Americans say they're more afraid of clowns than climate change
Seriously, guys?
The US is in the middle of a so-called 'clown attack' epidemic right now, and a new survey by the good folks at Vox has just revealed that it's not just media hype - people are actually really, really freaked out about it.
In fact, the poll showed that Americans admit to being more scared of clowns than they are of climate change, terrorism, and even death.
That's despite the fact that we currently just lived through the 12th hottest month on record in a row - an entire year of record-breaking temperatures - and our melting glaciers are now ticking time bombs threatening to wash entire villages away.
But, we get it, clowns are creepy. Since August, there have been more than 100 'suspicious' clown sightings reported across the US, with many of those not leading to arrests. But apparently just the sight of these clowns is enough to terrify people.
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Seriously, guys?
The US is in the middle of a so-called 'clown attack' epidemic right now, and a new survey by the good folks at Vox has just revealed that it's not just media hype - people are actually really, really freaked out about it.
In fact, the poll showed that Americans admit to being more scared of clowns than they are of climate change, terrorism, and even death.
That's despite the fact that we currently just lived through the 12th hottest month on record in a row - an entire year of record-breaking temperatures - and our melting glaciers are now ticking time bombs threatening to wash entire villages away.
But, we get it, clowns are creepy. Since August, there have been more than 100 'suspicious' clown sightings reported across the US, with many of those not leading to arrests. But apparently just the sight of these clowns is enough to terrify people.
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Scientists have built a Nightmare Machine to generate the scariest images ever
We’re supposed to be building robots and AI for the good of humankind, but scientists at MIT have pretty much been doing the opposite - they’ve built a new kind of AI with the sole purpose of generating the most frightening images ever.
Just in time for Halloween, the aptly named Nightmare Machine uses an algorithm that 'learns' what humans find scary, sinister, or just downright unnerving, and generates images based on what it thinks will freak us out the most.
"There have been a rising number of intellectuals, including Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, raising alarms about the potential threat of superintelligent AI on humanity," one of the team, Pinar Yanardag Delul, told Digital Trends.
"In the spirit of Halloween and following the traditional MIT hack culture, we wanted to playfully commemorate humanity’s fear of AI, which is a growing theme in popular culture."
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We’re supposed to be building robots and AI for the good of humankind, but scientists at MIT have pretty much been doing the opposite - they’ve built a new kind of AI with the sole purpose of generating the most frightening images ever.
Just in time for Halloween, the aptly named Nightmare Machine uses an algorithm that 'learns' what humans find scary, sinister, or just downright unnerving, and generates images based on what it thinks will freak us out the most.
"There have been a rising number of intellectuals, including Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, raising alarms about the potential threat of superintelligent AI on humanity," one of the team, Pinar Yanardag Delul, told Digital Trends.
"In the spirit of Halloween and following the traditional MIT hack culture, we wanted to playfully commemorate humanity’s fear of AI, which is a growing theme in popular culture."
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What Is Dark Matter? Prime Candidate Gets Profiled
The search for elusive dark matter may have just gotten a big boost.
Scientists have calculated the predicted mass of the axion, a hypothetical particle that some astronomers think may be the main constituent of dark matter. The new finding should greatly aid the hunt for axions, and could therefore help solve the longstanding dark-matter mystery, study team members said.
"The results we are presenting will probably lead to a race to discover these particles," study co-author Zoltan Fodor, of Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary, said in a statement.
Dark matter apparently neither absorbs nor emits light, which explains its name. Though astronomers can't observe dark matter directly, they strongly suspect that the stuff exists based on its gravitational effects. For example, there is not nearly enough "normal" matter within galaxies to explain their rapid rotation, astronomers say.
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The search for elusive dark matter may have just gotten a big boost.
Scientists have calculated the predicted mass of the axion, a hypothetical particle that some astronomers think may be the main constituent of dark matter. The new finding should greatly aid the hunt for axions, and could therefore help solve the longstanding dark-matter mystery, study team members said.
"The results we are presenting will probably lead to a race to discover these particles," study co-author Zoltan Fodor, of Eötvös University in Budapest, Hungary, said in a statement.
Dark matter apparently neither absorbs nor emits light, which explains its name. Though astronomers can't observe dark matter directly, they strongly suspect that the stuff exists based on its gravitational effects. For example, there is not nearly enough "normal" matter within galaxies to explain their rapid rotation, astronomers say.
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A new Alzheimer's drug just hit a major milestone in a human clinical trial
This could be the first new treatment in a decade.
