(November 15, 2024)
Solhyd not only develops technology to produce hydrogen from air and sunlight. We also develop methods to produce that technology in a cost-effective and reliable manner. Efficient production, with cost reductions driven by scale benefits, will eventually lead to the lowest cost approach to make hydrogen from solar energy.
We took the first step in that process this year.
(02 October 2019)
For over a decade, Professor Johan Martens and Drs. Tom Bosserez, Jan Rongé and Christos Trompoukis have been developing a ‘solar hydrogen panel’, i.e. a solar panel that can create hydrogen from the water vapour in the air. Using sunlight, moisture taken from the air – i.e. no liquid water – is split into hydrogen on the one hand, and oxygen molecules on the other.
The panel is able to directly convert no less than 15 per cent of sunlight into hydrogen gas, Which is a world record
Indeed, the Israeli army’s killing of Palestinian scientists, intellectuals and artists appears to be part of a systematic attempt to destroy Palestinian cultural life. Such voices are essential for educating the next generation of Palestinians. Their loss is incalculable.
(September 1, 2015)
Now let’s take a look at point #2: Scientists are not in charge at the IPCC. Its latest report contains 60 chapters and totals more than 7,000 pages. Many good, sincere scientists toiled away on their own small portion of that enormous report. These people no doubt did their best to be honest and accurate.
But here’s the problem: almost no one will ever read that 7,000-page report. (…)
Everyone knows this. Which is why the IPCC also produces documents in the 20 to 30-page range bearing the title: Summary for Policymakers. (…)
In fact, IPCC authors only draft these summaries. And then something incredible transpires.
A big IPCC meeting takes place. Attended by governments. Although some people in the room are scientists, the vast majority are diplomats, politicians, foreign affairs specialists, bureaucrats, and assorted other officials. These people then spend the next week re-writing the summary authored by scientists.(…)
But the bad news doesn’t stop there. There’s actually a step in the IPCC process in which the original, lengthy report gets amended so that it conforms to the politically-negotiated Summary. I am not making this up.
(24 April 2024)
The preservation of a temperate climate and liquid water on early Earth depends critically upon the strength of the magnetosphere (Sterenborg et al., 2011; Tarduno et al., 2014). Recent atmospheric escape models have suggested that both weak (<10 μT) and strong (>1 mT) magnetic fields could substantially enhance atmospheric escape under present-day solar wind conditions via the polar wind or cusp escape, respectively (Gronoff et al., 2020; Gunell et al., 2018; Lundin et al., 2007). During the Archean, the Sun was rotating faster, generating a stronger stellar dynamo and therefore the solar wind was more intense than today (Vidotto, 2021). An increased solar wind strength causes greater interaction with the upper atmosphere and greater escape of ions assuming a constant level of protection from Earth‘s magnetosphere. Previous magnetohydrodynamic simulations have suggested that if Earth‘s magnetic field was half its present day strength 3.5 Ga ago, the area of the polar cap (the area containing open dipolar magnetic field lines, allowing atmospheric escape via the polar wind) could increase by up to 50% (Sterenborg et al., 2011).
The age of the Earth’s magnetic field remains under question in part because we don’t fully understand what causes it today. We know it is a product of movements in the molten outer core, whose high iron content turns convection currents into a dynamo, and these currents in turn are produced by the solidification of the inner core.
(24 April 2024)
Today, the magnetic field is driven by the churning of the liquid part of the core and the transfer of heat from the solid inner core to the convective outer core as the former cools. But researchers think the core didn‘t solidify until about a billion years ago.
The Earth‘s outer core is in a state of turbulent convection as the result of radioactive heating and chemical differentiation. This sets up a process that is a bit like a naturally occurring electrical generator, where the convective kinetic energy is converted to electrical and magnetic energy. Basically, the motion of the electrically conducting iron in the presence of the Earth‘s magnetic field induces electric currents. Those electric currents generate their own magnetic field, and as the result of this internal feedback, the process is self-sustaining so long as there is an energy source sufficient to maintain convection.
