Linkoping [Sweden], January 17 (ANI): Inspired by the growth of bones in the skeleton, researchers at the universities of Linkoping in Sweden and Okayama in Japan have developed a combination of materials that can morph into various shapes before hardening.

The material is initially soft but later hardens through a bone development process that uses the same materials found in the skeleton.

Also Read | Vaccine Mandate: From Austria to Germany And More, Countries That Have Made COVID-19 Vaccines Mandatory.

When we are born, we have gaps in our skulls that are covered by pieces of soft connective tissue called fontanelles. It is thanks to fontanelles that our skulls can be deformed during birth and pass successfully through the birth canal. Post-birth, the fontanelle tissue gradually changes to hard bone. Now, researchers have combined materials that together resemble this natural process.

“We want to use this for applications where materials need to have different properties at different points in time. Firstly, the material is soft and flexible, and it is then locked into place when it hardens. This material could be used in, for example, complicated bone fractures. It could also be used in microrobots – these soft microrobots could be injected into the body through a thin syringe, and then they would unfold and develop their own rigid bones”, says Edwin Jager, associate professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at Linkoping University.

Also Read | Australian Open 2022 Day 1 Highlights: Look Back At Some Major Action From Tennis Tournament in Melbourne.

The idea was hatched during a research visit in Japan when materials scientist Edwin Jager met Hiroshi Kamioka and Emilio Hara, who conduct research into bones. The Japanese researchers had discovered a kind of biomolecule that could stimulate bone growth under a short period of time. Would it be possible to combine this biomolecule with Jager’s materials research, to develop new materials with variable stiffness?

In the study that followed, published in Advanced Materials, the researchers constructed a kind of simple “microrobot”, one which can assume different shapes and change stiffness. The researchers began with a gel material called alginate. On one side of the gel, a polymer material is grown. This material is electroactive, and it changes its volume when a low voltage is applied, causing the microrobot to bend in a specified direction.

On the other side of the gel, the researchers attached biomolecules that allow the soft gel material to harden. These biomolecules are extracted from the cell membrane of a kind of cell that is important for bone development. When the material is immersed in a cell culture medium – an environment that resembles the body and contains calcium and phosphor – the biomolecules make the gel mineralise and harden like bone.

One potential application of interest to the researchers is bone healing. The idea is that the soft material, powered by the electroactive polymer, will be able to maneuver itself into spaces in complicated bone fractures and expand. When the material has then hardened, it can form the foundation for the construction of new bone. In their study, the researchers demonstrate that the material can wrap itself around chicken bones, and the artificial bone that subsequently develops grows together with the chicken bone.

By making patterns in the gel, the researchers can determine how the simple microrobot will bend when voltage is applied. Perpendicular lines on the surface of the material make the robot bend in a semicircle, while diagonal lines make it bend like a corkscrew.

“By controlling how the material turns, we can make the microrobot move in different ways, and also affect how the material unfurls in broken bones. We can embed these movements into the material’s structure, making complex programmes for steering these robots unnecessary”, says Edwin Jager.

In order to learn more about the biocompatibility of this combination of materials, the researchers are now looking further into how its properties work together with living cells. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

View Original Source

by: FRANK BAJAK, Associated Press

Posted: Jan 16, 2022 / 10:21 AM CST / Updated: Jan 16, 2022 / 10:21 AM CST

BOSTON (AP) — DirecTV plans to drop One America News Network, significantly shrinking the reach of the right-wing TV channel friendly to Donald Trump and widely criticized for spreading misinformation including the former president’s false claim that he won the 2020 election.

The satellite television provider said Saturday that it has informed OAN’s owner, Herring Networks. Inc., that it will no longer carry its two channels when their contract expires. The other, AWA, is a lifestyle channel. The decision is believed to remove OAN from millions of homes.

“We informed Herring Networks that, following a routine internal review, we do not plan to enter into a new contract when our current agreement expires,” a DirecTV spokesman said in an emailed statement.

