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Category: Tech

UK Tech Firms Face New Online Safety Regulations

2024-12-16

The UK's Online Safety Act has come into force, placing new safety responsibilities on tech companies. Ofcom has published its first codes of practice and guidance, requiring firms to assess and mitigate the risks of illegal content on their platforms, such as terrorism, hate speech, and child sexual abuse. New rules mandate enhanced content moderation, improved reporting mechanisms, and measures to protect children from sexual exploitation, including default settings to hide children's personal information. Ofcom will closely monitor tech companies' actions and impose strict penalties for non-compliance.

(www.ofcom.org.uk)
Tech online safety UK tech companies

Cultivated Meat: From a $330,000 Burger to the Future of Food

2024-12-16

From Winston Churchill's 1931 prediction to the world's first lab-grown burger in 2013, the cultivated meat industry has overcome challenges to become a booming sector. The initial high cost (the first burger cost $330,000) fueled innovation, leading to over 100 companies worldwide investing a total of $2.6 billion. Technological advancements have reduced costs, such as serum-free growth media, and increased efficiency with innovations like PluriMatrix. Regulatory approvals in countries like the US and Singapore are paving the way for wider adoption, though mainstream acceptance is projected to take 20-30 years.

(www.synbiobeta.com)
Tech cultivated meat cell-based meat food technology

Sweden Blames Germany's Nuclear Phase-Out for Soaring Energy Prices

2024-12-16

Sweden's Energy Minister Ebba Busch has blamed Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power for the country's soaring energy prices, announcing that the government is considering new measures to tackle the crisis. Busch expressed anger at Germany's actions, stating they have had serious consequences for Sweden and the EU. The rising prices, exacerbated by regional disparities and a spike in southern Sweden, are prompting the government to explore ways to support households and businesses. Despite the pressure, Sweden doesn't appear to be considering leaving the EU energy market, instead focusing on issues with the EU's Flow-Based Market Coupling system as a contributing factor.

(www.euractiv.com)
Tech energy crisis nuclear phase-out Sweden energy policy

UK Watchdog to Issue New Guidance on Smart Device Data Privacy

2024-12-16

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) will issue new guidance addressing data privacy concerns surrounding smart home devices. A Which? report revealed that some air fryers and other smart devices sent user data to servers in China. The ICO stated that consumers feel overwhelmed by the amount of data collected and lack control over its use. New guidelines, launching Spring 2025, will cover consent procedures, privacy information provision, and tools enabling users to exercise their rights.

(news.sky.com)
Tech data privacy information security

Canada's First Pirate Site Blocking Order Expires

2024-12-16

Canada's first pirate site blocking order, targeting the IPTV service GoldTV, quietly expired this week. Rightsholders Bell and Rogers chose not to seek an extension, despite many targeted domains remaining online. The decision likely reflects cost considerations and shifting priorities. Initially approved in 2018 and upheld against appeals in 2021, the order had a significant impact on piracy. However, the rightsholders have now shifted focus to broader, more dynamic blocking efforts targeting live sports streams and other platforms.

(torrentfreak.com)
Tech piracy site blocking

Nottingham Scientists Discover New Type of Magnetism with Potential to Revolutionize Digital Devices

2024-12-16

Researchers at the University of Nottingham have discovered a new class of magnetism called 'altermagnetism,' where magnetic building blocks align antiparallel but with a rotated structure. Published in Nature, this finding could revolutionize digital devices. Altermagnets promise a thousand-fold increase in the speed of microelectronic components and digital memory, while offering improved robustness and energy efficiency, and reducing reliance on rare and toxic heavy elements. The team used X-ray imaging at the MAX IV facility in Sweden to confirm the existence and controllability of this new magnetic order.

(www.nottingham.ac.uk)
Tech new magnetism digital devices microelectronics

PLATO: How a 1960s Educational Computer System Shaped the Future

2024-12-16

PLATO, a groundbreaking educational computer system from the 1960s, significantly impacted the development of modern computing. Preceding its time, it pioneered features like forums, instant messaging, and multiplayer games. Its innovative gas plasma display, the TUTOR authoring language, and its advanced networking capabilities for simultaneous users were revolutionary. While PLATO's home market success was limited, its influence on graphic displays, networking, and user interfaces remains undeniable. Its legacy continues through emulators and modern reimaginings, preserving a piece of computing history and its vision for the future of education and interactive technology.

(arstechnica.com)
Tech Educational Technology

Displaying Website Content on an E-Ink Display: A Family Tech Solution

2024-12-15

To address the inconvenience of checking the school timetable, the author designed a low-power e-ink display that automatically fetches and displays the school website's timetable. The project overcame challenges of website login and API absence by using Playwright for web scraping, and a server-side application to generate the image, which is then displayed on the e-ink screen. This solution tackles a family's daily problem and showcases the combined application of low-power hardware and web scraping technologies. The project initially explored MicroPython, but ultimately utilized the Arduino library for better reliability and functionality.