SESAME ist ein Zentrum der Materialforschung. Die im Elektronensynchrotron beschleunigten Teilchen erzeugen elektromagnetische Strahlung in allen Frequenzbereichen – und diese wird verwendet, um Materialien aller Art zu durchleuchten. Das können archäologische Artefakte oder Gewebsproben von Lebewesen sein .
(21.Januar 2020)
Der von uns seit langem in Zeiten des mittlerweile über achtzehnjährigen weltweiten Terrorkrieges beschriebene moralisch-politische Zusammenbruch von Liberalen, Demokraten, Pazifisten, Sozialdemokraten und politischer Linken in Deutschland befindet sich im Endstadium.
Dabei frisst der Linkskörper nicht nur sich selbst. Er frisst auch alle Ideen und Errungenschaften, die er angeblich vertritt. In Wirklichkeit dienen den betreffenden etablierten Apparaten – ob Parteien, Gewerkschaften, “Nichtregierungsorganisationen”, assoziierte Presse und die Myraden von Schnattergruppen – diese Ideen und Errungenschaften nicht als Rechtfertigung, sondern als Nahrung.
Nach allen vermeintlichen Ansprüchen haben sich sämtliche etablierten und populären Organisationen, in Deutschland und in großen Teilen der E.U.-Hegemonie, als bestenfalls wertlos und real als gefährlich entpuppt. Alles Ablenken auf Wanderungsbewegungen, Geschlechterfragen, Abstammung, religiöse Anschauungen und politische Planeten die sich nicht von irgendeiner Sonne diktieren (erschaffen) lassen, taugt nur für Wahnsinnige und Idioten und -innen. Diese werden von der Zombie-Linken als nächste Nahrung bzw Ernährer benutzt, genauso wie alles Lebendige und Ideenreiche was sie in gutem Glauben mitbringen, gerade das Engagment für ihre Umwelt.
Sozialdemokratie, Sozialismus, Pazifismus, Humanismus, klassischer Liberalismus, alles was noch gut und schön ist an diesen und anderen in Hunderten von Jahren von Anderen erkämpften fortschrittlichen Errungenschaften und Gedankengut, bis hin zu Aufklärung, Wissenschaft und Kultur, stehen in Deutschland vor dem Aussterben. Geistig und moralisch droht der Rücksturz ins Mittelalter hinter Galileo Galilei und die Bauernkriege. Das von der Kanzel herabgereichte Dogma wird nachgebetet. Wer widerspricht, ist Ketzer / Ketzerin. Nur stehen statt dem Pfaffen jetzt andere Autoritäten oben auf der Kanzel, die zu einem ewig und unablässlich plappernden Bildschirm geronnen ist, von dem Milliarden von Menschen Stein und Bein schwören würden, dass er gar nicht mit ihnen redet.
(19.09.2023)
Die Suche nach den Ursachen für genetische Erkrankungen ist ein großes Unterfangen, bei dem vermehrt auch künstliche Intelligenz (KI) zum Einsatz kommt. Ein neues KI-Werkzeug von Google DeepMind kann das Krankheitsrisiko abschätzen, das von bestimmten Genmutationen ausgeht. Die entstandene Datenbank soll künftige Untersuchungen zur Entstehung der Krankheiten deutlich erleichtern.
(19.09.2023)
Google DeepMind has developed a new tool called AlphaMissense, which uses the AlphaFold human protein structure models to predict whether a sequence variant which changes one amino acid in a protein is likely to be tolerated or to impact protein function.
The Ensembl Variant Effect Predictor now integrates Google DeepMind’s new AlphaMissense Catalogue.
Google DeepMind has developed an AI system that predicts the chances that tens of millions of genetic variants will cause disease.
(10 May 2023)
The work was led by the international Human Pangenome Reference Consortium (HPRC), a group funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and consisting of 14 institutes, including EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). (…)
The majority of the genomes used to create the human pangenome reference were collected as part of the 1000 genomes project, the largest public catalogue of human variation and genotype data from a wide range of populations. (…)
In order to understand the differences in the genes present across the individual genomes represented in the human pangenome, researchers in EMBL-EBI’s Ensembl team needed to map the high-quality annotations on the reference human genome generated as part of the GENCODE project, across the pangenome.
