Science
A review of the degrowth literature (561 studies) find that 'few studies use quantitative or qualitative data...' and those that do 'tend to include small samples or focus on non-representative cases'. Finally, 'large majority (almost 90%) are opinions rather than analysis'.
A good read. It’s an accurate treatment of what the second law of thermodynamics means and how it relates to how life itself functions and what that means for humans. Entropy is not really disorder
Finally, some good fucking news.
www.space.com
Jesus, the comments here are abysmal from what I can tell. I'm no doomer, but we need to do something about this, even on the grassroots level.
www.sciencealert.com
Like a nightmarish, post-apocalyptic plot, rising temperatures are causing fungi to mutate in ways that not only make them hyper-infectious but drug-resistant, too. This is deeply concerning as our world warms, Nanjing Medical University researcher Jingjing Huang and colleagues warn. “The danger and importance of new fungal pathogens is believed to be seriously underestimated,” they write in their new paper. “Temperature-dependent mutagenesis can enable the development of pan-drug resistance and hypervirulence in fungi, and support the idea that global warming can promote the evolution of new fungal pathogens.”
news.mit.edu
the scientist who discovered this is MIT's Gang Chen who was one of the main victims of the FBI's "China initiative", the McCarthy-like initiative where they went after scientists of Chinese descent.
hongkongfp.com
Chang'E-6 samples will answer 6 important questions 1. The age of SPA. The CE-6 mission is expected to collect the impact melt formed during the formation of SPA to accurately obtain its age. 2. The age of the Apollo crater. There is a high probability that the CE-6 samples contain impact melt from the Apollo crater. The radiometric ages of SPA basin and Apollo crater can greatly promote the study of the early lunar impact flux. 3. The major mineral composition of the lunar mantle. The formation process of SPA basin exposes lunar mantle material, but due to the lack of observation of large-scale olivine, some studies speculate that the main component of the lunar mantle is low-calcium pyroxene rather than olivine like the earth. Geochemical analysis of the samples will help to uncover this mystery. 4. The lunar impact flux function. With the radiometric ages of the samples and the crater size-frequency distribution of the areas represented by the samples, the lunar impact flux function can be further optimized. This is the only sample from the far side of the Moon, and it is of great significance for studying the distribution of lunar impact fluxes. 5. The volcanic eruption inside SPA basin. Current research shows that the thickness of the lunar crust inside SPA is small, but there is no large-scale basalt exposure inside. Geochemical research on CE-6 samples, especially the comparison with the chemical composition of basalt on the nearside of the Moon, will help solve this problem. 6. The asymmetry of the Moon. By combining the above analyses, the long-standing issue of the asymmetry between the near and far sides of the Moon on the crust thickness, volcanic activity, internal structure is expected to be resolved, which has perplexed geologists for decades. https://www.cell.com/the-innovation/pdf/S2666-6758(24)00101-2.pdf
Part 1: [Growing Living Rat Neurons To Play... DOOM?](https://invidious.incogniweb.net/watch?v=bEXefdbQDjw)
So I was just doing a bit of research about some science advancements in graphene processors, as I heard about it in a segment about China's recent research breakthroughs. I did some googling and found... let's say a slightly biased perspective (Just kidding, it's straight up propaganda) So this is the research paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2308.12446.pdf Notice how there are 12 researchers from Tianjin University in China, also notice how there are 3 researchers from Georgia Tech, this includes one american author who co-founded this research center with person in china. So this is a joint effort. He's actually listed as also being a part of Tianjin University, so I guess 13 to 3 people in each respective university (one person double counted). If you google for "graphene seg semiconductors" you get: - Georgia techs website first, okay. - A couple links to the article on arxiv and nature, cool, And then, a bunch of news articles: - https://www.power-and-beyond.com/scientists-develop-the-newest-semiconductor-of-2024-a-85c344436bde92e7350122cb5c012b7a/ - doesn't mention china at all, never Tianjin, only Georgia institute - https://spectrum.ieee.org/graphene-semiconductor - doesn't mention china at all - https://www.networkworld.com/article/1288967/georgia-tech-researchers-achieve-key-breakthrough-in-graphene-semiconductors.html opens with Georgia tech did such and such, mentions china half way though in passing. - https://eepower.com/market-insights/researchers-create-worlds-first-graphene-semiconductor/# - opens with georgia tech, no mention of china - https://www.newscientist.com/article/2410612-first-working-graphene-semiconductor-could-lead-to-faster-computers/ - you guessed it, all georgia tech, no mention of china at all Well damn, with 13 out of the 15 researchers having affiliation with the lab in China, you would think that someone would emphasize that this research was done... In China? Not just "helped" by China, not just "assisted by", but like, most of the research was done there. On paper this was a partnership, but most sites won't even go that far. Georgia Tech did this/that/was awesome/yay america, oh and some place in China was involved too, only sometimes mentioned. My god, it's as if Usonians just can't swallow the fact that China has scientists... and researchers... and like, smart people. As a Usonian who is breaking out of my media bubble, it's crazy to me to see how fucking biased our "neutral" sources of information are. Wikipedia hasn't been updated with this info yet, but I bet it will mark down all the awesome work Georgia tech did while only mentioning in passing that some place in China was also involved. I'm not even gonna bother posting this to a lib space like reddit. The copium would be too much for me to handle. The only thing I can think about is if the tables were turned, no lib would have a problem calling out "CCP propaganda" after the first sentence of the article claimed "Tianjin University in China does breakthrough research on graphene processors!"