(mfasold.net)
Tech e-ink display low-power

UK's Illegal Cybertruck Faces Uphill Battle for Legalization

2024-12-15

Yianni Charalambous, a UK car customizer, is attempting to register a Tesla Cybertruck for road use in the UK, following a similar success in the Czech Republic. However, the Cybertruck's sharp design clashes with UK and EU pedestrian safety regulations, posing significant challenges. Its unique steer-by-wire system, reliance on OTA updates unavailable in the UK, and incompatibility with EU recall systems further complicate matters. Experts deem its chances of passing the UK's IVA test extremely slim.

(www.wired.com)
Tech Tesla Cybertruck Car Modification Safety Regulations

Unraveling the Mystery of the Antikythera Mechanism: A 254:19 Cosmic Code

2024-12-15

Discovered in the first century BCE, the Antikythera mechanism is a complex astronomical device capable of tracking the movements of the sun, moon, and planets. Its intricate gear system is astonishing. This article delves into a specific 254:19 gear ratio within the mechanism, revealing it's not arbitrary but a clever reflection of the sun and moon's movements over a 19-year Metonic cycle, demonstrating the remarkable understanding of astronomy possessed by ancient Greeks. The article corrects previous misunderstandings about the Saros and Metonic cycles and explains the mathematical principles behind this gear ratio, unveiling the profound insight of ancient Greeks into celestial mechanics.

(leancrew.com)
Tech Antikythera Mechanism Metonic Cycle Astronomy

From Animal 'Factories' to Synthetic Biology: A Revolution in Biopharming

2024-12-15

Historically, many medicines and materials relied on animal extraction, such as antivenom from horse blood, endotoxin detection from horseshoe crab blood, and silk from silkworms. This article traces the journey from ancient Phoenicians using snails to extract Tyrian purple dye to the modern use of biotechnology to synthesize insulin, antibodies, and vaccines. While synthetic biology technologies can now replace many animal-derived products, some areas still rely on animals due to regulatory lag, molecular complexity, and challenges in scaling production, such as influenza vaccine production. The article highlights the enormous potential of synthetic biology to improve efficiency and reduce animal use, but also reminds us of the importance of protecting biodiversity, as the development of biotechnology also relies on exploration and utilization of the natural world.

(worksinprogress.co)
Tech animal welfare

BioNTech's Bispecific Antibody Shows Promise in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

2024-12-15

BioNTech presented early clinical trial data for its novel bispecific antibody, BNT-327, at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Targeting PD-1/PD-L1 and VEGF, the antibody showed positive results in patients with triple-negative breast cancer. Building on the discovery of checkpoint inhibitors, this research represents a potential breakthrough in next-generation immunotherapy, offering hope for new treatments in triple-negative breast cancer and potentially other cancers.

(www.statnews.com)
Tech bispecific antibody immunotherapy triple-negative breast cancer

Recursion Pharmaceuticals Ditches Cell Painting for Brightfield Imaging

2024-12-15

Recursion Pharmaceuticals, a biotech leveraging machine learning for drug discovery, recently announced a surprising shift: abandoning its signature cell painting technique in favor of traditional brightfield imaging. This article delves into the reasons behind this change. Advances in deep learning allow models to effectively process raw images, diminishing the value of cell painting's fluorescent dyes for contrast enhancement. Brightfield imaging offers advantages in cost, ease of implementation, and compatibility with live-cell time-lapse microscopy, opening up possibilities for studying cellular dynamics. Despite the seemingly risky move, internal testing at Recursion shows brightfield imaging yielding comparable or even superior results in predicting drug perturbations.

(www.owlposting.com)
Tech cell imaging drug development

Efficient Cloud-Native Raster Data Access: An Alternative to Rasterio/GDAL

2024-12-15

The exponential growth of Earth observation data in cloud storage necessitates efficient access and analysis of satellite imagery. This article introduces an alternative cloud-native raster data access approach to Rasterio/GDAL. Traditional GeoTIFFs are inefficient, while Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs (COGs) improve efficiency through tiling and multi-resolution access. However, even with COGs, tasks like time-series NDVI analysis suffer from latency. The authors leverage STAC GeoParquet, combined with pre-calculated byte ranges, to reduce HTTP requests, significantly speeding up data access. Initial tests show this approach drastically reduces time-to-first-tile for Sentinel-2 data and lowers costs. A future open-source library, "Rasteret," will implement these techniques.

