eruption of the Yellowstone Supervolcano. This paper offers both a provable practical, novel solution, and a thought experiment, to simultaneously solve all of the above stated problems. Through a new copper-based engineering approach on an unprecedented scale, this paper proposes a safe means to draw up the mighty energy reserve of the Yellowstone Supervolcano from within the Earth, to superheat steam for spinning turbines at sufficient speed and on a sufficient scale, in order to power the entire USA. The proposed, single, multi-redundant facility utilizes the star topology in a grid array pattern to accomplish this. Over time, bleed-off of sufficient energy could potentially forestall this Supervolcano from ever erupting again. With obvious importance to our planet and the research community alike, COMSOL simulation demonstrates and proves the solution proposed herein, to bring vast amounts of green, emission-free energy to the planet’s surface for utilization. Well over 11 Quadrillion Watt hours of electrical energy generated over the course of one full year, to meet the current and future needs of the USA is shown to be practical. Going beyond other current and past research efforts, this methodology offers tremendous benefits, potentially on a planetary scale.

North Dakoka State University.

Window condensation and other moisture problems are likely in a weatherized home without air exchangers. This is a problem for both people and the home structure. Bringing in outside air and exhausting indoor air (ventilation) dilutes or removes the indoor pollutants and moisture. The question is: How do you remove the moisture and pollutants while retaining the heated or cooled air? An air-to-air heat exchanger will solve that problem. Air exchangers transfer the thermal energy of the indoor air to incoming fresh air, allowing the moisture and pollutants to be vented but retaining the heat. This publication describes reasons to use air-to-air heat exchangers, technology of exchangers, the cost advantages of installing them and some tips on choosing a heat exchanger that is right for your home.

Freethink.

UC Davis researchers have created part-natural, part-artificial “cyborg” cells that might one day be engineered to do everything from fight cancer to clean up the environment.

Synthetic bio 101: Mother Nature is an excellent engineer — the human body alone contains about 200 types of cells, each precisely designed to serve a specific function while also working in harmony with all the other types.

When you add in all the other cells found in the 1.2 million identified species on Earth, you end up with a lot of perfect little biological machines — and a goal of synthetic biology is to put those machines to work.

One way to do this is by genetically engineering cells to have new abilities — this could mean modifying the single-celled organism E. coli to convert plastic waste into useful vanillin, or engineering cancer patients’ immune cells to recognize tumors.

Read it.

Scientists have isolated an enzyme from soil bacteria that can convert air into electricity, which they say could be developed into a renewable power source for small devices.

Read it.

Retinal degeneration: When light enters the eye, it travels to the retina, where nerve cells called “photoreceptors” convert the light into electrical signals that are eventually sent to the brain.

Genetic diseases and other health issues can damage retinal cells. This condition, called “retinal degeneration,” is one of the most common causes of vision loss worldwide, and while some treatments can slow the damage to prevent further vision loss, there’s currently no way to reverse it.

But, in addition to photoreceptors, the retina is also home to Müller cells. These cells develop from the same parent cell lines as photoreceptors, but they aren’t nerve cells — instead, they provide support to photoreceptors and other neurons in the eye.

“What’s interesting is that these Müller cells are known to reactivate and regenerate retina in fish,” said Camille Boudreau-Pinsonneault, first author of a new study out of the University of Montreal. “But in mammals, including humans, they don’t normally do so, not after injury or disease. And we don’t yet fully understand why.”

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Good news.

Read it.

Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority said fewer than five babies have been born this way, but no further details have been released to protect the families’ identities. The news was first reported by the Guardian newspaper.

The U.K. was the first country in the world to adopt legislation in 2015 specifically regulating such methods, which help prevent women with faulty mitochondria — the energy source in a cell — from passing on to their babies defects that can result in diseases such as muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and intellectual disabilities. About one in 200 children in Britain is born with a mitochondrial disorder.

For a woman with faulty mitochondria, scientists take the genetic material from her egg or embryo. They then transfer that into a donor egg or embryo that still has its healthy mitochondria but has had the rest of its key DNA removed. The fertilized embryo is then transferred into the womb of the mother. The genetic material from the donated egg comprises less than 1% of the child’s genetics.

Read it.

If, of course, that’s what you want to do.

I understand that running over it with an SUV is equally effective.

The Foundry.

Education choice is on the march.

So far this year, four states have enacted education choice policies that will be available to all K-12 students. Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah have now joined Arizona and West Virginia in making every child eligible for education savings accounts (ESAs) or ESA-like policies that allow families to choose the learning environments that align with their values and work best for their children.

The education choice movement has already made more progress this year than ever before—and the year is far from over. Late last week, three state legislatures gave final approval to bills that would create new education choice policies or significantly expand existing ones.

Read it.

As they do.