Sehr empfehlenswert!
Saturday, December 21, 2024
Saudi Arabia is reported to have warned Germany three times about the mass killer and has requested his extradition
If confirmed, the this would be all too typical for the banana republic Germany!
What appears to be certain at this time is that the killer has carefully planned his attack by scouting for the weakness of the security measures of the Christmas market.
Team presents first demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy internet cables
Amazing stuff!
"Northwestern University engineers are the first to successfully demonstrate quantum teleportation over a fiberoptic cable already carrying internet traffic.
The discovery introduces the new possibility of combining quantum communication with existing internet cables—greatly simplifying the infrastructure required for distributed quantum sensing or computing applications. ..."
From abstract:
"The ability for quantum and conventional networks to operate in the same optical fibers would aid the deployment of quantum network technology on a large scale. Quantum teleportation is a fundamental operation in quantum networking, but has yet to be demonstrated in fibers populated with high-power conventional optical signals. Here we report to the best of our knowledge the first demonstration of quantum teleportation over fibers carrying conventional telecommunications traffic. Quantum state transfer is achieved over a 30.2-km fiber carrying 400-Gbps C-band classical traffic with a Bell state measurement performed at the fiber's midpoint. To protect quantum fidelity from spontaneous Raman scattering noise, we use optimal O-band quantum channels, narrow spectro-temporal filtering, and multi-photon coincidence detection. Fidelity is shown to be well maintained with an elevated C-band launch power of 18.7 dBm for the single-channel 400-Gbps signal, which we project could support multiple classical channels totaling many terabits/s aggregate data rates. These results show the feasibility of advanced quantum and classical network applications operating within a unified fiber infrastructure."
Figure 1: Conceptual diagram of the experiment.
How Earth’s first life came to have cell membranes
Amazing stuff!
"A reaction between 2 simple molecules might be the secret to uncovering how the building blocks of life were first encapsulated in a cell membrane, according to new research. ..."
From the abstract:
"All known forms of life are composed of cells, whose boundaries are defined by lipid membranes that separate and protect cell contents from the environment. It is unknown how the earliest forms of life were compartmentalized.
Several models have suggested a role for single-chain lipids such as fatty acids, but the membranes formed are often unstable, particularly when made from shorter alkyl chains (≤C8) that were probably more prevalent on prebiotic Earth.
Here we show that the amino acid cysteine can spontaneously react with two short-chain (C8) thioesters to form diacyl lipids, generating protocell-like membrane vesicles. The three-component reaction takes place rapidly in water using low concentrations of reactants. Silica can catalyse the formation of protocells through a simple electrostatic mechanism. Several simple aminothiols react to form diacyl lipids, including short peptides. The protocells formed are compatible with functional ribozymes, suggesting that coupling of multiple short-chain precursors may have provided membrane building blocks during the early evolution of cells."
On the Origin of Life: How the First Cell Membranes Came to Exist (original news release) "New research provides a possible explanation on the development of early Earth protocells"
Protocells by spontaneous reaction of cysteine with short-chain thioesters (no public access)
Image of the day
The face of gerontocracy! Rosa DeLauro (age 81), U.S. Representative (D-CT). She has been a Representative since 1991! Her record seems to be thin!
Maybe her cognitive abilities need to be checked! Hopefully, after the mid-term elections of 2026, she is gone!
She just made headlines: "'President Musk!' Democratic congresswoman unleashes rant on House floor over funding bill failure" "DeLauro referred to Musk as a 'swamp creature' in a Friday X post"
Greenland ice sheet thinning at alarming rate. Really!
So what! This is the usual climate change alarmism and hysteria!
When the Vikings discovered Greenland around 982 CE, they christened it Greenland, because it was lush green. This happened during the Medieval Warm Period (950 - 1250 CE).
And how much of this ice melting can be attributed to the AMOC?
"Joint research involving satellites from the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have uncovered extreme thinning occurring across the Greenland Ice Sheet. ..."