Some genomic differences may not affect fitness. Neutral variation, previously thought to be “junk” DNA, is unaffected by natural selection resulting in higher genetic variation at such sites when compared to sites where variation does influence fitness.[14]
It is not fully clear how natural selection has shaped population differences; however, genetic candidate regions under selection have been identified recently. (…)
It was found that on average, each person carries around 250–300 loss-of-function variants in annotated genes and 50-100 variants previously implicated in inherited disorders. Based on the two trios, it is estimated that the rate of de novo germline mutation is approximately 10−8 per base per generation.
(Dec 2015)
“Now this is not the end… But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” as Winston Churchill said. Large-scale sequencing projects will continue for more regional or ethnic groups, in order to extend the global coverage. Much effort will focus on a better understanding of the relationship between genetic variation and common disorders. The translation of this massive genetic information to human health will benefit from the development of complex databases gathering genetic, clinical, and biological data, such as multi-omics profiles, while maintaining protection of potentially sensitive personal information (3). Efforts are also underway to increase genetic awareness in the public and to educate health professionals
The goal of the GENCODE project is to identify and classify all gene features in the human and mouse genomes with high accuracy based on biological evidence, and to release these annotations for the benefit of biomedical research and genome interpretation.
(25 April 2023)
EMBL-EBI Director Ewan Birney was a graduate student in the 90s, when the Human Genome Project was in full swing. On the project’s 20th anniversary, he shares his memories of the slow but incredibly accurate analysis software he developed, how the private initiative sped up the public one, and how a betting book highlighted how little we knew about the human genome at the time.
(22 July 2021)
For those scientists who rely on experimental protein structure determination, AlphaFold’s predictions have helped accelerate their research. For example, a team at the University of Colorado Boulder is finding promise in using AlphaFold predictions to study antibiotic resistance, while a group at the University of California San Francisco has used them to increase their understanding of SARS-CoV-2 biology.
The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database builds on many contributions from the international scientific community, as well as AlphaFold’s sophisticated algorithmic innovations and EMBL-EBI’s decades of experience in sharing the world’s biological data. DeepMind and EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) are providing access to AlphaFold’s predictions so that others can use the system as a tool to enable and accelerate research and open up completely new avenues of scientific discovery.
(August 28, 2023)
There is increasing talk of a United States-brokered “grand bargain” on Middle East security, the core of which would be normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. It isn’t clear what motivates Joe Biden to press for this deal now. The obvious goal would involve the eternal search for peace in the Middle East, but there are hints that such a bargain may have more to do with keeping the Saudis out of China’s orbit. One thing we know, Biden’s lieutenants are lobbying hard in the Senate for acceptance of some version of far-reaching demands from the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, among them access to uranium enrichment technology that would ostensibly provide fuel for future Saudi nuclear power plants. Indeed, enrichment is a step in the production of nuclear reactor fuel. It is also a vital part of one of two paths to the atomic bomb.
Die Neue Gesellschaft für Psychologie hat mit Erschrecken von der empörenden Tatsache erfahren, dass gegen einen ihrer Freunde und Kollegen, Prof. Dr. Rudolph Bauer, am 10. August 2023 eine Hausdurchsuchung durch teils bewaffnete und mit Schutzwesten ausgestattete Durchsuchungsbedienstete durchgeführt worden ist.
Die empörende Begründung lautet: „Durch die faktische Gleichsetzung von demokratisch legitimierten Maßnahmen mit dem menschenverachtenden Vorgehen im Nationalsozialismus hat er in besonders verachtenswerter Weise die unter der Herrschaft des Nationalsozialismus begangene Handlungen verharmlost.“
Bauers Vergehen ist es, in Wort und Bild vor der Gefahr der Faschisierung der Gesellschaft zu warnen.
The report, which did not cite sources, stressed there was no collective action, with the scientists deciding for themselves how they will act. It added that the scientists were still deliberating the matter with each other and their predecessors, along with “heads of the scientific-military community,” but have not raised it with any superiors.
(13 July 2023)
Over a thousand doctors on Thursday penned a letter to the union’s chair, Zion Hagay, urging him to declare a strike until the “complete trashing of the overhaul,” charging that the plans will harm “the quality of medicine in Israel, will harm patients, and undermine the great achievements of Israeli medicine.”
