Still we can reverse some of the worst effects of global warming

Global warming has a PR problem. “Climate change is too slow a problem to solve in time,” as one expert puts it. Emissions we put out today won’t have much effect on the world for decades to come, so the issue lacks urgency.
That may be changing. Every day, we wake up to news about damage that can be directly attributed to our pumping out ever-increasing amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

“Great Barrier Reef at terminal stage,” says one headline today. It explains how in the entire recorded history of the reef, there have been only four mass die-offs of coral: in 1998, 2002, 2016, and 2017. What’s the cause? Rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming, of course.

The good news is that there is still time to act. In a study published in Nature Climate Change, British scientists find that, if we start cutting emissions soon, we could reverse some of the worst effects of global warming.

Specifically, the researchers looked at extreme heatwaves, such as the one in India which killed more than 2,500 people in 2015 or the one in Europe which killed as many as 70,000 people in 2003. First, they calculated how often such events would occur if we did nothing to cut our emissions. Next, they considered how much emissions would need to be reduced to halve the probability of such events taking place.

Even if we don’t start cutting emissions until 2020, we can reduce the likelihood of extreme heatwaves as early as 2040, the study concludes. This is much sooner than previous predictions, which reckon that the benefits of reducing emissions do not emerge until much later in the century.

How drastic would the emissions reductions need to be to have this effect? Luckily, the goals set by the Paris climate agreement are much more aggressive than what we need to avert extreme heatwaves.

And although 2040 is a long time away, most people alive today will still be around to experience it. So although it may be too late to save the Great Barrier Reef, there is hope that action today can save countless human lives—not abstract future generations, but the people around us today.

Source: Quartz

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Scientists measure brightness of the universe with NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft

Scientists measure brightness of the universe with NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft

Scientists struggled for decades to measure how much light produced by all of the galaxies in the universe. But NASA found something unexpected during its New Horizons mission. They discovered a tool for measuring the brightness of the all the galaxies.

Talking about the discovery, an assistant professor in RIT’s School of Physics and Astronomy and member of RIT’s Center for Detectors and Future Photon Initiative, said

“Determining how much light comes from all the galaxies beyond our own Milky Way galaxy has been a stubborn challenge in observational astrophysics,”

The finding is published in the Nature Communications this week. According to the study, the latest observation could be possible with the help of New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, or LORRI instrument. The light shining beyond the Milky Way is known as the cosmic optical background. Zemcov’s findings give an upper limit to the amount of light in the cosmic optical background.

“The study is proof that this kind of measurement is possible from the outer solar system, and that LORRI is capable of doing it,” Zemcov said.

He futher added “This result shows some of the promise of doing astronomy from the outer solar system. What we’re seeing is that the optical background is completely consistent with the light from galaxies and we don’t see a need for a lot of extra brightness; whereas previous measurements from near the Earth need a lot of extra brightness. The study is proof that this kind of measurement is possible from the outer solar system, and that LORRI is capable of doing it.”

Spacecraft in the outer solar system give scientists virtual front-row seats for observing the cosmic optical background. The faint light from distant galaxies is hard to see from the inner solar system because it is polluted by the brightness of sunlight reflected off interplanetary dust in the inner solar system.

Cosmic dust is sooty bits of rock and small debris that moved, over time, from the outer solar system toward the sun. Scientists launching experiments on sounding rockets and satellites must account for the dust that makes the Earth’s atmosphere many times brighter than the cosmic optical background.

NASA’s New Horizons mission has been funded through 2021, and Zemcov is hopeful for the chance to use Long Range Reconnaissance Imager to re-measure the brightness of the cosmic optical background.

“NASA sends missions to the outer solar system once a decade or so,” Zemcov said. “What they send is typically going to planets and the instruments onboard are designed to look at them, not to do astrophysics. Measurements could be designed to optimize this technique while LORRI is still functioning.”

Zemcov’s method harkens back to NASA’s first long distance missions Pioneer 10 and 11 in 1972 and 1974. Light detectors on the instruments measured the brightness of objects outside the Milky Way and made the first direct benchmark of the cosmic optical background.