From the key points and abstract:
"Although fluctuations in ice sheet surface mass balance lead to seasonal and interannual elevation changes, it is unclear if they are resolved differently by radar and laser satellite altimeters. We compare methods of computing elevation change from CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 over the Greenland Ice Sheet to assess their consistency and to quantify recent change. Solutions exist such that interannual trends in the interior and the ablation zone agree to within −0.2 ± 1.5 and 3.3 ± 6.0 cm/yr, respectively, and that seasonal cycle amplitudes within the ablation zone agree to within 3.5 ± 38.0 cm. The agreement is best in the north where the measurements are relatively dense and worst in the southeast where the terrain is rugged. Using both missions, we estimate Greenland lost 196 ± 37 km3/yr of volume between 2010 and 2022 with an interannual variability of 129 km3/yr.
Key Points
- Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change between 2018 and 2022 from CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 was −11.4 ± 0.8 and −11.7 ± 1.3 cm/yr, respectively
- Ablation zone seasonal cycle amplitude between 2018 and 2022 from CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 was 62.9 ± 26.5 and 59.4 ± 24.4 cm, respectively
- Volume change between 2010 and 2022 was −196 ± 37 km3/yr with an interannual variability of 129 km3/yr
"
ESA and NASA satellites deliver first joint picture of Greenland Ice Sheet melting "Global warming is driving the rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, contributing to global sea level rise and disrupting weather patterns worldwide. Because of this, precise measurements of its changing shape are of critical importance for adapting to climate change.
Now, scientists from the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling have delivered the first measurements of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s changing shape using data from ESA’s CryoSat and NASA’s ICESat-2 ice missions."
Fig. 2 Rates of elevation change averaged from CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 between 2018 and 2022
I need to take a break!
I am currently busy with my wife, family and other things. I will resume regular blogging as soon as possible.
Thanks to all my readers for your consideration!
Friday, December 20, 2024
Niche Japanese experiences enter the tourism spotlight
Want to know more about advanced Japanese public toilet/restroom design?
Russia’s Arms Exports Collapse Amid Ukraine War with Palki Sharma
Good news! Russia is loosing customers like India and China!
Full-time vs. Part-time: Do We Need New Incentives in Switzerland (or elsewhere)?
Food for thought!
"The debate about part-time and full-time work is not only a hot topic in Switzerland. A look at Austria shows that strange ideas are also being discussed there to curb the trend towards part-time work. For example: a bonus of 1000 euros is being distributed to all those who increase their level of employment to 100%. Is something similar necessary in Switzerland? ..."
US troops more than doubled from 900 to 2000 in Syria before Assad’s overthrow, Pentagon says
What the heck are all these US soldiers doing in Syria while a monster dictator was ruling!!!
"The U.S. more than doubled its number of troops in Syria — from 900 to around 2,000 — before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Pentagon said Thursday, publicly disclosing the surge for the first time. ..."
CIA chief leaves Qatar as hostage talks fail to make progress
What is a CIA director doing in negotiating a hostage release with Islamist terrorists in the Middle East! Mr. Burns (age 68) already retired from foreign service in 2014!
What else to expect from a senile, demented and corrupt 46th President!
The foreign policy team of the 46th President is a cabale of clowns (e.g. Anthony Blinken, Jake Sullivan)
High levels of PFAS found in smartwatch wristbands. Really!
The never ending alarmism and hysteria about PFAS! This one is disseminated by the Royal Society of Chemistry! Shame on them!
Alert: Plastophobia is a serious disorder. Please seek immediate medical help! (Caution: satire)
What about all the benefits of plastics in our lives? What are the substitutes?
"There are elevated levels of leachable per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in several smartwatch wristbands, US researchers have shown. Fluoropolymers are often employed in such products owing to their oil-and water-repelling properties. The research suggests that some bands contain significant residues of perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA) – used as a surfactant during manufacturing – providing an opportunity for skin exposure. ..."
Chinese communist party's influence on current politics in Taiwan
Maybe one day, the Taiwanese people will decide whether and how to be reunified with mainland China.