The spokesman would not say when the contract expires, but Bloomberg News, which first reported development on Friday, said it expires in early April.

San Diego-based Herring Networks did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Bloomberg said DirecTV is OAN’s largest distributor.On its website, Herring says OAN is carried by Verizon FiOS and several smaller TV providers. It can also be streamed online. Major cable companies including Comcast and Charter do not carry OAN.

AT&T has a 70% stake in DirecTV, which has carried OAN since April 2017 after AT&T settled a lawsuit demanding it carry the channels. Herring Networks had claimed AT&T reneged on an agreement to carry OAN on DirecTV, which it acquired in 2015.

OAN became a darling of Trump during his presidency and has continued to report his claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him – a claim directly contradicted by the facts and exhaustive reporting. It has carried Trump live in post-presidency appearances, its reporters declining to challenge his contrafactual claims.

Trump came to OAN’s defense at a rally Saturday night in Arizona, praising the network — “I love One America News,” he said — and threatening to call for a boycott of DirecTV’s parent company, AT&T.

“This is horrible,” Trump said. “This is a great network. These are great people. I watch it all the time and you really get the truth. And they want to cancel them now because of politics — for purely political reasons. It’s a disgrace what’s going on.”

He added, “But I don’t think that people are gonna stand for it” and, noting the company’s founders were in the crowd, said, “Maybe what we should do is not use AT&T.”

Dominion Voting Systemssued OAN and other right-wing broadcasters in August, claiming they damaged the election technology company’s business by trumpeting lies spread by Trump adherents that it was complicit in an election-rigging conspiracy.

DirecTV does not provide a breakdown of its subscribers, but AT&T reported that as of the second quarter of 2021 it had a total of 15.4 million paid premium TV subscribers including DirecTV, AT&T U-verse wireline video and the online service AT&T TV.

The paid TV market has been steadily shrinkingas more people abandon it for streaming services.

___

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report.

Close Modal

Suggest a Correction

Suggest a Correction

View Original Source

Washington [US], January 15 (ANI): Severe depression and sexual dysfunction, in particular, can affect a woman’s orientation, registration, attention, recall, and language and visuospatial skills, suggests a new study.

Study results are published in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

Also Read | Virat Kohli Test Captaincy Record: A Look at Kohli’s Numbers As Skipper in Longer Format.

Menopause is often accompanied by an array of symptoms that can detract from a woman’s quality of life. A new study suggests that the severity of some of those symptoms–especially depression and sexual dysfunction–were linked to a woman’s cognitive performance.

Although menopause is a natural phenomenon, not all women across ethnic groups experience it the same way. The frequency and severity of symptoms can vary greatly between one woman and the next.

Also Read | Jharkhand Shocker: Man Strangles Pregnant Wife to Death For Refusing to Give Money to Buy Liquor.

Previous studies have evaluated the effect of these symptoms on a woman’s physical and mental well-being. This new study involving more than 400 women is different because it evaluated the effect of the severity of menopause symptoms on overall cognitive performance and its five domains, including orientation, registration, attention, recall, and language and visuospatial skills.

Among other things, researchers in this new study considered the severity of such common menopause symptoms as sexual dysfunction, vasomotor symptoms (hot flashes), depression, and anxiety.

They concluded that the cognitive performance of women is sensitive to the severity of certain menopause symptoms, especially depression and sexual dysfunction. In this particular study, no association was identified between the severity of vasomotor symptoms and cognitive performance, although other studies have suggested that such an association exists.

Study results are published in the article “Is the cognitive performance of women sensitive to the severity of menopausal symptoms?”

“This study highlights the effect of menopause symptoms on cognitive functioning and demonstrates a link between severe depressive and sexual symptoms, specifically, with cognitive performance. Mood disturbances are common in the menopause transition and can affect memory and sexual functioning,” says Dr Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.

These findings underscore the importance of evaluating women for menopause symptoms and providing appropriate treatment, when indicated, including treatment of depression and sexual dysfunction,” Dr Stephanie Faubion concluded. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

View Original Source

As omicron cases continue to sweep the United States, the Food and Drug Administration is being urged to gather more information about how well at-home Covid-19 tests are able to detect the variant.

