Posts

In the joint study by Stockholm University, Uppsala University, and the Karolinska Institutet of Sweden, two groups of boys (ages 12 to 15) were hooked up to heart monitors and split into two groups, one given a violent game and the other a non-violent game. The violent game group experienced increased heart rate variability, which continued after they went to bed and was recorded in their sleep patterns, despite the fact that the boys reported no problems sleeping....

Check out the previous roundups at popsci.com/toolmonger. And for all tools, all the time, head over to toolmonger.com.

The U.S. government is now betting $28 million dollars that all these projects are wrong. A series of three grants snagged by Harvard University from Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) last week has funded a “moonshot” project to throw out all of the previous attempts at understanding the brain and start fresh. (IARPA is the sibling organization to the better-known Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. But while DARPA focuses on military projects, IARPA focuses on intelligence agency research....

Coming in at number one is a Tennessee-based system called Frontier, run by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, AMD, and the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, edging out the Fugaku system at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) in Kobe, Japan that previously held the title. This Frontier system is “the result of more than a decade of collaboration among the national laboratories, academia and private industry, including DOE’s Exascale Computing Project, which is deploying the applications, software technologies, hardware and integration necessary to ensure impact at the exascale,” Oak Ridge National Laboratory said in a press release....

In a new study published in Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers believe that the four-inch-long winged reptile evolved to glide between tree tops. C. elivensis was a tetrapod that lived during between 252 million to 260 million years ago in present-day Madagascar, and used a patagium (thin membranes extending from its torso to the front limbs) as a make shift pair of wings to travel above the tree canopy. These unique features have earned the tiny lizard the title of “world’s first gliding reptile,” according to researchers from the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris and the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe, Germany....

To capture an image of a single protein, the researchers spray a mixture of proteins in solution onto a thin sheet of graphene. They then used a low-energy holography electron microscope, which creates an image by bouncing a beam of electrons off the proteins, then recording how those electrons interact with a pattern of other electrons. That low energy ensured that the protein wasn’t obliterated while the researchers were taking its photo....

Instagram originally changed the navigation bar in 2020 in a not-so-subtle attempt to push users to try all the new features—like Reels and Shopping—that they didn’t ask for. It meant the Compose button and Activity tab moved to the top right of the app (where I still struggle to find them). Presumably, Meta, Instagram’s parent company, was hoping to pump its Reels and Shopping engagement numbers, which it may feel offer better revenue-generating opportunities than pictures posted to a feed or story....

Yes, you’ve read that right. There are actually number-crunching geniuses that join competitions and duke it out to win cash prizes. Just last year, eight spreadsheet experts from different countries embarked on a multiplayer battle hosted by Microsoft called the “Financial Modeling World Cup,” where they used their analytical prowess to solve complex problems in short time bursts. The winner ended up taking home $10,000. Not everyone can be a spreadsheet sorcerer, but if you want to beef up your MS Excel skills to improve your productivity at work, the 2022 Complete Microsoft Excel Expert Bundle can equip you with the skills you need to make the most out of the software....

When the Bloodhound SSC screams 12 miles across a South African lake bed next year, it will aim to shatter the current land-speed record of 763 mph. At that pace, it would cross nearly three soccer fields in a second. The jet-and-rocket-powered car has been in development for about a decade and packs 135,000 tons of horsepower. “We just put the car on wheels for the first time,” says Mark Chapman, the Bloodhound’s chief engineer....

A few years ago, my workplace had a competition where we all got fitness trackers, formed teams, and raced to accumulate the most overall steps. Many people were taken aback when they found they weren’t easily reaching the coveted 10,000 strides—a number wellness apps promote as a standard for good, even optimal, health. I have studied the role that physical activity plays in preventing disease for a long time, and it made me wonder: Where did that number come from?...

The instructor, Rupert Spies, is reassuring. “Or, if you don’t want épi de blé, you could just leave the dough as a regular baguette.” We are at Cornell University, in a culinary classroom, where nine elite trainees are preparing for a simulated space mission. They are spending a week here learning how to cook on Mars. Today’s lesson is on baking bread and pizza from scratch. The project, called HI-SEAS, is intended to help build a strategy for feeding a human Mars colony, analyzing energy and resource requirements and nutritional parameters, and exploring the hypothesis that giving astronauts a choice of tasty foods and allowing them to prepare their own space cuisine will significantly improve morale....

You can subscribe to Katie’s tech podcast Katie dot Show where she shares first looks in technology and interviews some of the most notable minds in the industry.

Every example of co-management in the US looks slightly different. Legislation transferred stewardship of the National Bison Range in western Montana to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in 2020, and presidential decree re-established the Bears Ears Commission this summer, giving five tribes input in decision making for Bears Ears National Monument. Legal decisions, like the 2018 Supreme Court decision acknowledging tribal fishing rights, granted by treaties in the 19th century, required Washington state to repair damaged infrastructure that was contributing to salmon population decline....

On Thursday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for the region and ordered 3,000 National Guard members to be deployed for rescue and recovery operations. Friday morning, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted that high-water vehicles and boats have been pre-staged around the city in anticipation of potential rescues. Here’s what you need to know about Barry: What is its status is now? On Friday, Tropical Storm Barry moved toward the coast of Louisiana and the first bands of rain began to ripple into the region....

Sliced bread Born 1927 Otto Rohwedder reinvented bread when he created the first machine to slice it. His local paper called the innovation “a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome.” Only a few cities enjoyed the convenience until Taggart Baking Co. made Wonder Bread one of the first pre-portioned loaves sold nationwide, turning the super-soft carb into a glutenous rock star. The US government banned the culinary creation in 1943, in part to conserve paraffin (used in the waxed-paper packaging) for the war....

But instead of a GIF, a “Vine” is a short, 6-second-maximum looping video, which, unlike Snapchat or Poke creations, does not self-delete after a few seconds. You simply touch your finger to the screen to start recording, and lift it to stop recording. Easy! The major advantages to Vine are thus: it includes audio; it allows limited editing (you can tap and hold the app multiple times in one Vine, allowing a string of short clips), and it’s embedded in Tweets just like an image....

3M’s “Scientists as Storytellers” guide features advice from journalist Katie Couric, actor Alan Alda, and author and former NASA astronaut Captain Scott Kelly, as well as many professional scientists. Alda’s passion for science communications culminated in the Alda Center for Communicating Science, where about 14,000 scientists have learned the art—and effectiveness—of storytelling. Bringing science to life with storytelling—telling the tales of nuclear power protectors and the exploding bolts that get us to space, for example—can engage skeptics and enthusiasts alike....

But the last 150 years have changed the city, its favorite park, and the castle nestled inside. A recent restoration effort by the Central Park Conservancy outfitted the structure with better windows, doors, and on-site geothermal energy to guard against decay. The reservoir has long since been drained and replaced with the Great Lawn. And perhaps the Belvedere’s most surprising evolution is its second life as a high-tech weathervane. The story starts in 1849....

Palm oil, the most efficient vegetable oil crop to grow, is currently the most widely consumed vegetable oil in the world. However, the conversion of a Southeast Asian peat swamp forest to a palm oil plantation is responsible for about 0.44 to 0.74 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Given the environmental impact of vegetable oil production, there is a pressing need for more sustainable growing solutions. Rapeseed oil production emits the least amount of greenhouse gasses A 2022 study published in Science of The Total Environment assessed the extent and variation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the entire production chain of vegetable oils, including favorites like palm, soybean, rapeseed (also known as canola), and sunflower oil....