"The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses exchanges with Kuomintang (KMT) leaders to legitimize the party while maintaining coercive pressure against President Lai Ching-te’s administration and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). This dual approach is likely intended to cause the Taiwanese public to associate the DPP with military escalation and the KMT with peaceful cross-Strait relations."
Elon Musk: „Nur die AfD kann Deutschland retten“
Schlagzeile des Tages!
The bacterium responsible for syphilis was present in Indigenous American populations dating back thousands of years
Amazing stuff! The pre-Columbian hypothesis won!
"In 1494, just a year after Christopher Columbus returned to Europe from the Americas, the first recorded outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease syphilis occurred, sweeping through French King Charles VIII’s mercenary army as it invaded Italy. Ever since, scientists and historians have contentiously debated the disease’s origin: Did it arise in the Americas and travel to Europe following Columbus’ voyage, or was it already present in Europe?
Scholars have gone back and forth over the centuries, but a study of ancient DNA out this week in Nature finds that the bacterium responsible for syphilis, Treponema pallidum, was present in Indigenous American populations dating back thousands of years. While the bacterium’s DNA doesn’t precisely match the modern syphilitic strain, researchers are confident they’ve found its predecessor. ...
The afflicted were usually eager to blame it on rival nations: The English called it the French pox, Polish physicians called it the German disease, and Turkish doctors pinned its origins on Christians. By 1530, Europeans were speculating it might have been an import from the Americas, associating its sexually transmitted spread with inaccurate, racist notions of lascivious Native lifestyles. ..."
The afflicted were usually eager to blame it on rival nations: The English called it the French pox, Polish physicians called it the German disease, and Turkish doctors pinned its origins on Christians. By 1530, Europeans were speculating it might have been an import from the Americas, associating its sexually transmitted spread with inaccurate, racist notions of lascivious Native lifestyles. ..."
From the abstract:
"Human treponemal infections are caused by a family of closely related Treponema pallidum that give rise to the diseases yaws, bejel, pinta and, most famously, syphilis. Debates on both a common origin for these pathogens and the history of syphilis itself has weighed evidence for the “Columbian hypothesis”, which argues for an American origin, against that for the “pre-Columbian hypothesis”, which argues for presence of the disease in Eurasia in the Medieval period and possibly earlier. While molecular data has provided a genetic basis for distinction of the typed subspecies, deep evolution of the complex has remained unresolved due to limitations in the conclusions that can be drawn from the sparse paleogenomic data currently available. Here we explore this evolutionary history through analyses of five pre- and peri-contact ancient treponemal genomes from the Americas that represent ancient relatives of the T. pallidum pallidum (syphilis), T. pallidum pertenue (yaws) and T. pallidum endemicum (bejel) lineages. Our data indicate unexplored diversity and an emergence of T. pallidum that post-dates human occupation in the Americas. Together these results support an American origin for all T. pallidum characterized at the genomic level, both modern and ancient."
Ancient genomes reveal a deep history of treponemal disease in the Americas (no public access)
Paranoia may be, in part, a visual problem
Good news!
"Could complex beliefs like paranoia have roots in something as basic as vision? A new Yale study finds evidence that they might.
When completing a visual perception task, in which participants had to identify whether one moving dot was chasing another moving dot, those with greater tendencies toward paranoid thinking (believing others intend them harm) and teleological thinking (ascribing excessive meaning and purpose to events) performed worse than their counterparts, the study found. Those individuals more often — and confidently — claimed one dot was chasing the other when it wasn’t.
The findings ... suggest that, in the future, testing for illnesses like schizophrenia could be done with a simple eye test. ..."