“We are not ready to turn into the intellectuals, scientists, and educated of Germany in 1933,” the letter read, likening potential consequences of the overhaul to the Nazis’ purge of intellectuals during their rise to power.
The FBI started spying on renowned German-born scientist Albert Einstein when he moved to America in 1933, shortly before Adolf Hitler rose to power. Agents listened to the physicist‘s phone calls and searched his mail and trash, suspecting he was a Soviet spy. The surveillance, totalling 1,800 pages, ended with Einstein‘s death on April 18, 1955, with no supporting evidence.
(02.08.2019)
We don’t know what gravity is.
Say that to the average person, and the answer you’ll probably get is some version of: “What are you talking about? Gravity is the force of attraction that makes things fall straight down.” But say it to a physicist, and the answer you’ll get is, “That’s right.”
I know, because those are the two answers I’ve been getting for the past few years, ever since I figured out that nobody knows what gravity is, and that just about nobody knows that nobody knows what gravity is. The exception is physicists: They know that nobody knows what gravity is, because they know that they don’t know what gravity is.
Firsts:
– First spacecraft placed on a trajectory to escape the solar system into interstellar space
– First spacecraft to fly beyond Mars
– First spacecraft to fly through the main asteroid belt
– First spacecraft to fly past Jupiter
– Crossed the orbit of Neptune to become the first human-made object to go beyond Neptune
– First spacecraft to use all-nuclear electrical power
Key Dates:
March 2, 1972: Launch
July 15, 1972: Spacecraft entered the asteroid belt
Dec. 4, 1973: Pioneer 10’s closest approach to Jupiter
Feb. 1976: Pioneer crossed Saturn’s orbit
June 13, 1983: Pioneer 10 crossed the orbit of Neptune
March 31, 1997: Routine contact with spacecraft terminated
Jan. 23, 2003: Pioneer 10‘s last signal is received on Earth
(May 2007)
For a 1024-bit number, Shor‘s Algorithm requires on the order of 1024(3), about one billion, operations. I do not have any information on how quickly quantum operations can be executed, but if each one took one second our factorization would last 34 years. If a quantum computer could run at the speed of today‘s electronic computers (100 million instructions per second and up) then factorization of the 1024-bit number would be a matter of seconds.
Among his many provocations: Kennedy claims that pandemic lockdowns were calamitous for working people and for children; that citizens should choose for themselves whether to receive vaccines; that corporate influences on government are pervasive and corrupting; and that censorship contrived by the state is intolerable. Worse even than these outrages, during the pandemic this man called into question the conduct and veracity of Anthony Fauci. And this offense — challenging Doctor Fauci! — is still regarded as the most shameful assault on science since the persecution of Galileo.
(April 19, 2023 )
EcoHealth Alliance’s $3.3 million grant to fund a project titled “Understanding the Risk of Coronavirus Emergence” was initially to run from October 1, 2013, to September 30, 2018. The first “Project/Performance Site Location” is the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Three other Chinese sites follow: East China Normal University in Shanghai, Yunnan Institute of Endemic Disease Control and Prevention in Dali, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guangdong in Guangzhou.
On May 27, 2014, the NIH awarded EcoHealth Alliance $3,086,735 over five years for “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence.”
An EcoHealth Alliance grant application, received by the NIH on June 5, 2013, includes a list of “Senior/Key Personnel” including Shi Zhengli and Zhang Yun-Zhi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV); Peter Daszak, CEO of EcoHealth Alliance; and other Chinese scientists, including Ke Changwen of the Chinese “CDC and Prevention of Guangdong Province.”