Evidence suggests the omicron variant of the virus may appear in the throat before it shows up in the nose. For this reason, there’s been pressure on the FDA to recommend swabbing the throat with the nasal swabs. But medical experts argue that anecdotes from people who test negative with a nasal swab at home but then test positive with a throat swab can be misleading. FDA officials say there isn’t enough data to support the practice. 

“We do know the tests are picking up on omicron, but with less sensitivity,” acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said during a Senate Health Committee hearing Tuesday. “What we need to do is to see whether the throat swab could provide more sensitivity.”

The FDA is researching how at-home tests perform as a throat test. If the findings support it, an authorization could come quickly, Woodcock said. However, redesigning the at-home tests to accommodate larger swabs would take more time.

None of the at-home rapid antigen tests available over the counter in the U.S. are designed for throat swabs. There’s also a reason medical professionals are the ones who perform throat swabs for other infections, such as strep throat. Swabbing the back of your own throat is not easy to do. 

“People should not use swabs that are designed as nasal swabs and try to swab their throat,” Woodcock said during the Senate hearing. “They may stab themselves.” 

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service recommends swabbing both the nose and the throat when using a rapid antigen, or later flow, Covid test, the kind used at home. But the agency does not recommend only taking a sample from the throat. The Israeli Health Ministry early this week also advised people to swab both their nose and their throat when using rapid at-home tests.

“The virus grows in your nose and throat and somewhat at different time scales,” Michael Mina, chief science officer for the biotech software company eMed, who was an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said at a testing technology news briefing this week. “My recommendation would be all of the FDA guidance on this, but also we have to follow the science.”

Meanwhile, the FDA currently advises against taking samples from the throat when using an at-home rapid test.

“The agency recommends that individuals closely follow the tests’ instructions,” FDA spokesperson Jim McKinney told NBC News in an email. “We have always known antigen tests have lower sensitivity than molecular tests. If people believe they have Covid-19, they should get a follow-up PCR test to confirm their negative results. If a person tests positive with an antigen test, they should self-isolate and seek follow-up care with a healthcare provider to determine the next steps.”

It can be hard to actually get a good sample from the throat if you aren’t a medical professional.

Dr. Jonathan Li, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Dr. Jonathan Li, an infectious disease physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, cautions against altering the testing strategy that has been validated and authorized by the FDA. But he also noted that while he has not seen data to support taking a rapid test sample from the throat, “theoretically, it’s something that could be helpful.” 

“What we’ve learned is that every variant seems to have its own characteristics, and it’s important that we not be locked into thinking we know everything based on what we’ve learned from the last variant,” he said. “We don’t want to always be fighting the last war. If there is something unusual about omicron, it’s important to pursue it and figure out if there is something we should be doing differently with this variant.”

Before advocating the altered approach, Li said, he would need to see data that showed it was effective. User error will likely be higher with self-administered throat swabs compared with nasal swabs, he said.

“There’s no intrinsic reason that if you swabbed the back of your throat and that’s where a lot of the virus is, and you had a really good sample, that a throat swab wouldn’t work with a rapid test,” he said. “But typically, people gag and it can be hard to actually get a good sample from the throat if you aren’t a medical professional.”

Another possible risk from at-home throat swabbing — residue from eating and drinking could cause a false positive, said Melissa Miller, chair of the American Society for Microbiology’s clinical and public health microbiology committee. 

“The nose and the throat have different pH levels and we have seen people take Coke or coffee and put it in an antigen test and had a line to appear,” she said. “We don’t know exactly why this happens, but the hypothesis is acidity.” 

“I’m not saying it won’t turn out that you can use throat swabs, we just don’t know the impact that it has yet on the test results,” she said. 

When should you take an at-home Covid test?

Miller notes that a small preprint paper out of South Africa, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggested that more detectable virus may reside in the throat than in the nose when a person is infected with omicron compared to the delta variant, though the study compared PCR to antigen, or rapid, tests, which are not the same type of tests. 