“With a carefully designed survey, we should be able to produce a definitive measurement of the diffuse light in the local universe and a tight constraint on the light from galaxies in the optical wavebands,” Zemcov said.

Archived data from New Horizon’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager show “the power of LORRI for precise low-foreground measurements of the cosmic optical background,” Zemcov wrote in the paper.

Chi Nguyen, a Ph.D. student in RIT’s astrophysical sciences and technology program, mined data sets from New Horizons’ 2006 launch, Jupiter fly-by and cruise phase. She isolated four different spots on the sky between Jupiter and Uranus, captured in 2007, 2008 and 2010, that met their criteria: looking away from the solar system and looking out the galaxy.

Poppy Immel, an undergraduate majoring in math and computer science, generated the data cuts and determined the photometric calibration of the instrument. Other co-authors include Asantha Cooray from University of California Irvine; Carey Lisee from Johns Hopkins University; and Andrew Poppe from UC Berkeley. Zemcov is affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Source: Nature.com

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A New, More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel

A New, More Rigorous Study Confirms: The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel

The average Facebook user spends almost an hour on the site every day, according to data provided by the company last year. A Deloitte survey found that for many smartphone users, checking social media apps are the first thing they do in the morning – often before even getting out of bed. Of course, social interaction is a healthy and necessary part of human existence. Thousands of studies have concluded that most human beings thrive when they have strong, positive relationships with other human beings. 

The challenge is that most of the work on social interaction has been conducted using “real world,” face-to-face social networks, in contrast to the types of online relationships that are increasingly common. So, while we know that old-fashioned social interaction is healthy, what about social interaction that is completely mediated through an electronic screen? When you wake up in the morning and tap on that little blue icon, what impact does it have on you? 

Prior research has shown that the use of social media may detract from face-to-face relationships, reduce investment in meaningful activities, increase sedentary behavior by encouraging more screen time, lead to internet addiction  and erode self-esteem through unfavorable social comparison. Self-comparison can be a strong influence on human behavior, and because people tend to display the most positive aspects of their lives on social media, it is possible for an individual to believe that their own life compares negatively to what they see presented by others. But some skeptics have wondered if perhaps people with lower well-being are more likely to use social media, rather than social media causing lower well-being. Moreover, other studies have found that social media use has a positive impact on well-being through increased social support and reinforcement of  real world relationships. 

We wanted to get a clearer picture of the relationship between social media use and well-being. In our study, we used three waves of data from 5,208 adults from a national longitudinal panel maintained by the Gallup organization, coupled with several different measures of Facebook usage, to see how well-being changed over time in association with Facebook use. Our measures of well-being included life satisfaction, self-reported mental health, self-reported physical health, and body-mass index (BMI). Our measures of Facebook use included liking others’ posts, creating one’s own posts, and clicking on links. We also had measures of respondents’ real-world social networks.  In each wave, respondents were asked to name up to four friends with whom they discuss important matters and up to four friends with whom they spend their free time, so that each participant could name up to a total of eight unique individuals. 

Our approach had three strengths that set it apart from most of the previous work on the topic. First, we had three waves of data for many of our respondents over a period of two years. This allowed us to track how changes in social media use were associated with changes in well-being. Most studies done to date only use one period of data, limiting interpretations of conclusions to simple associations. Second, we had objective measures of Facebook use, pulled directly from participants’ Facebook accounts, rather than measures based on a person’s self-report. Third, in addition to the Facebook data, we had information regarding the respondents’ real-world social networks, which would allow us to directly compare the two influences (face-to-face networks and online interactions). Of course, our study has limitations too, including that we could not be certain about how fully representative it was because not everyone in the Gallup sample allowed us access to their Facebook data. 

Overall, our results showed that, while real-world social networks were positively associated with overall well-being, the use of Facebook was negatively associated with overall well-being. These results were particularly strong for mental health; most measures of Facebook use in one year predicted a decrease in mental health in a later year. We found consistently that both liking others’ content and clicking links significantly predicted a subsequent reduction in self-reported physical health, mental health, and life satisfaction. 

