Licheni Letharia vulpina (vezi mai jos articolul despre licheni)
1. Numărul asteroizilor care au lovit Terra şi Luna a crescut pe parcursul ultimilor 290 de milioane de ani
[Folosind date termale şi imagini colectate de NASA, mai mulţi cercetători de la Universitatea Southampton, Universitatea Toronto şi Southwest Research Institute au determinat vârsta craterelor lunare şi au stabilit în urma unor calcule că rata de impact a crescut de 2,6 ori în ultimii 290 milioane de ani.]
2. Au fost identificate celulele cerebrale responsabile pentru senzaţia de durere
[A research team from Stanford University pinpointed the neurons in mouse brains that make pain hurt and were able to alter these neurons in a way that reduced the unpleasantness of pain without eliminating the sensation. The study lays the groundwork for future research into more targeted pain treatments.]
3. Există diferenţe fundamentale între modul în care funcţionează creierul şi modul în care este "replicat" de către reţelele neuronale folosite în inteligenţa artificială
[There is a list of features that stand in stark contrast to the circuits that engineers build: spontaneous activity and correlation, dynamic context generation, unreliable transmission, and straight-up noise. These seem to be fundamental features of what some call the universe’s most complex object—the brain.]
4. Putem acum cultiva vase de sânge în laborator
[In a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, researchers from the University of British Columbia detail how they were able to coax stem cells into growing into human blood vessel “organoids,” the term used for three-dimensional, lab-grown cellular systems that mimic the characteristics of organs or tissues.]
5. Patru tipuri de stele care vor exista peste miliarde de ani (pentru că Universul este prea tânăr pentru a exista acum)
[According to models of stellar evolution, certain types of stars need longer than the universe has existed to form.]
6. Ceea ce ştii despre maşinile electrice este, probabil, insuficient, iar asta are impact asupra alegerilor cu privire la cumpărarea unei maşini
[Consumers consistently overestimate the cost and underestimate the benefits of buying an electric car.]
7. Lichenii sunt vietăţi incredibile, trăind în simbioză cu alte organisme
[150 years ago, a Swiss botanist named Simon Schwendener suggested the radical hypothesis that lichens are composite organisms—fungi, living together with microscopic algae.
Today, such a relationship is called a “symbiosis,” and it’s considered the norm rather than the exception. Corals rely on the beneficial algae in their tissues. Humans are influenced by the trillions of microbes in our guts. Plants grow thanks to the fungi on their roots. We all live in symbiosis, but few organisms do so to the same extreme degree as lichens. If humans were to spend their lives in the total absence of microbes, they’d have many health problems but would unquestionably still be people. But without its alga, a lichen-forming fungus bears no likeness to a lichen.]
8. Nu vom folosi CRISPR pentru a crea supraoameni. Pentru că nu putem
[Intelligence is too complex to engineer and that’s a good thing, since it “may ultimately save us from the hazards of humanity’s hubris.”]
9. Filozofia poate face ca ceea ce azi pare de neconceput, mâine să devină idee comună
[There are sufficient and familiar examples of historical orthodoxies that have been overturned – women’s right to vote; the abolition of slavery; the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships – to establish that strength and pervasiveness of a belief indicate neither truth nor immutability.]
10. Pentru a măsura gravitaţia, fizicienii folosesc atomi individuali
[Once the rubidium is sufficiently cool, it’s time to invite gravity in. Up until this point, the radiation pressure from the laser has held the rubidium in place, but now the laser is switched off and the material starts on its free fall. Just before it reaches the base of the gravimeter, the laser is turned back on to create a series of vertical standing waves that the rubidium passes through.]
∗∗∗
Bonus:
O demonstraţie simplă a superconductivităţii