“It still tells you that the virus is likely there before in the nose, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that ends up being true. But how that translates to the at-home tests, we have to be careful about,” she said.

Miller said that although she would not be surprised if omicron indeed does show up in the throat before it does in the nose, that concrete data has yet to be shown. 

“I have been critical of some of the FDA’s moves in the past but I would advise caution to not use these tests off-label before we have evidence,” she said. 

According to Matt Binnicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic, the fact that positivity rates are soaring in the U.S. is a testament to how well Covid tests are still working.

“If there was something about omicron that made it present in the throat but not in the nasal passages, we wouldn’t see positivity rates climbing like they have in the past three weeks,” he said. “Before we start getting on Twitter and saying, ‘Hey, my friend collected a throat swab, so everyone should do that,’ we should collect the data.”

According to Miller, it’s best to take a rapid test on day one, day two and day three of symptoms if you are testing negative but your symptoms persist. You should also isolate. 

“If you have symptoms, you have Covid until proven otherwise,” she said. 

Binnicker recommends testing three to four days after being exposed to Covid, even if you do not have symptoms. 

View Original Source

A new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science revealed that the locations and timing of tiger shark movement in the western North Atlantic Ocean have changed from rising ocean temperatures. These climate-driven changes have subsequently shifted tiger shark movements outside of protected areas, leaving the sharks more vulnerable to commercial fishing.

The movements of tiger sharks, (Galeocerdo cuvier) the largest cold-blooded apex predator in tropical and warm-temperate seas, are constrained by the need to stay in warm waters. While waters off the U.S. northeast coastline have historically been too cold for tiger sharks, temperatures have warmed significantly in recent years making them suitable for the tiger shark.

“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” said Neil Hammerschlag, director of the UM Shark Research and Conservation Program and lead author of the study. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”

Hammerschlag and the research team discovered these climate-driven changes by analyzing nine years of tracking data from satellite tagged tiger sharks, combined with nearly forty years of conventional tag and recapture information supplied by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program and satellite derived sea-surface temperature data.

The study found that during the last decade, when ocean temperatures were the warmest on record, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures above average, tiger shark migrations extended farther poleward by roughly 250 miles (over 400 kilometers) and sharks also migrated about 14 days earlier to waters off the U.S. northeastern coast.

The results may have greater ecosystem implications. “Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans.” said Hammerschlag.

The study, titled “Ocean warming alters the distributional range, migratory timing, and spatial protections of an apex predator, the tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier)” was published January 13, 2022 in the journal Global Change Biology.

The study’s authors include: Neil Hammerschlag, Laura McDonnell, Mitchell Rider, Ben Kirtman from the UM Rosenstiel School; Garrett Street and Melanie Boudreau from Mississippi State University; Elliott Hazen, Lisa Natanson, Camilla McCandless from NOAA Fisheries; Austin J. Gallagher from Beneath the Waves; and Malin Pinsky from Rutgers University.

The Batchelor Foundation, Disney Conservation Fund, Wells Fargo, Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, the Herbert W. Hoover Foundation, the International Seakeepers Society, Oceana, Hoff Productions for National Geographic, and the West Coast Inland Navigation District provided support for the study.

Video: https://youtu.be/vyLbf7KSXAk

View Original Source

I recently unboxed the Galaxy S21 FE, Samsung’s first phone for this year. The idea was to understand what the FE series had to offer this time. Samsung had already checked all the boxes on the desirable specs list. So the unknowns were its real-life performance and the price that Samsung sets for it.

Samsung soon announced a Rs 49,999 price for the base variant of the Galaxy S21 FE. An instant comparison with its inspiration – the Galaxy S21 – tells you that it’s a good Rs 15,000 saving. So what does it lose on? Or maybe, just maybe, it manages to negate this price gap between the two phones?