In der Periode der zweiten Obama-Präsidentschaft (2012-2016) war nach heftigen Debatten um „GoF“ die bundesstaatliche Förderung dafür mit Gültigkeit ab 2014 vorerst ausgesetzt worden – ein zeitweiliges „Moratorium“. Ein eigenes Verfahren zum Genehmigen von Vorhaben mit „besonders riskanten“ Mikroben sollte entwickelt werden. (2) Das setzte Grenzen für den Fortgang der Vorhaben an Barics UNC-Instituten für Virologie und Epidemiologie. Zur Hilfe kam eine Absprache zur Zusammenarbeit mit dem WIV, vermittelt durch die New Yorker Organisation „EcoHealth Alliance“ und deren Chef Peter Daszak, die dafür gerade noch rechtzeitig eine Finanzierung seitens NIH/NIAID beantragt hatte, die dann von Faucis NIAID ebenfalls noch 2013 für fünf Jahre ab 2014 genehmigt wurde.
With damage to the economy, international relations, and domestic and national security already “given facts,” Ciechanover said, the next victim would be “research, science and technology in Israel, which are the basis for its existence in terms of the economy and security. Science is built on the foundation of academic freedom, which cannot be separated from democratic and cultural freedom. You can’t be a truth-teller in science and a truth-bender in your daily life.”
(Oct 7, 2019)
The research, according to the team, will help monitor and evaluate the influence of solar activities and their implications on the Earth’s climate. The astrophysicists’ team included experts from Ahmedabad’s Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Japan, and China.
(2010)
Abstract. The heliosphere is the space within which the solar wind dominates and the solar interplanetary magnetic field prevails. Its boundary is determined by the balance between stellar and solar winds. Owing to the present reduction in the solar wind pressure, one would expect that the stellar wind would push the heliosphere inward leading to its shrinkage. In this paper we calculate the extent of the heliosphere at different solar wind status.
Backward estimation of the extent of the heliosphere since 1890 is done. It is found that the heliosphere oscillated between 75 and 125 AU between 1890 –
2010. Most important is the forecast of the shrinkage and oscillations of the heliosphere and their implications on the earth. The shrinkage of the heliosphere would allow more invasions of cosmic rays to the earth and planets, increased cloud cover and a cooler Earth.
1 Introduction
The heliosphere is the cavity curved by the solar wind into the interstellar medium. Its extension is determined by the equality of the solar wind pressure and the stellar wind pressure. For this reason, we will first study past, present and future status of solar activity and then we will reflect this study into the heliosphere.
Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989, while working at CERN. The web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world.
(…)
On 30 April 1993, CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain. Later, CERN made a release available with an open licence, a more sure way to maximise its dissemination. These actions allowed the web to flourish.
The FBI started spying on renowned German-born scientist Albert Einstein when he moved to America in 1933, shortly before Adolf Hitler rose to power. Agents listened to the physicist‘s phone calls and searched his mail and trash, suspecting he was a Soviet spy. The surveillance, totalling 1,800 pages, ended with Einstein‘s death on April 18, 1955, with no supporting evidence.
(02.09.2022)
In 2022 and beyond, the industry and society have matured, and we‘re now focusing on security suites and infrastructure unification, as well as managing cyber risks. The opportunities and driving factors of one decade do not take the place of those in the one before it.
Instead, they broaden the perspective and emphasize well-known ideas in new ways. One such example is DNS – although its roots can be traced back to 1966, DNS security must be a part of every robust cybersecurity strategy today.
(20.10.2022)
The goal of this paper is to address the question whether SARS-CoV-2 originated from an animal-to-human spillover or from experiments performed in a laboratory. In the latter scenario, it is possible that evidence exists for manipulation of the viral genome by common laboratory techniques. SARS-CoV-2 is a large RNA virus. To create infectious versions of CoVs, the entire 30kb RNA genome is reconstructed in DNA by in vitro genome assembly (IVGA). IVGA has been used to create reverse genetic systems for modified and chimeric RNA viruses for more than 20 years (Yount et al, 2000). Most importantly, IVGA methods can leave genetic fingerprints, and we find those fingerprints in the genome of SARS-CoV-2.
(23.10.2022)
(04.Aug 2022)
It might seem unlikely that a once-in-a-generation event happened twice within the space of a couple of weeks, but actually, says Wertheim, once all the conditions were in place—a zoonotic virus capable of human infection in close proximity to humans—it would have been surprising if it had only happened once. The barriers to spillover had been lowered. “We failed to climb Mount Everest for thousands of years, and then in one day two people did,” says Andersen.