ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 726

Planetary And Human Health – One Coin, Two Sides.

Health and Medicine





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The Lancet

In the week that took us one step further from a climate-conscious or secure future in Australia, and as our federal government turned its back once again on renewable energies including wind and small-scale solar, one coalition seems to understand and heed the dire warnings laid out in front of us. Our leader and his ministers may be missing the enormous canary in the proverbial (and literal) mine, but one group of scientists could not see it more clearly. Nor could they be making the links to human health more apparent.

The Pope, Climate Change And The Cultural Dimensions Of The Anthropocene

Environment





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Laudato Si': for some, a guide to personal values and morals in the Anthropocene. Max Rossi/Reuters

The ink is still drying on the Pope’s Encyclical Letter “Laudato Si’” or “On Care for Our Common Home,” and scholars, critics and pundits will analyze and assess it for years to come.

A Handshake In Space Changed US-Russia Relations: How Long Will It Last?

Space





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Frenemies? NASA

Exactly 40 years ago, a historic handshake took place between Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov and US astronaut Tom Stafford during a joint USSR-American docking mission, kicking off a successful collaboration between the two countries in space. That cooperation has lasted, even when relationships on the ground deteriorated.

DeepDream: Inside Google’s ‘Daydreaming’ Computers

It may produce creepy images with way too many dogs and eyeballs, but Google’s DeepDream program is actually a valuable window into artificial intelligence.

Installation instructions: https://www.reddit.com/r/deepdream/comments/3cawxb/what_are_deepdream_images_how_do_i_make_my_own/

Hosted by: Hank Green

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Sources:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1409.4842.pdf

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2015/06/inceptionism-going-deeper-into-neural.html

http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2015/07/deepdream-code-example-for-visualizing.html

http://gizmodo.com/googles-dream-robot-is-running-wild-across-the-internet-1715839224

https://github.com/google/deepdream/blob/master/dream.ipynb

http://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-incredible-day-dreams-of-artificial-neura-1712226908

Discovery Of Massless Weyl Fermion Particle Could Revolutionize Electronics

Physics





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Weyl fermions are essentially "holes" where other electrons would appear. Shutterstock/general-fmv

Two separate teams of researchers have found evidence for a theorized type of massless particle known as a “Weyl fermion.” The discovery was made by scientists at Princeton University in New Jersey and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and could herald a whole new age of better electronics.

The Uncomfortable Truth About The Tiger Trade Ban

Plants and Animals





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The ban in trade of tiger body parts is thought to have fueled the trade in lion bones instead. Maggy Meyer/Shutterstock.

Tightening the rules on the sale of tiger parts in Asia might have had worrying, unintended consequences. To fill the gap in the market to make tiger-bone wine, traders have instead looked to African lions to keep up with demand. While currently the researchers think that most of the lion bones being used are in fact a by-product of the trophy-hunting industry in South Africa, they worry that more demand will push trade into other African countries.

Australian PM Bans Solar And Wind Power Investment

Environment





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Solar Power. wang song/Shutterstock

The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, seems to be hell-bent on a mission to undo the country's past carbon emission-reduction efforts. Last Sunday, the federal government announced that not only will it ban the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) from investing in existing wind technology, but small-scale solar power projects as well. Instead, the CEFC will focus its energies on "emerging technologies."

Polar Bears in Summer Low-Energy Modes Don’t Save That Much

Plants and Animals





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University of Wyoming researchers John Whiteman and Merav Ben-David inspect a temperature logger implantation site on a polar bear on off-shore sea ice north of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in April 2009. Mike Lockhart.

Polar bears hunt ringed seals on the surface of sea ice. But during the summertime melt, their hunting territories contract. With limited feeding opportunities, they might head for the shore and enter a low-energy mode called "walking hibernation." However, according to a new Science study, these energy savings aren’t enough to make up for food deprivation in the Arctic.

Robots Could Soon Be Controlled By Bacteria

Technology





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Warren Ruder used a mathematical model to demonstrate that bacteria can control the behavior of an inanimate device like a robot. Virginia Tech.

Robots can be programmed to respond to changes in sunlight, temperature, or even the levels of certain particles in the air. But, what about a robot that drives around controlled entirely by bacteria?

Bacteria-controlled robots aren't here just yet, but a team of intrepid scientists has created a mathematical model to predict how such systems might explore the world around them. 

After Hottest Year On Record, Ocean Warming Is Now ‘Unstoppable’

Environment





Photo credit:

Anette Holmberg/Shutterstock

Sea levels, warming of the surface and upper layer of the oceans, greenhouse gases and land temperatures all hit a record high in 2014. In addition to this, glacier melt and tropical storms were also at a high, while sea ice loss continued.