Our models included measures of real-world networks and adjusted for baseline Facebook use. When we accounted for a person’s level of initial well-being, initial real-world networks, and initial level of Facebook use, increased use of Facebook was still associated with a likelihood of diminished future well-being. This provides some evidence that the association between Facebook use and compromised well-being is a dynamic process. 

Although we can show that Facebook use seems to lead to diminished well-being, we cannot definitively say how that occurs. We did not see much difference between the three types of activity we measured — liking, posting, and clicking links, (although liking and clicking were more consistently significant) — and the impact on the user. This was interesting, because while we expected that “liking” other people’s content would be more likely to lead to negative self-comparisons and thus decreases in well-being, updating one’s own status and clicking links seemed to have a similar effect (although the nature of status updates can ostensibly be the result of social comparison-tailoring your own Facebook image based on how others will perceive it). 

Overall our results suggests that well-being declines are also matter of quantity of use rather than only quality of use. If this is the case, our results contrast with previous research arguing that the quantity of social media interaction is irrelevant, and that only the quality of those interactions matter. 

These results then may be relevant for other forms of social media. While many platforms expose the user to the sort of polished profiles of others that can lead to negative self-comparison, the issue of quantity of usage will be an issue for any social media platform.  While screen time in general can be problematic, the tricky thing about social media is that while we are using it, we get the impression that we are engaging in meaningful social interaction. Our results suggest that the nature and quality of this sort of connection is no substitute for the real world interaction we need for a healthy life. 

The full story when it comes to online social media use is surely complex. Exposure to the carefully curated images from others’ lives leads to negative self-comparison, and the sheer quantity of social media interaction may detract from more meaningful real-life experiences.  What seems quite clear, however, is that online social interactions are no substitute for the real thing. 

Original hbr.org thread: 

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Clinical trial shows benefit of yoga for side effects of prostate cancer treatment

Penn study finds twice-weekly yoga led to better physical, sexual, emotional, and social healthUNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

PHILADELPHIA - Men who attended a structured yoga class twice a week during prostate cancer radiation treatment reported less fatigue and better sexual and urinary function than those who didn't, according to a clinical trial led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. It is the first randomized trial to look at the effect of twice-weekly yoga on the side-effects and quality of life issues caused by prostate cancer treatment. The results published this week in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics.

All of the patients in the trial underwent between six and nine weeks of external beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer. The patients were randomized into two groups: one arm participated in a yoga class that met twice a week and the other arm served as a control group. Patients who already practiced yoga on their own were not eligible for the study, nor were patients with a history of prior radiation therapy or those with metastatic disease.

Only two instructors led classes for this study, with the lead instructor teaching 75 percent of the classes. Each session lasted 75 minutes, beginning with five minutes of breathing and centering techniques and ending with five minutes of Savasana, a common yoga position. Typical sessions incorporated sitting, standing, and reclining positions that were modified using props to adapt to each patient's needs and restrictions.

Patients were primarily evaluated on their level of fatigue. Each man filled out a nine-item questionnaire assessing fatigue severity and impact on daily life. The first questionnaire was given between two and three weeks before the start of radiotherapy, then twice a week while receiving radiotherapy, with a final survey filled out within a week of their last yoga class or last radiation treatment, depending on the assigned study arm.

"At their baseline, before patients started treatment, patients in both groups were on the lower end of the scale, meaning they reported lower amounts of fatigue," said the trial's principal investigator Neha Vapiwala, MD, an associate professor of Radiation Oncology. "But as treatment went on, we observed a difference in the two groups." Patients in the yoga group reported lower fatigue scores over time, as they attended more yoga sessions, relative to where they started. Patients who did not participate in yoga trended in the opposite direction, reporting greater fatigue as treatment progressed.

"Levels of patient-reported fatigue are expected to increase by around the fourth or fifth week of a typical treatment course, but that did not happen in the yoga group," Vapiwala said. "Both the severity of the fatigue as well as the patients' ability to go about their normal lives appeared to be positively impacted in the yoga group."

Researchers also evaluated both groups in terms of their sexual health. Sexual dysfunction - including but not limited to erectile dysfunction (ED) - is reported by up to 85 percent of radiation therapy patients during treatment, often due to the concurrent use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). The study utilized the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) questionnaire, in which scores range from 0-25. Scores greater than 21 are considered normal and scores below 12 indicate moderate to severe ED. Both groups started out with scores of around 11, and were balanced in terms of ADT exposure; but while the yoga group's score ended up largely unchanged from baseline, the non-yoga group saw a decline over the course of treatment.

