TIZER'S SCIENCE NEWS

[Sue]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... GTUK_email

This ia very interesting article , a bit complex but understandable

[Stanley]

I agree Sue but far above my pay grade. I only understood a fraction of what they are saying.....

[Tizer]

Very interesting Sue and the paper illustrates how complex our physiology and biochemistry has become and how molecules and interactions in our bodies can get `re-tasked' over time to provide other benefits.

[Stanley]

"how complex our physiology and biochemistry has become"
I understood enough to be able to agree with that! I am constantly amazed by how much my physical well-being depends on very simple things like diet, weight and minimal exercise! Small changes can have such powerful results.
I have never forgotten what a doctor said about fat round our internal organs. (But have forgotten his name!) He said that losing a small amount of that fat could have a dramatic effect on Type 2 diabetes and was ridiculed by some but I still believe he was right and am actively pursuing that benefit daily.

[Stanley]

THIS Article about electronic chip production in Taiwan is worth reading. fascinating story about the route to world supremacy in the field.

[Tizer]

I've been arguing for years that we should spend less time and money mining rare elements such as lithium and instead spend the money on research to find ways of using common elements for the same task. At last I see some movement in that direction and AI has made it easier so now there's no excuse not to take this approach...

`AI comes up with battery design that uses 70 per cent less lithium: Researchers used AI to design a new material that they used to build a working battery – it requires up to 70 percent less lithium than some competing designs.' New Scientist 9 January 2024

The top candidate at the moment uses lithium but much less of it and because sodium is the main component. It also has some of the rare earth yttrium but further studies are being done to minimise the use of rare materials.

[Stanley]

From the odd comments and snippets that I am picking up it's fairly obvious that AI is already a very widely used technique. I suspect the conference that was held on the future of AI which gained Mr Sunak such attention is already obsolete.....

[Tizer]

AI has been in use for many years now but people didn't know it because it wasn't described as AI then, it was just seen as part of the usual algorithms etc.

[Stanley]

Yes, I suppose all use of computers is using artificial intelligence....

[Tizer]

Lancashire astronomers work on the large scale!...
`Huge ring of galaxies challenges thinking on cosmos' LINK

[Stanley]

I heard that report. What a feather in the cap of the young student at the University of Central Lancashire. She has also discovered another feature, the 'Great Arc'.

[Tizer]

`Unseen images of code breaking computer that helped win WW2' BBC

[PanBiker]

I have seen the rebuild in operation at the National Computing Museum in the grounds of Bletchley Park. Denying its existence for so long allowed the U.S. to claim the first computer. A record that stood and was written into many history books. This changed when the Colossus was released from the ULTRA secret list nearly 60 years after it was first in operation. It became operational just before D Day in 1944 and allowed the deciphering of the new Lorenz Teletype machines that the German High Command had switched to using. Compared to the original Enigma machines which had millions of permutations the Lorenze had billions of possible combinations for any given message

Tommy Flowers who was a brilliant Post Office engineer was given the task of creating the design using valves to do the switching tasks. The Post Office was phasing in much faster valve switching circuits in place of electro mechanical relays used for the telephone network.

The most amazing thing was that the team managed to back engineer a working facsimile of the Lorenze Teletype without ever seeing one. Its on display at Bletchley, they didn't see an original one until 1946 or 47.

[Stanley]

Compare and contrast with equipping the Post Office with an accounting system. Good job those 'experts' weren't in charge of our wartime security...... What happened?

[Tripps]

What do we make of this news - Closedown of Fusion project ?

Has the project been a success or a failure? Don't ask anyone who has been, or will continue to be involved.

[PanBiker]

Like the early days of medical research with information gleaned from post mortems and dissection of cadavers. Common practice also in engineering development. Run it until it breaks or you deliberately introduce fatal faults then pull it apart to see how to improve the design.

[Stanley]

"“We are starting to think seriously about a fusion power plant,” says Rob Buckingham, who leads on decommissioning for the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), which oversees JET. “This means thinking about the whole plant life cycle.”"
I think Mr Buckingham has made it quite clear. Rather than betray abandonment this suggests a maturing plan and progress in an area of fusion plant operation that will have to be addressed before the technology can be fully utilised.
I see it as hopeful and boding well for the future.

[Tripps]

Hands up those who know what "kimchi" is?

I do of course - and I've noticed it featuring in the news quite a lot recently. It's in a Government propaganda advert to avoid wasting food - " take a 'spare' cabbage and make it into kimchi, to sell at the farmers' market" - and features today in several newspapers in what must surely be the most ridiculous piece of 'scientific research for some time.Eat kimchi and stay slim I won't insult you by pointing out the shortcomings in the "research".

I guess it's very similar to sauerkraut which for some reason I can't imagine, doesn't seem to have caught on here.

[Stanley]

Maria in the Ukraine videos on Youtube has a very similar version in an industrial plastic barrel in the cellar under her kitchen (Probably best described as Sauerkraut). I suspect only needed in countries that are so cold in winter that cabbages couldn't survive outside or be harvested.
I always put a bit of spice in my cabbage when I cook it so I suppose in a way I am eating faux Kimchi.

[Tizer]

`Brightest and hungriest black hole ever detected' LINK
The most luminous object ever detected has been spied in the distant Universe. It's a quasar - the bright core of a galaxy that is powered by a gargantuan black hole some 17 billion times the mass of our Sun....This quasar's emission has taken a staggering 12 billion years to reach the detectors at the VLT.

[Stanley]

My head can't grasp distances like 12 billion Light Years!

[Whyperion]

Schools Looking at Crystal Structures
From my MSN news feed , apparently some High Schools have been engaged by Hartwell (?) Oxon to look at calcuim carbonate crystal growth in sea shells. (results read / dealt with by high speed x-rays ) Interesting as chemical compounds (and elements) arranged in different 3D lattice structures have different characteristics, not all of which are understood, but AI with basic atomic structure knowledge is now quickly assessing various possibilities, including rejecting "wrong" structural compounds in drugs and filler materials.

[Stanley]

I think this is the place for this video on how volcanic activity creates an island. Fascinating......

[Cathy]

Wow. Great to see Mother Nature doing her thing.

[Stanley]

Funny to think that's going on constantly and we know nothing about it. You'd think it would run out of molten rock!