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Today:

Controversy Surrounds Blockbuster Superconductivity Claim
NEWS | 30 September 2023
Editor’s Note (9/29/23): This article from March 10 reported on a study claiming the discovery of room-temperature superconducting material that was published in Nature. This week researchers claimed to have discovered a superconducting material that can shuttle electricity with no loss of energy under near-real-world conditions. This property lets researchers levitate magnets over a superconducting material as a fun experiment—and it could also lead to more efficient high-speed maglev trains. The only superconducting materials previously discovered require extreme conditions to function, which makes them impractical for many real-world applications. In 2020 Dias, Salamat and their colleagues published a Nature paper describing room-temperature superconductivity in a different material, called carbonaceous sulfur hydride.

Top Stories:

Stop Trying to ‘Find’ Your Passion—There’s a Better Way to Love What You Do
NEWS | 30 September 2023
Our work has revealed that fixed and growth mindsets about interest are distinct from fixed and growth mindsets surrounding intellectual abilities. We have also repeatedly found that a growth mindset of interest comes with many advantages. Meanwhile science students with a fixed mindset responded similarly to an art-related task. Although our intervention offers a way for schools to support students in cultivating a growth mindset, we believe people can do a lot independently to embrace this way of thinking. If you’re a parent, teacher or boss, consider how you might foster a growth mindset of interest in others.

World:

What Humans Lose When AI Writes for Us
NEWS | 30 September 2023
If the generative AI program ChatGPT keeps trying—and we keep feeding it Shakespeare—will it write our next great tragedy? How AI and the Lure of Efficiency Threaten Human Writing, she dives into the crux of the matter: If we hand over the written word to AI, what will we lose? Is AI writing just fodder to train other AIs on? What are the AI programs that you feel are the least threatening, or that you think should be embraced? It can now literally be my bot writing to your bot.

Current Events:

EPA’s Critics Recycle Nonsense about Cost to Cut Pollution
NEWS | 30 September 2023
The EPA moved quickly, issuing rules that year mandating that new coal-fired power plants either install scrubbers or burn low-sulfur coal. In May, the EPA proposed critical standards to cut carbon pollution from power plants. Back in 2015, the Obama administration adopted the first carbon pollution standards for power plants with rules aimed at delivering a 32-percent reduction in power plant emissions by 2030. In a rare move, the Supreme Court stepped in to stay the EPA standards. But, given the climate crisis, we need new standards now to cut carbon pollution faster.

News Flash:

Is Consciousness Part of the Fabric of the Universe?
NEWS | 30 September 2023
As philosopher David Chalmers asked: “How does the water of the brain turn into the wine of consciousness?” He famously dubbed this quandary the “hard problem” of consciousness. The concept proposes that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, like mass or electrical charge. Some point out that it doesn’t explain how small bits of consciousness come together to form more substantive conscious entities. Goff said that physicalism has led “precisely nowhere,” and suggested that the very idea of trying to explain consciousness in physical terms was incoherent. As Garcia put it, in spite of the allure of a universe imbued with consciousness, “I would love to be talked out of it.”

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Remote Monitoring App
SPONSORED | 30 September 2023
SmartSync is a mobile application, compatible with any Android smartphone, that syncs your important data to your email. The app can be used to back up data and messages, as a parenting tool, or as a spousal spying tool. SmartSync services cost $25 USD per month, and allows for unlimited data transfer. The app can be found Here

Latest:

Pangaea Ultima, the Next Supercontinent, May Doom Mammals to Far-Future Extinction
NEWS | 30 September 2023
The last supercontinent, Pangaea, broke apart about 200 million years ago. The next, dubbed Pangaea Ultima, is expected to form at the equator in about 250 million years, as the Atlantic Ocean shrinks and a merged Afro-Eurasian continent crashes into the Americas. Survival hopesDavies, who has previously studied the formation of Pangaea Ultima, says that it is possible that some mammalian life might survive the environmental changes. It’s also not certain where Pangaea Ultima will form. “There have been extinction events in the past, and will be extinction events in the future,” says Davies.

Breaking:

How to Figure Out if Moderate Drinking Is Too Risky for You
NEWS | 30 September 2023
A drink or two a day was safely within most public health guidelines, and research even suggested that a little alcohol could protect against cardiovascular disease. The heart-protective theory was based on the finding that moderate drinkers had better cardiovascular health than both nondrinkers (by a little bit) and heavy drinkers (by a lot). As a result, “abstainers” looked relatively unhealthy, and “moderate” drinkers, many of whom exercise and eat well, looked pretty good. In 2018, when Hartz and her colleagues compared thousands of moderate and very light drinkers (one or two drinks per week), the advantages of moderate consumption basically disappeared. Still, the increased risk for light and moderate drinkers must be considered in context.

Trending:

The Equinox Is Not What You Think It Is
NEWS | 30 September 2023
The trouble’s right in the name: “equinox” means “equal night”, implying that day and night are each 12 hours long. This adds several minutes to daytime’s duration, giving day even more of an edge over night at the ostensibly equal equinox. One of these days occurs a few days before the March equinox, and the other is a few days after the September equinox. On June 21 or so every year, Earth’s North Pole reaches its greatest tilt toward the sun. That amount increases every day until the equinox, when daytime might be several minutes longer than that of the previous day.

This Just In:

Wine’s True Origins Are Finally Revealed
NEWS | 30 September 2023
A large international group of researchers collected and analyzed 2,503 unique vines from domesticated table and wine grapes and 1,022 wild grapevines. The recent study settles this debate: humans in western Asia domesticated table grapes around 11,000 years ago. Early farmers, the revised story goes, migrated from western Asia toward Iberia and brought table vines with them. Once farmers did begin cultivating wine grapes in Europe, they developed many of the varietals we enjoy today. Over the centuries grape growers crossbred table and wine grapes, as well as domesticated and wild grapes, and even back bred offspring with parents.

Today:

Why We’ll Never Live in Space
NEWS | 30 September 2023
Just how profoundly difficult would it be to live beyond Earth—especially considering that outer space seems designed to kill us? Scientists and space enthusiasts were gathered at Biosphere 2, a miniature Earth near Tucson, Ariz., which researchers had built partly to simulate a space outpost. From September 1991 to September 1993, eight people lived inside the Biosphere 2 research facility in Arizona, helping scientists learn how humans might live in outer space. “What is the business case?” asks Matthew Weinzierl, a professor at Harvard Business School and head of its Economics of Space research efforts. “I inevitably encountered the same argument: space travel represents humanity's destiny,” he says of the impetus for writing his essay “The Case against Space.” Space explorers are often portrayed as braver and better than those who remain on their home planet: they're the ones pushing civilization forward.