That is a mystery you can solve only once you experience the Galaxy S21 FE. Having done that for the past week, here are my thoughts on it.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE: Out of the box

Galaxy S21 FE is a slim phone packed in a compact box. The entire box measures as high as a gaming phone (ROG Phone 5 Ultimate). One look at it and you know that you are about to unbox a very slim and compact phone.

Out comes the Galaxy S21 FE, with its absolutely flat front and back. Just the kind of phone that you can keep on any surface, knowing it won’t slip off or wobble. Though when held in hand, it makes sure that a flat edge doesn’t bother you. For this, Samsung has slightly rounded all the edges of the S21 FE.

So the phone is quite comfortable to hold. The flat back panel rests easily on your palm, there is easy grip on all edges, and the weight is negligible at 177 grams. It is a phone you would like to carry and use every day.

The design is reminiscent of the Galaxy S21 right away. It is the same set of camera lenses at the back in a ditto module design. What’s different is the finish, this time more subtle and even, unlike the bold highlights on the S21. The S21 FE is also bigger than the S21 and you can feel the difference when in use.

At the front, there is a 6.4-inch AMOLED display, housing a punch-hole selfie camera at the centre. This display is bordered all over by a very slim bezel. Volume rockers and power buttons are on the right edge and a USB Type-C port, a SIM tray and a speaker grille don the chin.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE: Initial performance

The phone fires up to run Android 12 backed One UI 4.0. I find the OS to be neat and precise. It has everything in the right place, is easy to find your way around, and has a ton of features. But like always, it is full of pre-loaded Samsung apps.

In use, the Galaxy S21 FE is super quick. It breaks the flow of a transition from one screen to another, as we see with many phones. Opening the app menu, for instance, feels like you have simply flipped it open, instead of it rising all the way from the bottom.

Another reason it feels fast is the ergonomic design. You can easily shuffle the phone in your hand to reach the far corners if you don’t wish to use the one-handed window. The touch response is also fantastic on the S21 FE.

In my limited use to date, I have found the Galaxy S21 FE to be capable of a variety of tasks. It is great for social media, everyday messaging and calling, and it helps keep all such tasks and apps distinct with big bold elements. You are sure to have a great time doing your everyday tasks on it with ease.

Samsung Galaxy S21 FE: Gaming and media

Gaming is also smooth, with its Exynos 2100 processor and a 120hz refresh rate display. I could run multiple games and apps in the background and expect them to play smoothly as soon as I reopen them.

The display is crisp, bright and vibrant with colours, and makes media consumption on the phone an absolute treat. An even better feature for this task, though, is the stereo speakers on the phone which are loud, clear and utterly delightful.

With all this, I have seen the S21 FE last through a day’s use, thanks to its 4500mAh battery. However, I have not yet experienced the phone’s camera for all its features. I will be sharing my thoughts in the same in my review for the Galaxy S21 FE soon. So make sure you stay tuned to India Today Tech for more.

View Original Source

Researchers have analyzed an extensive collection of sand samples from so-called megaripple fields around the world and gained new insights into the composition of these sand waves. These could help settle debates about the mechanistic origin of some recently discovered enigmatic extraterrestrial sand structures and improve our ability to infer information about past weather and climate events from sediment records.

Megaripples are sand waves with wavelengths in the metre range, between ordinary beach ripples (centimetres) and dunes (ten to 100 metres). They are commonly found on earth and Mars. Their sand consists of a unique mixture of coarse and fine grains. “This mixture always looks similar, but is never identical because of the turbulent winds,” explained Professor Klaus-Dieter Kroy of the Institute of Theoretical Physics at Leipzig University, one of the study’s leaders.

Among this diversity, the interdisciplinary team of geomorphologists and physicists from three universities in Germany, Israel and China has now discovered an unexpectedly uniform characteristic of the underlying sand transport process, one that had previously eluded decades of field studies. In their analysis of sand sample data from around the world, the researchers compared the frequencies of all sizes of shifting grains and divided the diameter of the coarsest grains and of the rarest fine grains for each sample. A surprisingly consistent number emerged, as Kroy pointed out. That number can now be used to decide more reliably which category newly discovered sand ripples belong to — as predicted by the team’s theoretical calculations — and by which physical transport process they were formed.