A new drug that targets toxic amyloid proteins in the brain - one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease - has produced such promising results in a small clinical trial, it’s now being assessed in two larger trials involving 3,500 patients.
If the drug, which is taken in tablet form, can be proven to slow the devastating mental decline that’s associated with Alzheimer’s, it could be the first treatment to enter the market in more than 10 years.
In the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid proteins accumulate and clump up, sitting between the neurons as dense, toxic clusters called plaques.
Together with neurofibrillary tangles - the other key indicator of the disease - they cause disruptions to the transportation of essential nutrients around the brain, which is thought to bring on the cognitive decline and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
So we now have to sit and wait some more to see if the drug can live up to its promise. But, as Hardy told The Guardian, "Conveying some excitement isn't the wrong thing to do in this case."
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This could be the first new treatment in a decade.
A new drug that targets toxic amyloid proteins in the brain - one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease - has produced such promising results in a small clinical trial, it’s now being assessed in two larger trials involving 3,500 patients.
If the drug, which is taken in tablet form, can be proven to slow the devastating mental decline that’s associated with Alzheimer’s, it could be the first treatment to enter the market in more than 10 years.
In the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid proteins accumulate and clump up, sitting between the neurons as dense, toxic clusters called plaques.
Together with neurofibrillary tangles - the other key indicator of the disease - they cause disruptions to the transportation of essential nutrients around the brain, which is thought to bring on the cognitive decline and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
So we now have to sit and wait some more to see if the drug can live up to its promise. But, as Hardy told The Guardian, "Conveying some excitement isn't the wrong thing to do in this case."
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A Long-Lost Gas Cloud Will Slam into Our Galaxy in 30 Million Years
A massive cloud of gas will crash into the Milky Way in about 30 million years, but there's no real danger to our home galaxy, NASA says.
New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the gas, called Smith's Cloud, was cast from the Milky Way long ago. A new NASA video describes the cloud's discovery in 1963 and what researchers know.
"We don't fully understand the Smith Cloud's origin," Andrew Fox, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute who led the research, said in a statement from NASA. "There are two leading theories. One is that it was blown out of the Milky Way, perhaps by a cluster of supernova explosions. The other is that the Smith Cloud is an extragalactic object that has been captured by the Milky Way." Fox's team examined the cloud using Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, and saw evidence of sulfur, which absorbs ultraviolet light from the cores of three galaxies lying beyond the cloud. The team found that the amount of sulfur in Smith's Cloud is the same as that found in the outer disk of the Milky Way, suggesting that both objects came from the same family.
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A massive cloud of gas will crash into the Milky Way in about 30 million years, but there's no real danger to our home galaxy, NASA says.
New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the gas, called Smith's Cloud, was cast from the Milky Way long ago. A new NASA video describes the cloud's discovery in 1963 and what researchers know.
"We don't fully understand the Smith Cloud's origin," Andrew Fox, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute who led the research, said in a statement from NASA. "There are two leading theories. One is that it was blown out of the Milky Way, perhaps by a cluster of supernova explosions. The other is that the Smith Cloud is an extragalactic object that has been captured by the Milky Way." Fox's team examined the cloud using Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, and saw evidence of sulfur, which absorbs ultraviolet light from the cores of three galaxies lying beyond the cloud. The team found that the amount of sulfur in Smith's Cloud is the same as that found in the outer disk of the Milky Way, suggesting that both objects came from the same family.
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The Canadian military is investigating a mysterious sound from the bottom of the Arctic
A mysterious noise appears to be coming from the bottom of the sea near Nunavut in Canada, and local hunters are anxious, saying it’s been scaring the wildlife away.
Described as a "ping", "hum", or "beep", the sound has been emanating from the Arctic for months, and the locals have gotten so desperate, they’ve asked the military to get involved. An active investigation is now underway.
If the sound does actually exist - and let’s be clear, researchers have not confirmed that at this stage - the big concern is that it’s harming the wildlife.
Because unlike that strange, low-pitched sound researchers detected from the Caribbean Sea back in June, this doesn't appear to be natural.
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A mysterious noise appears to be coming from the bottom of the sea near Nunavut in Canada, and local hunters are anxious, saying it’s been scaring the wildlife away.
Described as a "ping", "hum", or "beep", the sound has been emanating from the Arctic for months, and the locals have gotten so desperate, they’ve asked the military to get involved. An active investigation is now underway.
If the sound does actually exist - and let’s be clear, researchers have not confirmed that at this stage - the big concern is that it’s harming the wildlife.