www.rt.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/3431483 > Despite the mammal’s death with her unborn calf, the team believes that IVF methods can save endangered African northern white rhinos > >  > FILE PHOTO. © TONY KARUMBA / AFP > > Scientists with the BioRescue research consortium in Kenya have recorded the world’s first pregnancy in a rhino following a successful embryo transfer, potentially paving the way to save Africa’s northern white subspecies from extinction. > > The embryo of a southern white rhino, created in vitro from egg cells and sperm, was transferred into a surrogate mother at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy last year, the team said in a statement on Wednesday. > > ”The BioRescue team confirmed a pregnancy of 70 days with a well-developed 6.4 cm long male embryo,” it announced. However, the mother rhino named Curra and her fetus have died from a bacterial infection. > > ”It is bitter that this milestone is confirmed under such tragic circumstances with the death of the surrogate Curra and her unborn calf, but I am certain that this proof of concept is a turn of the tide for the survival of the northern white rhino and the health of Central-African ecosystems,” BioRescue project chief Thomas Hildebrandt said. > > Fatu and her mother, Najin, are the world’s two remaining northern white rhinos, living on Kenya’s 90,000-acre Ol Pejeta wildlife conservancy, under protection from poaching. > > The northern white rhino was pronounced functionally extinct after the last male, Sudan, died in 2018. > > Last year, BioRescue announced that five new embryos had been created to rescue the endangered African mammal under the project, funded mainly by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. > > The consortium said 18 eggs had been collected from Fatu and fertilized with sperm from two different bulls to improve genetic diversity. The zygotes were then cryopreserved – a process that keeps them at low temperatures for later transfer to surrogate-identified wild southern white rhino females – as neither Fatu nor Najin are able to carry a pregnancy to full term. > > According to the scientists, the next step in the project will be to select and prepare a new teaser bull, which will reveal when potential surrogate mothers can be implanted with embryos.
A simple blood test could detect biological markers of the disease 15 years before symptoms develop, researchers say  File photo of a medical professional observing a brain scan © Getty Images / Brian B. Bettencourt/Toronto Star via Getty Images Scientists have hailed a potentially ‘revolutionary’ breakthrough in the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, after a team of Swedish researchers found that a commercially available blood test can detect biological markers of the disease about ten to 15 years before symptoms develop. In a study of 768 people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies over an eight-year period conducted by the University of Gothenburg, it was found that the test – which detects the presence of tau proteins in blood – was 97% accurate in assessing if a subject was liable to develop the disease. The results of the study, published in the JAMA Neurology journal on Monday, have been hailed as a breakthrough in early screening tests for the disease well in advance of the onset of symptoms. Alzheimer’s, which causes the brain to shrink and its cells to eventually die, is the most common form of dementia, and is characterized by a decline in cognitive function, as well as behavior and social skills. The research “adds to a growing body of evidence that this particular test has huge potential to revolutionize diagnosis for people with suspected Alzheimer’s,” Sheona Scales, the director of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said, according to The Times on Monday. She added that the testing is “superior to a range of other tests currently under development,” and preferable to more invasive methods currently used by medical practitioners, such as lumbar punctures. David Curtis of the UCL Genetics Institute said that the findings of the Swedish team of scientists “could potentially have huge implications.” “Everybody over 50 could be routinely screened every few years, in much the same way as they are now screened for high cholesterol,” he added. “It is possible that currently available treatments for Alzheimer’s disease would work better in those diagnosed early this way.” The developer of the blood test, Californian company ALZpath, has said that it hopes to make the test widely available for clinical use in the first quarter of this year. About 1 in 9 people (10.7%) aged 65 or over has the disease, according to data from the Alzheimer’s Association. This is expected to rise substantially in the next 25 years, the group says on its website, “barring the development of medical breakthroughs to prevent or cure Alzheimer’s disease.”
Western models predicted twice the actual warming in the troposphere. Western models also predicted that the Pacific Ocean would heat up uniformly, but the Eastern Pacific is cooling.  A large portion of the Pacific Ocean (Pacific Ocean is1/3rd of the Earth's surface area) is cooling, as well as the Southern Ocean and parts of Antarctica. https://thebulletin.org/2022/12/whats-wrong-with-these-climate-models/ 