(blog.terrafloww.com)
Tech Cloud-native Raster data

How Big Data Revolutionized the Modern Dairy Cow

2024-12-15

This article chronicles the US dairy industry's transformation into a global leader in cattle genetics, driven by big data and public-private partnerships. Starting with cow-testing cooperatives and the Babcock test, advancements like artificial insemination and cryogenic preservation, culminating in genomic sequencing, dramatically increased milk production. However, this success has led to inbreeding and climate change concerns. The future of dairy genetics requires balancing high yields with sustainability, necessitating industry collaboration and innovation.

(worksinprogress.co)
Tech Big Data Cattle Genetics Agricultural Technology

Exploring Climate Classification Systems: Beyond Köppen-Geiger

2024-12-14

This article delves into climate classification systems for Earth and beyond. It begins by introducing the widely used Köppen-Geiger system and its limitations. The author then analyzes various modifications and alternatives, including Trewartha, FAO, and Holdridge systems, comparing their differences in parameter selection, seasonality representation, and applicability. Ultimately, the author highlights the Prentice et al. BIOME1 model as a superior option due to its parameter choices and predictive accuracy, offering valuable insights for building more versatile climate classification systems.

(worldbuildingpasta.blogspot.com)
Tech climate classification Köppen-Geiger BIOME1 model

Century-Scale Digital Storage: A Race Against Time

2024-12-14

This article explores the challenge of storing digital data for 100 years. From the invention of IBM's first hard drive-equipped computer, RAMAC, to the prevalence of cloud storage today, the author analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of various storage methods, including hard drives, cloud storage, removable media, and physical imprinting or printing. The article highlights the threats to long-term data preservation, such as physical damage to hardware, software updates, institutional changes, and market fluctuations. Ultimately, the author argues that the key to century-scale digital storage lies in establishing a culture that values maintenance and preservation, requiring a collective effort from all sectors of society to combat the erosion of time and safeguard humanity's digital heritage.

(lil.law.harvard.edu)
Tech data storage digital archive long-term preservation

Scientists Discover Four New Species of Portuguese Man-of-War

2024-12-14

Recent research has uncovered four new species of the Portuguese man-of-war, challenging our understanding of this venomous creature. Far from being a single organism, the man-of-war is a colony of four or five distinct individuals, each responsible for functions like floating, stinging, digestion, and reproduction. This unique colonial structure is a marvel of natural engineering. Adding to its intrigue, the man-of-war inflates its float using carbon monoxide and reproduces via a mysterious process with poorly understood larval development. Furthermore, a parasitic fish, the bluebottle, feeds on the man-of-war's tentacles and gonads, further highlighting the species' complexity.

(crookedtimber.org)
Tech Portuguese man-of-war new species marine biology

Through-the-Earth Communication: Revolutionizing Underground Connectivity

2024-12-14

Traditional radio waves struggle to penetrate rock, making communication in mines and caves challenging. This article explores Through-the-Earth (TTE) communication, utilizing ultra-low frequency (300-3000 Hz) signals that propagate through rock strata. TTE systems, including portable magnetic-loop cave radios, Personal Emergency Devices (PEDs), and the innovative 'Miner Lifeline' technology, are highlighted for their crucial role in mine rescue operations and cave exploration, even after catastrophic events like fires or explosions.

(en.wikipedia.org)
Tech Through-the-Earth Communication Mine Communication Emergency Rescue

Antimatter Propulsion: The Future of Space Exploration?

2024-12-14

A groundbreaking technology, antimatter propulsion, holds the potential to revolutionize space exploration. Antimatter annihilation offers the highest known energy density, with 100% efficiency, theoretically enabling voyages across the solar system in mere weeks or even days. However, significant challenges remain in producing, storing, and controlling antimatter, keeping the technology firmly in the theoretical realm for now. Further research and development are crucial to unlock its immense potential.

(www.sciencedirect.com)
Tech antimatter space exploration propulsion technology

YouTube quietly downgraded its web embeds, impacting user experience

2024-12-14

YouTube recently altered its Publisher for Publishers (PfP) embedded player, removing the title link back to YouTube. This change, intended to protect advertisers since PfP allows publishers to sell their own ads, means many websites, including The Verge, now have YouTube embeds where clicking the title no longer opens the video on YouTube.com or the app. Despite efforts to communicate with YouTube, including reaching out to CEO Neal Mohan, the change remains. This highlights how large tech platforms can prioritize their own interests over user experience.

(www.theverge.com)
Tech embedded player

Agricultural Trade in Tropical Regions Causes Biodiversity Loss Three Times Higher Than Thought

2024-12-14

A study published in Nature Sustainability reveals that agricultural exports from tropical regions are three times more damaging to biodiversity than previously assumed. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich and ETH Zurich tracked how agricultural exports from 1995 to 2022 affected land-use changes in producing countries. International trade is responsible for over 90% of biodiversity loss during this period, impacting Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, and Madagascar particularly severely. The team used satellite data to more accurately assess the long-term impacts of land-use change on biodiversity, highlighting the complex link between global trade and biodiversity loss. The study calls for global action to address this challenge.