Because unlike that strange, low-pitched sound researchers detected from the Caribbean Sea back in June, this doesn't appear to be natural.
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Human CO2 emissions put Arctic on track to be ice-free by 2050
For each metric ton of carbon dioxide released, a queen mattress‒sized chunk of sea ice vanishes
The average American’s carbon dioxide emissions are responsible for shrinking Arctic sea ice by nearly 50 square meters each year.
That’s the implication of a new study that finds that each additional metric ton of CO₂ released into the atmosphere directly results in a 3-square-meter loss of sea ice cover at summer’s end — comparable to losing a chunk of ice with a footprint a bit smaller than a two-seat Smart car.
Globally, humans are responsible for the release of some 36 billion metric tons of CO₂ each year. With another trillion metric tons, the Arctic Ocean will have a completely iceless summer — possibly the first in 125,000 years. That threshold could be crossed before 2050, Notz and Julienne Stroeve of University College London estimate online November 3 in Science. Many previous studies projected that summertime ice would stick around for years longer.
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For each metric ton of carbon dioxide released, a queen mattress‒sized chunk of sea ice vanishes
The average American’s carbon dioxide emissions are responsible for shrinking Arctic sea ice by nearly 50 square meters each year.
That’s the implication of a new study that finds that each additional metric ton of CO₂ released into the atmosphere directly results in a 3-square-meter loss of sea ice cover at summer’s end — comparable to losing a chunk of ice with a footprint a bit smaller than a two-seat Smart car.
Globally, humans are responsible for the release of some 36 billion metric tons of CO₂ each year. With another trillion metric tons, the Arctic Ocean will have a completely iceless summer — possibly the first in 125,000 years. That threshold could be crossed before 2050, Notz and Julienne Stroeve of University College London estimate online November 3 in Science. Many previous studies projected that summertime ice would stick around for years longer.
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Scientists find key protein for spinal cord repair
Healing protein bridges severed tissue in fish
A freshwater zebrafish costs less than two bucks at the pet store, but it can do something priceless: Its spinal cord can heal completely after being severed, a paralyzing and often fatal injury for humans. While watching these fish repair their own spinal cord injuries, scientists have found a particular protein important for the process.
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Healing protein bridges severed tissue in fish
A freshwater zebrafish costs less than two bucks at the pet store, but it can do something priceless: Its spinal cord can heal completely after being severed, a paralyzing and often fatal injury for humans. While watching these fish repair their own spinal cord injuries, scientists have found a particular protein important for the process.
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Stephen Hawking warns us to stop reaching out to aliens before it's too late
"I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone."
When the potential of intelligent alien civilisations comes up in conversation, it’s usually about the search. How will we find them? Where are they? Are they there at all? What actions should we take if – or when – we find them, or they find us?
Well, according to physicist Stephen Hawking, we should probably stop trying to contact them at all, because reaching out to advanced civilisations could put humanity and Earth in a pretty risky situation. And the bad news is, we've already been broadcasting our location to the Universe for years.
Hawking’s warning comes in a new online film called Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places, which shows the famed scientist in a CGI spacecraft called the SS Hawking exploring his favourite places in the Universe.
"As I grow older I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone. After a lifetime of wondering, I am helping to lead a new global effort to find out," Hawking says in the film while exploring Gliese 832c, a planet that lies 16 light-years away and might foster alien life.
"The Breakthrough Listen project will scan the nearest million stars for signs of life, but I know just the place to start looking. One day we might receive a signal from a planet like Gliese 832c, but we should be wary of answering back."
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"I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone."
When the potential of intelligent alien civilisations comes up in conversation, it’s usually about the search. How will we find them? Where are they? Are they there at all? What actions should we take if – or when – we find them, or they find us?
Well, according to physicist Stephen Hawking, we should probably stop trying to contact them at all, because reaching out to advanced civilisations could put humanity and Earth in a pretty risky situation. And the bad news is, we've already been broadcasting our location to the Universe for years.
Hawking’s warning comes in a new online film called Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places, which shows the famed scientist in a CGI spacecraft called the SS Hawking exploring his favourite places in the Universe.
"As I grow older I am more convinced than ever that we are not alone. After a lifetime of wondering, I am helping to lead a new global effort to find out," Hawking says in the film while exploring Gliese 832c, a planet that lies 16 light-years away and might foster alien life.
"The Breakthrough Listen project will scan the nearest million stars for signs of life, but I know just the place to start looking. One day we might receive a signal from a planet like Gliese 832c, but we should be wary of answering back."