From the abstract:
"Paranoia (believing others intend harm) and excess teleological thinking (ascribing too much purpose) are non-consensual beliefs about agents. Human vision rapidly detects agents and their intentions. Might paranoia and teleology have roots in visual perception? Using displays that evoke the impression that one disc (‘wolf’) is chasing another (‘sheep’), we find that paranoia and teleology involve perceiving chasing when there is none (studies 1 and 2) — errors we characterize as social hallucinations. When asked to identify the wolf or the sheep (studies 3, 4a, and 4b), we find high-paranoia participants struggled to identify sheep, while high-teleology participants were impaired at identifying wolves — both despite high-confidence. Both types of errors correlated with hallucinatory percepts in the real world. Although paranoia and teleology both involve excess perception of agency, the current results collectively suggest a perceptual distinction between the two, perhaps with clinical import."
Paranoid and teleological thinking give rise to distinct social hallucinations in vision (open access)
Fig. 2: Graphical representation of the Animacy Detection Task.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
Global coal demand hits record high in 2024, set to plateau through 2027
Only Western countries (in particular Germany) are stupid enough to shut down their coal fired power plants, while China builds huge number of new such plants each year.
California Squirrels Turning Into Carnivorous predators with Molly Gambhir
Of course, humans must be responsible for this! Caution: Irony!
The Unreliability of Current Global Temperature and Solar Activity Estimates and Its Implications for the Attribution of Global Warming
Could be very recommendable!
Keep in mind: Global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion! It is being used as a pretext by Big Government and the elite to interfere with our lives. It is among the greatest scams and scandals of at least the last 30 years!
A few inconvenient facts are:
- We still know very little about our sun, its solar activity and the periodic fluctuations of its activity.
- Global surface air temperature measurement history are very flawed data (e.g. urban heat island effect)
- There was the Medieval Warm Period not very long ago!
- We just came out of the Little Ice Age around 1850 CE
Caveat: I did not read the whole article!
Look at the maps below! Global weather stations were very sparse until 1950 CE! Most weather stations are located in urban areas (hint: urban heat island effect).
It takes two to tango: What a protein’s “dance” reveals about human health
Very recommendable!
Excerpt: "“I eat and breathe proteins,” she jokes."
"... we developed an algorithm to predict a protein’s different conformations. We have shown over and over that these conformational substates are essential for biological function. That means that learning how proteins “dance” is key to understanding the difference between health and disease. ...
why certain protein language models work. The models we investigated are fed a single protein sequence and then predict what the corresponding 3-D structure looks like. Yet, how they arrive at these conclusions was a “black box” of sorts.
In this paper, we were determined to figure out how these models learn and predict, if we are to use them reliably as a field. ... The third one—which turned out to be true—is that it learned to find paired interacting protein fragments, including whole segments.
Big picture, we shed light into the question of how these protein language models learn. On the more technical side, we determined how long the protein segments must be for the model to identify the correct 3-D structure. Machine learning language models, including the Nobel Prize-winning AlphaFold, are so hot right now because solving protein structures with a single sequence has been a monumental breakthrough. ...
Protein language models like AlphaFold are limited because they only come up with one structure. The “signal” for the other protein structure—the one it “dances” between—gets diluted. ...
In our new PNAS study, we looked at exactly how KaiB “travels over the mountain,” so to speak. In other words, how it climbs over the free energy landscape. ...
using the protein KaiB as a benchmark. KaiB is essential for regulating circadian rhythm in certain bacteria ... KaiB only has two protein conformations, and if you put it in a test tube with its partner KaiC, they create a 24-hour oscillation—the underlying mechanism we revealed in another Nature paper in early 2023. In this Nature paper, however, we had only predicted KaiB’s two end states—not the actual dynamics, or pathway, of how it went from one conformation to the other.
First of all, we figured out that KaiB’s conversion to its alternate state takes hours. ... The speed of any protein conformational transition is tuned to the biological function needed. The KaiB protein controls the organism’s 24-hour clock, meaning it needs to move super, super slow. In our paper, we saw what evolution had to do to slow this process down.
We studied these changes using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)—an amazing method where you can measure protein dynamics in solution at atomic resolution—and we found that KaiB’s conversion takes three hours to be completed. And then we determined the atomistic pathway, which was very complicated. At the high level, we figured out how evolution tunes protein kinetics to align with its overall function. ..."
