Skip to main content



Can THC Turn Back The Clock? Cannabis Reverses Brain Aging, Boosts Mental Capacity, New Study Suggests


Initially, THC boosted brain metabolism and synaptic protein levels, indicative of heightened cognitive processes. Subsequently, it shifted towards reducing metabolic activities in the body akin to the effects seen with caloric restriction or intensive exercise, known for their anti-aging benefits.
in reply to karashta

Generally any headline that is that is phrased as a question can be answered with "no".

in reply to Flying Squid

There were some cave lions found several years ago, too. Cubs.



To protect US coasts, scientists want to zap the sea with electricity


As efforts step up to protect coastal regions affected by erosion, scientists have found an unexpected way to protect communities—zapping the shoreline with electricity.

In a study published in the journal Communications Earth and the Environment, researchers from Northwestern University demonstrated the novel technique to strengthen marine sand, potentially offering a sustainable solution to combat erosion caused by climate change and rising sea levels.

"Over 40 percent of the world's population lives in coastal areas," Alessandro Rotta Loria, who led the study, said in a statement.

"Because of climate change and sea-level rise, erosion is an enormous threat to these communities. Through the disintegration of infrastructure and loss of land, erosion causes billions of dollars in damage per year worldwide," he said.

...

in reply to fpslem

This sounds more useful to apply to specific, small portions of the sand, rather than applying it to an entire coastline.

"We can use it to strengthen the seabed beneath sea walls, stabilize sand dunes and retain unstable soil slopes. We could also use it to strengthen protection structures, marine foundations and so many other things. There are many ways to apply this to protect coastal areas."
in reply to QuadratureSurfer

Targeted applications sound more reasonable from a cost perspective too.


Scientists Develop World’s Fastest Microscope — It’s So Fast It Can Capture Electrons Moving


Their attosecond system involves a powerful laser split into two components: a fast electron pulse and two ultrashort light pulses. The first light pulse, called the pump pulse, energizes a sample, triggering electron movement or other rapid changes. The second pulse, known as the optical gating pulse, creates a brief window to generate a single attosecond electron pulse. The timing of this gating pulse determines the image resolution. By precisely synchronizing these pulses, researchers can control when the electron pulses probe the sample, allowing them to observe ultrafast atomic-level processes.
in reply to karashta

This is pretty amazing. I have a random shower thought about the headline at this point.

Microscopes are any device that can see things smaller than what we can manage with our own eyes.. But that range has become extremely massive. It's to the point where I'd really like a new set of terms for scopes based on the magnification levels.

in reply to karashta

Argh, no images?

I really wanted to see the electrons.


in reply to SkybreakerEngineer

It was that for the FRBs recorded by an Australian radio astronomy tem.


MIT stopped subscribing to Elsevier journals, instead ordering materials as needed. It saved millions.


in reply to fpslem

I wonder whether this is because the subscription method was overpriced compared to the number of articles they actually accessed or if academics are now just thinking twice about whether they really need to access a particular article if it's not easy and "free". I've certainly downloaded articles I never actually got around to reading.

It's still wild that universities don't just en masse refuse to use the for-profit journals. They services they provide could easily be managed and funded by a university consortium. They just need to actually make the leap.

in reply to Zaktor

I doubt it accounts for much, but a lot of authors pay up front now for open access. If the majority of authors did that, then subscriptions wouldn't make sense for most people. I don't think it's anywhere near the majority of publications now though.


New blog post: `grep`ping your `tty` and showing it too

How would one inspect the output of a program AND display it, but without temporary files or variables? tl;dr: Use tee(1) to duplicate stdout to /dev/tty, and allow it to be processed by grep.

blog.narf.ssji.net/2024/08/28/…

#Linux #MacOSX #shell #code #oneliner #sysadmin #tip

This entry was edited (6 months ago)

in reply to just_another_person

Reminds me of these guys trying to grow brain cells to play doom
- Ep1: youtu.be/V2YDApNRK3g
- Ep2: youtu.be/bEXefdbQDjw
- Ep3: youtu.be/c-pWliufu6U-
This entry was edited (6 months ago)


Iconic Wow! Signal May Finally Have An Explanation (It’s Still Not Aliens)


henchman2019 doesn't like this.

in reply to mozz

I swear that every year for the past 20 years:
- A signal from aliens is found
- A "structure" is discovered in space (the structure is gas)
- AIDS is cured
- Cancer is cured
- Evidence of water is found on Mars

My brain has boy-who-cried-wolf'd itself into ignoring stories about these topics because I've been trained to believe that they're bullshit lol

in reply to poo

At least one of those has come true. Frozen water has 100% been confirmed on Mars.

Now, the wishful part this year is liquid water being detected underground by seismometers (sp?)

in reply to just_another_person

tl;dr the signal appears to have been from a cold hydrogen cloud "resonating" off of radiation bursts; namely, those emitted by neutron stars. The stronger the burst through the cloud, the louder the signal on equipment. The WOW! signal appears to have been the result of a particularly powerful event, but by observing the same/similar (?) gas cloud(s), they've been able to spot signals with the same signature, albeit weaker due to being hit by less rare (and less powerful) phenomena.

Some clarification might be needed on whether it's a specific cloud that produces this signal, or if any cold hydrogen clouds are capable of it. I couldn't seem to find any in the article itself. Maybe there's something in the published research paper that provides further information.



“To our horror”: Widely reported study suggesting divorce is more likely when wives fall ill gets axed


A widely reported finding that the risk of divorce increases when wives fall ill — but not when men do — is invalid, thanks to a short string of mistaken coding that negates the original conclusions, published in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The paper, “In Sickness and in Health? Physical Illness as a Risk Factor for Marital Dissolution in Later Life,” garnered coverage in many news outlets, including The Washington Post, New York magazine’s The Science of Us blog, The Huffington Post, and the UK’s Daily Mail .