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Physicist demonstrate existence of 'unlikely' new subatomic structure
Researchers have demonstrated the existence of a tetraneutron, a subatomic structure once thought unlikely to exist.
James Vary, a professor of physics and astronomy, and Andrey Shirokov, a visiting scientist, together with an international team, used sophisticated supercomputer simulations to show the quasi-stable existence of a tetraneutron, a structure comprised of four neutrons (subatomic particles with no charge).
For the tetraneutron, this lifetime is only 5×10^(-22) seconds (a tiny fraction of a billionth of a nanosecond). Though this time seems very short, it is long enough to study, and provides a new avenue for exploring the strong forces between neutrons.
"This opens up a whole new line of research," Vary said. "Studying the tetraneutron will help us understand interneutron forces including previously unexplored features of the unstable two-neutron and three-neutron systems."
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Researchers have demonstrated the existence of a tetraneutron, a subatomic structure once thought unlikely to exist.
James Vary, a professor of physics and astronomy, and Andrey Shirokov, a visiting scientist, together with an international team, used sophisticated supercomputer simulations to show the quasi-stable existence of a tetraneutron, a structure comprised of four neutrons (subatomic particles with no charge).
For the tetraneutron, this lifetime is only 5×10^(-22) seconds (a tiny fraction of a billionth of a nanosecond). Though this time seems very short, it is long enough to study, and provides a new avenue for exploring the strong forces between neutrons.
"This opens up a whole new line of research," Vary said. "Studying the tetraneutron will help us understand interneutron forces including previously unexplored features of the unstable two-neutron and three-neutron systems."
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Detour via gravitational lens makes distant galaxy visible
Never before have astrophysicists measured light of such high energy from a celestial object so far away. Around 7 billion years ago, a huge explosion occurred at the black hole in the center of a galaxy. This was followed by a burst of high-intensity gamma rays. A number of telescopes have succeeded in capturing this light. An added bonus: it was thus possible to reconfirm Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, as the light rays encountered a less distant galaxy en route to Earth -- and were deflected by this so-called gravitational lens.
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Never before have astrophysicists measured light of such high energy from a celestial object so far away. Around 7 billion years ago, a huge explosion occurred at the black hole in the center of a galaxy. This was followed by a burst of high-intensity gamma rays. A number of telescopes have succeeded in capturing this light. An added bonus: it was thus possible to reconfirm Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, as the light rays encountered a less distant galaxy en route to Earth -- and were deflected by this so-called gravitational lens.
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How to read a book without opening it
Radiation technique can aid studies of ancient texts
Scientists have devised a way to read without cracking a volume’s spine or risking paper cuts (and no, we’re not talking about e-books). The new method uses terahertz radiation — light with wavelengths that are between microwave and infrared waves — to view the text of a closed book. The technique is not meant for your average bookworm, but for reading rare books that are too fragile to open.
Barmak Heshmat of MIT and colleagues started small, with a nine-page book of thick paper that had one letter inked on each page. By hitting the book with terahertz radiation and looking at the reflected waves, the scientists could read the letters within.
Differences in the way the radiation interacts with ink and paper allowed the researchers to pick out shadowy outlines of the letters, and a letter-recognition algorithm automatically decoded the characters. The scientists could tell one page from another by using precise timing information: On the later pages, the waves penetrated deeper before reflecting and, therefore, took longer to return.
Historians also may be able to use the technique to find an artist’s signature hidden beneath layers of a painting. Sneaking into your sister’s locked diary is another story.
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Radiation technique can aid studies of ancient texts
Scientists have devised a way to read without cracking a volume’s spine or risking paper cuts (and no, we’re not talking about e-books). The new method uses terahertz radiation — light with wavelengths that are between microwave and infrared waves — to view the text of a closed book. The technique is not meant for your average bookworm, but for reading rare books that are too fragile to open.
Barmak Heshmat of MIT and colleagues started small, with a nine-page book of thick paper that had one letter inked on each page. By hitting the book with terahertz radiation and looking at the reflected waves, the scientists could read the letters within.
Differences in the way the radiation interacts with ink and paper allowed the researchers to pick out shadowy outlines of the letters, and a letter-recognition algorithm automatically decoded the characters. The scientists could tell one page from another by using precise timing information: On the later pages, the waves penetrated deeper before reflecting and, therefore, took longer to return.
Historians also may be able to use the technique to find an artist’s signature hidden beneath layers of a painting. Sneaking into your sister’s locked diary is another story.
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Leaked NASA paper shows the 'impossible' EM Drive really does work
Did we just achieve fuel-less propulsion?