(phys.org)
Tech biodiversity agricultural trade land use change land-use change biodiversity loss

Is Creating a Perfectly Spherical Prince Rupert's Drop Possible?

2024-12-14

An engineering question explores the possibility of creating a perfectly spherical Prince Rupert's drop. Prince Rupert's drops are glass objects formed by dripping molten glass into cold water, their unique internal stresses making them incredibly tough except at the tail. The article discusses how, theoretically, in a zero-gravity environment by controlling the cooling rate and removing the effects of gravity, a spherical Prince Rupert's drop could be made, but significant practical challenges remain.

(engineering.stackexchange.com)
Tech Prince Rupert's Drop Glass Material Science

Battery-Free Energy-Harvesting Holiday Card Unveiled

2024-12-14

In 2024, Jeff Keacher, Sean Beever, and Sophie created a battery-free electronic holiday card. This ingenious card cleverly harvests ambient radio waves and light energy (not from a traditional solar panel) to power its LEDs and is remotely controllable via a 2.4 GHz WiFi network. Designed for maximum power efficiency, it averages just 400 nanowatts of power consumption and can even be powered by the RF energy leaked from a microwave oven.

(www.keacher.com)
Tech energy-harvesting battery-free wireless control

IPv6: Schrödinger's Internet Protocol

2024-12-13

IPv6, designed to address the anticipated internet address exhaustion crisis, exists in a paradoxical state. Its deployment steadily expands, connecting more users and devices; yet it seems stalled, overshadowed by the enduring dominance of IPv4 solutions. This article explores the complexities of IPv6 adoption, including the role of NAT, IPv4 address transfers, and inconsistent vendor and application developer readiness. It analyzes different government strategies in promoting IPv6, and how incentives, vendor accountability, and capacity-building initiatives can foster adoption. Ultimately, it highlights IPv6's importance in preserving the internet as an open platform for innovation.

(labs.ripe.net)
Tech Internet Protocol Network Technology

NASA Solves Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Crash Mystery

2024-12-13

After nearly a year of investigation, NASA has finally solved the mystery behind the crash of Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter carried by the Perseverance rover. The helicopter's navigation system, unable to discern sufficient features on the relatively smooth Martian surface, resulted in a horizontal velocity upon landing. This caused Ingenuity to tumble, breaking its blades. Despite lacking a black box, investigators pieced together the cause from limited data and imagery. Remarkably, Ingenuity still communicates intermittently with Perseverance. The incident has prompted NASA to begin planning for follow-on missions, including a larger Mars helicopter capable of carrying scientific instruments.

(arstechnica.com)
Tech Mars exploration Ingenuity navigation system failure

HP 9845C: A Colorful Pioneer of 80s Computer Graphics

2024-12-13

In 1981, the HP 9845C, the top-of-the-line model in the 9845 series, emerged as the first HP computer to support color, stunning the world with its powerful graphics capabilities. Featuring hardware-accelerated vector drawing and polygon fill, and supporting fast matrix operations for 3D model rendering, this machine initially designed for scientific and engineering use quickly became a multipurpose system, even contributing to the graphic scenes in the 1983 film "WarGames." Its demo program was remarkable, boasting over 4000 lines of code and showcasing cutting-edge concepts like 3D shading, ordered dithering, wireframe rendering, interactive light pen control, and color infographics at a high resolution of up to 4913 colors.

(socks-studio.com)
Tech computer graphics vintage computer

Major Breakthrough in Nuclear Clock Technology Promises Ultraprecise Timekeeping

2024-12-13

An international research team led by scientists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder, has made a significant advance in developing a novel nuclear clock. Nuclear clocks use energy transitions within an atom's nucleus to measure time, promising greater accuracy and resistance to external disturbances compared to atomic clocks. The team used a specially designed ultraviolet laser to precisely measure the frequency of an energy jump in thorium nuclei and an optical frequency comb to count the cycles. This breakthrough paves the way for more precise navigation, faster internet speeds, and advancements in fundamental physics research, potentially even aiding in the detection of dark matter or verifying the constancy of nature's constants.

(www.nist.gov)
Tech nuclear clock ultraprecise timekeeping physics

Italian Town Solves Winter Darkness with Giant Mirror

2024-12-13

Nestled in a valley between Italy and Switzerland, the town of Viganella suffers from three months of winter darkness each year. To combat this, in 2006, residents ingeniously installed a massive mirror on a nearby mountain peak. This mirror reflects sunlight into the town square, providing much-needed light and warmth during the long winter. The project, a testament to human ingenuity and community spirit, has since inspired similar initiatives worldwide.

(www.vice.com)
Tech innovation community
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