The international team also hopes that its discovery could help in the future to better explain the formation of some mysterious new sand waves recently observed on Mars. Katharina Tholen, a doctoral researcher at Leipzig University and lead author of the study, said: “If we were able to use prevailing atmospheric conditions to explain the origin and migration of terrestrial and extraterrestrial sand waves, this would be an important step. It might then be possible to evaluate the sand structures we are currently observing, for example on Mars or in fossils and remote locations on earth, as complex archives of past climatic conditions.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Universität Leipzig. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

View Original Source

Astronomers have discovered a new type of nebulae around binary stars called galactic emission nebulae.

The research, published in Astrophysics and Astronomy, shows that binary star YY Hya has a strong UV excess. This suggests the existence of a hot and compact binary companion.

Also read | Astronomers resolve mystery of ‘cube’ spotted on Moon’s dark side

”Toward the end of their lives, normal stars inflate into red giant stars. Since a very large fraction of stars is in binary pairs, this affects the evolution at the end of their lives,” said the study’s lead author Stefan Kimeswenger from the Department of Astro and Particle Physics at Innsbruck University, Austria.

”In close binary systems, the inflating outer part of a star merges as a common envelope around both stars. However, inside this gas envelope, the cores of the two stars are practically undisturbed and follow their evolution like independent single stars,” he added.

The space between stars is dotted with twisting towers studded with stars, unblinking eyes, ethereal ribbons, and floating bubbles. 

These fantastical shapes, some of the universe’s most visually stunning constructions, are nebulae, clouds of gas and dust that can be the birthplace of stars, the scene of their demise, and sometimes both.

Also read | Chemical leftovers from Earth’s creation still lingering deep within our planet: Study

Nebulae are made up of gas, primarily hydrogen and helium, and fine cosmic dust. These clouds are part of the interstellar medium of extremely low-density gas and dust that exists between stars in the void of space.

”The diameter of the main cloud is 15.6 light-years across, almost 1 million times larger than the distance of the earth to the sun and much larger than the distance of our sun to its nearest neighboring star,” Kimeswenger said.

”Moreover, fragments as large as 39 light-years apart have also been found. Since the object lies slightly above the Milky Way, the nebula was able to develop largely undisturbed by other clouds in the surrounding gas.” 

“They are too large for the field of view of modern telescopes, and at the same time, they are very faint. Moreover, their lifetime is rather short, at least when considered in cosmic time scales. It is only a few hundred thousand years,” he added.

Nebulae happen in places where the interstellar medium has become dense enough to form clouds. That could be because gravity has pulled the gas and dust together, or because stars have died and spewed their contents into the cosmos. 

Several types of nebulae exist, and each individual nebula is a unique showcase of the phenomena and processes happening within. They often live side by side, with smaller nebulae populating larger clouds of gas and dust to form giant complexes of star birth and death.

(With inputs from agencies)

View Original Source

by: MARCIA DUNN, Associated Press

Posted: Jan 8, 2022 / 10:27 AM CST / Updated: Jan 8, 2022 / 10:37 AM CST

Engineering teams at NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Mission Operations Center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore monitor progress as the observatory’s second primary mirror wing rotates into position, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. The last portion of the 21-foot (6.5-meter) mirror swung into place at flight controllers’ command, completing the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope _ the riskiest part of the mission. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s new space telescope opened its huge, gold-plated, flower-shaped mirror Saturday, the final step in the observatory’s dramatic unfurling.

The last portion of the 21-foot (6.5-meter) mirror swung into place at flight controllers’ command, completing the unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope.

“I’m emotional about it. What an amazing milestone. We see that beautiful pattern out there in the sky now,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s science missions chief.

More powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, the $10 billion Webb will scan the cosmos for light streaming from the first stars and galaxies formed 13.7 billion years ago. To accomplish this, NASA had to outfit Webb with the biggest and most sensitive mirror ever launched — its “golden eye,” as scientists call it.