But an error in a single line of the coding that analyzed the data means the conclusions in the paper — and all the news stories about those conclusions — are “more nuanced,” according to first author Amelia Karraker, an assistant professor at Iowa State University.

...

in reply to fpslem

I've heard of people getting divorced with terminal conditions because they don't want to leave their partner with hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical debt.
I wonder if that plays any part in it.

in reply to pixelprimer

I might be a grumpy old keyboard enthusiast, but I am amazed by how keyboards just keep getting smaller and smaller.

Just out of interest, what is the benefit of having exactly as many keys as the alphabet?

EDIT: just looked at the keymaps and now I understand that you use key chords to replicate the missing keys. But I still don't get the benefit of using chording instead of a clearly marked key, for example for /.

This entry was edited (6 months ago)
in reply to datendefekt


in reply to obbeel

Good, we need more BSL4 labs. The more we cut down forests and push into remote areas where bacteria, viruses, and fungi have always been endemic, the more we risk a catastrophic spillover event that will be magnified by rapid, worldwide flights and climate change making animals and diseases more present around humans. Fungi, for example, are thriving in warmer and wetter winters. We must be hypervigilant about new and evolving diseases, especially ones that might not yet have vaccines developed for them.

These labs will keep churning out research even in the event of catastrophic calamity in areas were most of our BSL4 labs reside (Europe, and North America).

in reply to Wahots

The crowd blights are what scare me. Some fungus or other microorganism previously thriving within its niche suddenly spills out into conditions that ensure its unchecked spread, and it causes mass die-offs among our monocultured food supply.


in reply to Socialist Mormon Satanist

I absolutely adore reading about ancient humans migrating around the planet and dreaming into what their existence may have been like. Thanks for sharing.


NASA’s Webb Telescope Finds Evidence For An Ocean World Around Uranus


I've been meaning to tell you...
in reply to Melatonin

Why aren't they in space? Why are they checking out my anus?

in reply to obbeel

Can't help but feel there are going to be Unanticipated Consequences for making 'magic' a term in an actual science.
in reply to obbeel

Wish I knew Qiskit better. I bet it is quite an elucidating framework to work with. I mean, how else would you find this out without trying Quantum Mechanics on classical computers?


Hidden Consciousness Detected in 25% of Unresponsive Patients Tested


cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/18838026

Up to one in four patients who are unresponsive after suffering serious brain injuries might actually still be conscious – indicating more patients may be aware of their surroundings than previously realized, new research suggests.

This state of 'hidden consciousness' is now officially known as cognitive motor dissociation (CMD), where cognitive (or thinking) abilities aren't connected to motor (or movement) abilities. Researchers have been looking into CMD for several years.

However, 62 percent of an additional 112 patients who were visibly responding to instructions at the bedside didn't exhibit the expected brain signals showing responsiveness – so the researchers suggest their methods still don't detect everyone with cognitive function.


in reply to Baron Von J

I can’t imagine a greater hell than being trapped in my own mind without the ability to move or communicate. This is interesting and unsettling at the same time.
in reply to some_guy

This is the premise of Johnny Got His Gun, an anti-war novel by Dalton Trumbo.
in reply to Okokimup

I didn't realize that was Trumbo or that he wrote novels. All I knew of him was scripts. Thanks for that info.
in reply to Okokimup

Great book and also where Metallica got the inspiration for their song "One".
in reply to SHOW_ME_YOUR_ASSHOLE

Metallica's first ever video. My teenage ass stumbled in one night, turned on Mtv's Headbanger Ball and saw, "The world premiere of Metallica's ONE!"

Jesus help me, did not expect that.

(For those not around at the time, Metallica swore to never sell out and do an Mtv video. Ever.)

This entry was edited (6 months ago)
in reply to shalafi

Metallica swore to never sell out


They tricked me too. Then that Napster thing happened.



Microsoft donates the Mono Project to the Wine team


reshared this

in reply to T (they/she)

The “fork” is the real version of Mono and Microsoft is not giving it up.

The repository managed by “The Mono Project” still targets .NET Framework. Microsoft does not care about the official version of that. Why would they want to manage an Open Source replica of it.

In some ways though, this is good. Nobody should be seeing the Mono Project as a viable cross-platform development framework at this point. It is nothing more than a support layer for running legacy software that was originally Windows only. That makes it a good fit for Wine.

If you want what Mono used to be, a cross-platform application framework, you can just use the actual .NET from Microsoft. It includes the Mono runtime for targeting mobile platforms and Microsoft continues to actively develop it. They are not passing control of that to anybody.



Used thinkpad ok for casual retro gaming?


Hi, want to buy some used hardware to run with Linux (Gnome DE ON Mint, Debian OR ElementaryOS). Mainly Office use, transcoding, but also for casual gaming Half-life 2 and maybe some more modern games.

Are Thinkpads with integrated GPUs sufficient for that?
Any nice alternatives which are sturdy and can be upgraded?

TIA!

EDIT: thank you for all the helpful input. Will check AMD options!

This entry was edited (6 months ago)

Tech Cyborg reshared this.

in reply to ratzki

I have an X220 with an i5-2520M, I don't use it for gaming but I have briefly played Half-Life 2 with it and it was comfortably playable.

So I would say mid-2000s titles and before will be fine. It really depends on the age the Thinkpad you want is, and the age of the games you want to play.

This entry was edited (6 months ago)
in reply to ratzki

I use a T440p and it works amazing for lightweight gaming (tested so far: Fallout NV, BTD6, Minecraft, and Enter the Gungeon)