The results of NASA's tests on the 'impossible' EM Drive have been leaked, and they reveal that the controversial propulsion system really does work, and is capable of generating impressive thrust in a vacuum, even after error measurements have been accounted for.
The EM Drive has made headlines over the past year, because it offers the incredible possibility of a fuel-free propulsion system that could potentially get us to Mars in just 70 days. But there's one major problem: according to the current laws of physics, it shouldn't work.
The issue is the fact that the EM Drive defies Newton's third law, which states that everything must have an equal and opposite reaction. So, according to Newton and our current understanding of the world around us, for a system to produce propulsion, it has to push something out the other way (in space, that's usually combusted rocket fuel).
But the EM Drive works without any fuel or propellants at all. It works by simply bouncing microwave photons back and forth inside a cone-shaped closed metal cavity. That motion causes the 'pointy end' of the EM Drive to generate thrust, and propel the drive in the opposite direction.
Despite years of testing and debate, the drive remains controversial. The bottom line is that, on paper, it shouldn't work, according to the laws of physics. And yet, in test after test, the EM Drive just keeps on working.
Last year, NASA's Eagleworks Laboratory got involved to try to independently verify or debunk the EM Drive once and for all. And a new paper on its tests in late 2015 has just been leaked, showing that not only does the EM Drive work - it also generates some pretty impressive thrust.
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Did we just achieve fuel-less propulsion?
The results of NASA's tests on the 'impossible' EM Drive have been leaked, and they reveal that the controversial propulsion system really does work, and is capable of generating impressive thrust in a vacuum, even after error measurements have been accounted for.
The EM Drive has made headlines over the past year, because it offers the incredible possibility of a fuel-free propulsion system that could potentially get us to Mars in just 70 days. But there's one major problem: according to the current laws of physics, it shouldn't work.
The issue is the fact that the EM Drive defies Newton's third law, which states that everything must have an equal and opposite reaction. So, according to Newton and our current understanding of the world around us, for a system to produce propulsion, it has to push something out the other way (in space, that's usually combusted rocket fuel).
But the EM Drive works without any fuel or propellants at all. It works by simply bouncing microwave photons back and forth inside a cone-shaped closed metal cavity. That motion causes the 'pointy end' of the EM Drive to generate thrust, and propel the drive in the opposite direction.
Despite years of testing and debate, the drive remains controversial. The bottom line is that, on paper, it shouldn't work, according to the laws of physics. And yet, in test after test, the EM Drive just keeps on working.
Last year, NASA's Eagleworks Laboratory got involved to try to independently verify or debunk the EM Drive once and for all. And a new paper on its tests in late 2015 has just been leaked, showing that not only does the EM Drive work - it also generates some pretty impressive thrust.
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Harvard scientists think they've pinpointed the physical source of consciousness
Scientists have struggled for millennia to understand human consciousness - the awareness of one's existence. Despite advances in neuroscience, we still don't really know where it comes from, and how it arises.
But researchers think they might have finally figured out its physical origins, after pinpointing a network of three specific regions in the brain that appear to be crucial to consciousness.
It's a pretty huge deal for our understanding of what it means to be human, and it could also help researchers find new treatments for patients in vegetative states.
"For the first time, we have found a connection between the brainstem region involved in arousal and regions involved in awareness, two prerequisites for consciousness," said lead researcher Michael Fox from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre at Harvard Medical School.
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Scientists have struggled for millennia to understand human consciousness - the awareness of one's existence. Despite advances in neuroscience, we still don't really know where it comes from, and how it arises.
But researchers think they might have finally figured out its physical origins, after pinpointing a network of three specific regions in the brain that appear to be crucial to consciousness.
It's a pretty huge deal for our understanding of what it means to be human, and it could also help researchers find new treatments for patients in vegetative states.
"For the first time, we have found a connection between the brainstem region involved in arousal and regions involved in awareness, two prerequisites for consciousness," said lead researcher Michael Fox from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre at Harvard Medical School.
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Early study finds antibody that 'neutralizes' Zika virus
Researchers have isolated a human monoclonal antibody that in a mouse model "markedly reduced" infection by the Zika virus, report scientists. Zika is believed to cause microcephaly, unusually small heads, and other congenital malformations in children born to infected women.
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Researchers have isolated a human monoclonal antibody that in a mouse model "markedly reduced" infection by the Zika virus, report scientists. Zika is believed to cause microcephaly, unusually small heads, and other congenital malformations in children born to infected women.
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