"Yoga is known to strengthen pelvic floor muscles, which is one of several postulated theories that may explain why this group did not demonstrate declining scores, as seen in the control group," Vapiwala said. "That may also explain the yoga patients' improved urinary function scores, another finding of this trial." Vapiwala pointed out that the findings on improved or stable urinary function are consistent with other research on the effects of physical therapy on pelvic floor muscles.

The trial also found that while the emotional well-being of both groups increased as patients progressed through treatment, the evaluation scores in the yoga group rose more rapidly than in the control group. An evaluation of physical well-being showed a similar pattern.

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This study was partially funded through an American Cancer Society Institutional Grant and a Prostate Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community.

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'Smart' cephalopods trade off genome evolution for prolific RNA editing

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

WOODS HOLE, Mass.-- Octopus, squid, and cuttlefish are famous for engaging in complex behavior, from unlocking an aquarium tank and escaping to instantaneous skin camouflage to hide from predators. A new study suggests their evolutionary path to neural sophistication includes a novel mechanism: Prolific RNA editing at the expense of evolution in their genomic DNA.

The study, led by Joshua J.C. Rosenthal of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole and Eli Eisenberg and Noa Liscovitch-Brauer of Tel Aviv University, is published this week in Cell.                                                                                     IMAGE: OCTOPUS BIMACULOIDES (CALIFORNIA TWO-SPOT OCTOPUS) SHOWING ITS NAMESAKE BLUE SPOT. THIS IS THE ONLY CEPALOPOD SPECIES THAT HAS BEEN SEQUENCED (IN 2015). view more 

The research builds on the scientists' prior discovery that squid display an extraordinarily high rate of editing in coding regions of their RNA -- particularly in nervous system cells -- which has the effect of diversifying the proteins that the cells can produce. (More than 60 percent of RNA transcripts in the squid brain are recoded by editing, while in humans or fruit flies, only a fraction of 1 percent of their RNAs have a recoding event.)

In the present study, the scientists found similarly high levels of RNA editing in three other "smart" cephalopod species (two octopus and one cuttlefish) and identified tens of thousands of evolutionarily conserved RNA recoding sites in this class of cephalopods, called coleoid. Editing is especially enriched in the coleoid nervous system, they found, affecting proteins that are the key players in neural excitability and neuronal morphology.

In contrast, RNA editing in the more primitive cephalopod Nautilus and in the mollusk Aplysia occurs at orders of magnitude lower levels than in the coleoids, they found. "This shows that high levels of RNA editing is not generally a molluscan thing; it's an invention of the coleoid cephalopods," Rosenthal says. In mammals, very few RNA editing sites are conserved; they are not thought to be under natural selection. "There is something fundamentally different going on in these cephalopods where many of the editing events are highly conserved and show clear signs of selection," Rosenthal says.

The scientists also discovered a striking trade-off between high levels of RNA recoding and genomic evolution in these cephalopods. The most common form of RNA editing is carried out by ADAR enzymes, which require large structures (dsRNA) flanking the editing sites. These structures, which can span hundreds of nucleotides, are conserved in the coleoid genome along with the editing sites themselves. The genetic mutation rate in these flanking regions is severely depressed, the team reported.

"The conclusion here is that in order to maintain this flexibility to edit RNA, the coleoids have had to give up the ability to evolve in the surrounding regions - a lot," Rosenthal says. "Mutation is usually thought of as the currency of natural selection, and these animals are suppressing that to maintain recoding flexibility at the RNA level."

Rosenthal and colleagues at the MBL are currently developing genetically tractable cephalopod model systems to explore the mechanisms and functional consequences of their prolific RNA editing. "When do they turn it on, and under what environmental influences? It could be something as simple as temperature changes or as complicated as experience, a form of memory," he says.

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Citation:

Liscovitch-Brauer et al (2017) Trade-off between transcriptome plasticity and genome evolution in cephalopods. Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.03.025

The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery - exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.

