Passenger Fatality Rates
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The race is on to build the world’s most complex machine
The Economist on how the most advanced chips are made:
asml’s most advanced machine is mind-boggling. It works by firing 50,000 droplets of molten tin into a vacuum chamber. Each droplet takes a double hit—first from a weak laser pulse that flattens it into a tiny pancake, then from a powerful laser that vaporises it. The process turns each droplet into hot plasma, reaching nearly 220,000°C, roughly 40 times hotter than the surface of the Sun, and emits light of extremely short wavelength (extreme ultraviolet, or euv). This light is then reflected by a series of mirrors so smooth that imperfections are measured in trillionths of a metre. The mirrors focus the light onto a mask or template that contains blueprints of the chip’s circuits. Finally the rays bounce from the mask onto a silicon wafer coated with light-sensitive chemicals, imprinting the design onto the chip.
Audiologists raise concern over headphone use in young people
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgkjvr7x5x6o
Whether it’s the echo of beeping tills in a supermarket or the hissing of a coffee machine in your local café, the brain is constantly working to decode hundreds of noises each day.
But, for some, those background noises can become so overwhelming that they distract them from recognising voices or alerts.
…
But Claire Benton, vice-president of the British Academy of Audiology, suggests that by blocking everyday sounds such as cars beeping, there is a possibility the brain can “forget” to filter out the noise.
“You have almost created this false environment by wearing those headphones of only listening to what you want to listen to. You are not having to work at it,” she said.
“Those more complex, high-level listening skills in your brain only really finish developing towards your late teens. So, if you have only been wearing noise-cancelling headphones and been in this false world for your late teens then you are slightly delaying your ability to process speech and noise,” Benton suggests.
Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany - Wired
https://www.wired.com/story/phone-data-us-soldiers-spies-nuclear-germany/
More than 3 billion phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers in Germany—and the Pentagon is powerless to stop it.
Sellafield nuclear site hacked by groups linked to Russia and China |The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/04/sellafield-nuclear-site-hacked-groups-russia-china
It is still not known if the malware has been eradicated. It may mean some of Sellafield’s most sensitive activities, such as moving radioactive waste, monitoring for leaks of dangerous material and checking for fires, have been compromised.
Sources suggest it is likely foreign hackers have accessed the highest echelons of confidential material at the site, which sprawls across 6 sq km (2 sq miles) on the Cumbrian coast and is one of the most hazardous in the world.
Sellafield covers 6 sq km on the Cumbrian coast and is one of the most hazardous nuclear sites in the world. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
The full extent of any data loss and any ongoing risks to systems was made harder to quantify by Sellafield’s failure to alert nuclear regulators for several years, sources said.
Desalination system could produce freshwater that is cheaper than tap water | MIT News
https://news.mit.edu/2023/desalination-system-could-produce-freshwater-cheaper-0927
MIT engineers and collaborators developed a solar-powered device that avoids salt-clogging issues of other designs.
Scientists Working in Antarctica Unwittingly Started to Develop a New Accent | Open Culture
“The findings revealed subtle but measurable changes in the speech of the overwintering staff during their time in Antarctica,” writes Mental Floss’ Brett Reynolds. “One change was convergence, where individuals in a close-knit group unconsciously begin to adopt similar speech characteristics.
US issues first ever fine for space junk to Dish Network – BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66993647
The US government has issued its first ever fine to a company for leaving space junk orbiting the Earth.
The Federal Communications Commission fined Dish Network $150,000 (£125,000) for failing to move an old satellite far enough away from others in use.
Risk of extinction by AI should be global priority, say experts | The Guardian
Hundreds of tech leaders call for world to treat AI as danger on par with pandemics and nuclear war
Hibernation artificially triggered in potential space travel breakthrough | The Guardian
… scientists showed that hibernation can be artificially triggered in rodents using ultrasonic pulses.
The advance is seen as significant because the technique was effective in rats – animals that do not naturally hibernate. This raises the prospect that humans may also retain a vestigial hibernation circuit in the brain that could be artificially reactivated.
“If this proves feasible in humans, we could envision astronauts wearing a helmet-like device designed to target the hypothalamus region for inducing a hypothermia and hypometabolism state,” said Hong Chen, an associate professor at Washington University in St Louis, who led the work.
Quantum computing could break the internet. This is how
Scientists use AI to discover new antibiotic to treat deadly superbug | The Guardian
According to a new study published on Thursday in the science journal Nature Chemical Biology, a group of scientists from McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new antibiotic that can be used to kill a deadly hospital superbug.
The superbug in question is Acinetobacter baumannii, which the World Health Organization has classified as a “critical” threat among its “priority pathogens” – a group of bacteria families that pose the “greatest threat” to human health.
Brain implants help paralysed man to walk again - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-65689580
A paralysed man has been able to walk simply by thinking about it thanks to electronic brain implants, a medical first he says has changed his life.
…
The electronic implants wirelessly transmit his thoughts to his legs and feet via a second implant on his spine.
Microsoft Puts New Limits On Bing’s AI Chatbot After It Expressed Desire To Steal Nuclear Secrets
As many early users have shown, the chatbot seemed pretty normal when used for short periods of time. But when users started to have extended conversations with the technology, that’s when things got weird. Microsoft seemed to agree with that assessment. And that’s why it’s only going to be allowing shorter conversations from here on out.
Egypt’s COP27 summit app is a cyber weapon, experts warn – POLITICO
https://www.politico.eu/article/cop-27-climate-change-app-cybersecurity-weapon-risks/
Western security advisers are warning delegates at the COP27 climate summit not to download the host Egyptian government’s official smartphone app, amid fears it could be used to hack their private emails, texts and even voice conversations.
Just paint a wind turbine blade to save birds and bats
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2020/09/a-simple-paint-job-can-save-birds-from-wind-turbines/
A small study in Norway showed that painting one blade of a wind turbine black reduced bird mortality by over 70%.
FBI investigation determined Chinese-made Huawei equipment could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications - CNN
How Facebook Hobbled Mark Zuckerberg’s Bid to Get America Vaccinated - WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-vaccinated-11631880296
Company documents show antivaccine activists undermined the CEO’s ambition to support the rollout by flooding the site and using Facebook’s own tools to sow doubt about the Covid-19 vaccine
IBM Creates First 2nm Chip
Gates backs Icelandic startup that turns carbon dioxide into stone - JWN Energy
https://www.jwnenergy.com/article/2021/3/5/gates-backs-icelandic-startup-that-turns-carbon-di/
Reykjavik-based Carbfix captures and dissolves CO₂ in water, then injects it into the ground where it turns into stone in less than two years.