Webb is so big that it had to be folded orgami-style to fit in the rocket that soared from South America two weeks ago. The riskiest operation occurred earlier in the week, when the tennis court-size sunshield unfurled, providing subzero shade for the mirror and infrared detectors.

Flight controllers in Baltimore began opening the primary mirror Friday, unfolding the left side like a drop-leaf table. The mood was even more upbeat Saturday, with peppy music filling the control room as the right side snapped into place. After applauding, the controllers immediately got back to work, latching everything down.

This mirror is made of beryllium, a lightweight yet sturdy and cold-resistant metal. Each of its 18 segments is coated with an ultra thin layer of gold, highly reflective of infrared light. The hexagonal, coffee table-size segments must be adjusted in the days and weeks ahead so they can focus as one on stars, galaxies and alien worlds that might hold atmospheric signs of life.

Webb should reach its destination 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) away in another two weeks. If all continues to go well, science observations will begin this summer. Astronomers hope to peer back to within 100 million years of the universe-forming Big Bang, closer than Hubble has achieved.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Close Modal

Suggest a Correction

Suggest a Correction

View Original Source

A philosophy team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and the University of Antwerp analysed the role self-deception plays in everyday life and the strategies people use to deceive themselves. In the journal Philosophical Psychology, Dr. Francesco Marchi and Professor Albert Newen describe four strategies used to stabilise and shield the positive self-image. According to their theory, self-deception helps people to stay motivated in difficult situations. The article was published on 6 January 2022.

Four strategies of self-deception

“All people deceive themselves, and quite frequently at that,” says Albert Newen from the RUB Institute of Philosophy II. “For instance, if a father is convinced that his son is a good student and then the son brings home bad grades, he may first say that the subject isn’t that important or that the teacher didn’t explain the material well.” The researchers call this strategy of self-deception the reorganisation of beliefs. In their article, they describe three more frequently used strategies that come into play even earlier in order to prevent unpleasant facts from getting to you in the first place.

This includes selecting facts through purposeful action: people avoid places or persons that might bring problematic facts to their attention, such as the parent-teacher conference. Another strategy is to reject facts by casting doubt on the credibility of the source. As long as the father hears about his son’s academic problems only indirectly and does not see the grades, he can ignore the problems. The last strategy is what Newen and Marchi call generating facts from an ambiguous state of affairs: “For instance, if the kind mathematics teacher gently suggests that the son is not coping, and the father would have expected a clear statement in case of difficulties, he may interpret the considerable kindness and the gentle description as a positive assessment of his son’s abilities,” Francesco Marchi elaborates on the example.

The researchers describe all four strategies as typical psychological thinking tendencies. Self-deception is neither unreasonable nor detrimental to people in the short term, but always in the medium and long term. “These are not malicious ways of doing things, but part of the basic cognitive equipment of humans to preserve their established view of themselves and the world,” says Newen. In normal times with few changes, the tendency to stick to proven views is helpful and also deeply rooted in evolution. “However, this cognitive tendency is catastrophic in times of radically new challenges that require rapid changes in behaviour,” adds the Bochum researcher.

An example from the coronavirus situation

Newen gives an example from the coronavirus situation: “If people in the early stages of a pandemic are skeptical about whether a vaccine will still show unexpected side effects, this is understandable caution that people can initially compensate for by strictly adhering to precautionary rules. Self-deception can also help to avoid panic reactions,” he explains. “However, if it becomes clear in the medium term that the side effects of the vaccine are clearly limited, then doubt is unreasonable and turns into direct danger to oneself and others. Self-deception also entails distorted risk assessments, because the health risk of foregoing vaccination is much greater than that resulting from vaccination. Self-deception can therefore stabilize the self-image, established ways of thinking and motivation to act in normal times, but becomes detrimental in times of crisis that require radical rethinking and new ways of acting, and puts society at risk.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Ruhr-University Bochum. Original written by Julia Weiler. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

View Original Source