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Octopus bimaculoides (IMAGE)

MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY

CAPTION Octopus bimaculoides (California two-spot octopus) showing its namesake blue spot. This is the only cepalopod species that has been sequenced (in 2015). CREDIT Tom Kleindinst USAGE RESTRICTIONS Please use with proper credit

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IBM will sell 50-qubit universal quantum computer “in the next few years”

 

Kopitiam Bot

IBM has solved most of the science behind quantum computing. Time to make some money. 

IBM will build and sell commercial 50-qubit universal quantum computers, dubbed IBM Q, "in the next few years." No word on pricing just yet, but I wouldn't expect much change from $15 million—the cost of a non-universal D-Wave quantum computer.In other news, IBM has also opened up an API (sample code available on Github) that gives developers easier access to the five-qubit quantum computer currently connected to the IBM cloud. Later in the year IBM will release a full SDK, further simplifying the process of building quantum software.
You can't actually do much useful computation with five qubits, mind you, but fortunately IBM also has news there: the company's quantum simulator can now simulate up to 20 qubits. The idea is that developers should start thinking about potential 20-qubit quantum scenarios now, so they're ready to be deployed when IBM builds the actual hardware.

FURTHER READING
Is D-Wave’s quantum processor really 10⁸ times faster than a normal computer?
Speaking of hardware, it seems IBM has accelerated its universal quantum computing roadmap somewhat. In May last year IBM said it would like to build a 50-qubit computer "in the next decade." Now we're down to "the next few years."
IBM has also fleshed out its quantum computing roadmap a little, providing some guidance on how it will actually build a universal 50-qubit computer:

IBM’s roadmap to scale to practical quantum computers is based on a holistic approach to advancing all parts of the system. IBM will leverage its deep expertise in superconducting qubits, complex high performance system integration, and scalable nanofabrication processes from the semiconductor industry to help advance the quantum mechanical capabilities.
Other than D-Wave, IBM doesn't have much competition in the quantum computing space—and as we've explained in the past, both companies appear to be approaching quantum computing quite differently. IBM has set its sights on building a true universal quantum computer, which can be used to solve any quantum algorithm under the sun. D-Wave seems more focused on scaling up the number of qubits and ensuring its system can integrate easily with classical computers, but not ensuring its qubits are actually qubits.

This is the BlueFors dilution refrigerator used by IBM, but without all the wires and stuff.  BlueFors
Another BlueFors cooler.  BlueFors
A horizontal variant.  BlueFors

Me, looking young and amazed next to a dilution refrigeration unit.
Enlarge / Me, looking young and amazed next to a dilution refrigeration unit.
Sebastian Anthony
While exact pricing, availability, and specs are still a long way off, it's fairly safe to assume that IBM's quantum computers will be about the same price as a D-Wave (~$15 million) or perhaps a little dearer. Both systems are fundamentally the same thing: a fancy chip inside a box that contains a multi-stage dilution refrigerator from a company like BlueFors.

Dilution refrigerators take about 24 hours to cool down, but they can then keep the chip at close-to-absolute-zero (~5mK, -273.145°C)—a prerequisite for current quantum computing chips—almost indefinitely.

And finally, a random factoid: the photo on the right shows me standing on a ladder next to one of IBM's dilution refrigerators at IBM Research headquarters in upstate New York back in 2013.

Listing image by IBM 

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The Hundred Pushups Training Program

The Hundred Pushups Training Program 

Image by:hundredpushups

If you're serious about increasing your strength, follow this six week training program and you'll soon be on your way to completing 100 consecutive pushups! 

 

Think there's no way you could do this? I think you can. All you need is a good plan, plenty of discipline and about 30 minutes a week to achieve this goal! 

 

No doubt some of you can already do 50 consecutive pushups, but let's face it, you're in a big minority. Most of you reading this won't even be able to manage 20 pushups. Actually, I'm sure many of you can't even do 10. 

 

However, it really doesn't matter which group you fall into. If you follow the progressive pushups training program, I'm positive you'll soon be able to do 100 pushups! 

Are you ready to take the challenge? Read on for more details... 

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