From the significance and abstract:
"Significance
Protein language models (pLMs) have exhibited remarkable capabilities in protein structure prediction and design. However, the extent to which they comprehend the intrinsic biophysics of protein structures remains uncertain. We present a suite of analyses that dissect how the flagship pLM ESM-2 predicts structure. Motivated by a consistent error of protein isoforms predicted as structured fragments, we developed a completely unsupervised method to uniformly evaluate any pLM, allowing us to compare coevolutionary statistics to linear models. We further identified that ESM-2 does not require full context for predicting interresidue contacts. Our study highlights the current limitations of pLMs and contributes to a deeper understanding of their underlying mechanisms, paving the way for more reliable protein structure predictions.
Abstract
Protein language models (pLMs) have emerged as potent tools for predicting and designing protein structure and function, and the degree to which these models fundamentally understand the inherent biophysics of protein structure stands as an open question. Motivated by a finding that pLM-based structure predictors erroneously predict nonphysical structures for protein isoforms, we investigated the nature of sequence context needed for contact predictions in the pLM Evolutionary Scale Modeling (ESM-2). We demonstrate by use of a “categorical Jacobian” calculation that ESM-2 stores statistics of coevolving residues, analogously to simpler modeling approaches like Markov Random Fields and Multivariate Gaussian models. We further investigated how ESM-2 “stores” information needed to predict contacts by comparing sequence masking strategies, and found that providing local windows of sequence information allowed ESM-2 to best recover predicted contacts. This suggests that pLMs predict contacts by storing motifs of pairwise contacts. Our investigation highlights the limitations of current pLMs and underscores the importance of understanding the underlying mechanisms of these models."
A graphic depicting how KaiB converts to its alternate states and “climbs” over the free energy landscape.
Fig. 1 Three hypotheses of how language models predict protein structures.
Fig. 2 Deep learning structure-based methods predict isoforms as fragments of full-length structures with exposed aggregation-prone residues.
Amazon workers go on strike at seven Amazon facilities across the United States
I think, this is a very bad move by labor unions!
In the retail business you can strike at any time during the year, but not before Christmas! This is extortion of the worst kind!
Let the robots take over!
Where is the Russian Count Claus von Stauffenberg?
When will the Russian military finally get rid of the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible! Are there any officers or lower rank soldiers with spine and consciousness!
Please Russian military show the world that you are not a meat grinder and a horrible barbaric force! Arrest and prosecute Putin the Terrible under martial law!
Or when will the lethargic, apathetic, and Russian Slav(e)s finally get rid of their last tsar, the megalomaniac and war criminal Putin the Terrible! How many more young Russian men have to die or be maimed because Putin the Terrible has conducted a “special military operation” in the Ukraine since February of 2022!
P.S. Claus von Stauffenberg (Wikipedia)
Ukraine's Assassination of Kremlin’s Chemical General ‘Not a Good Idea’: Trump Envoy Keith Kellogg. Really!
I am afraid President Trump needs to get rid of this fool very quickly!
To assassinate this Russian general in Moscow was a master stroke by Ukraine!
Keith Kellogg, National Security Advisor to US Vice President Mike Pence, speaks during a press briefing on September 22, 2020, in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. On November 27, 2024
Perhaps, the worst ever mistake of Christianity
Caution: Food for thought! No offense to Christian believers or any Christian church intended.
The mistake: To make Christ/Jesus into a god or god's son. This mistake was all too human. Or how to make one religion stand out from others. This mistake is also known as anthropomorphism.
The two other Abrahamic religions did not make this mistake. The latecomer, Islam could have even opted to follow or copy the Christian example, but Islam did not.
Jesus famously said one of you will betray me. Actually, all Christians may have betrayed him ever since in my opinion.
One may speculate, had the humble prophet Jesus foreseen he would become a god after death, he might have chosen to disappear without a trace.
No human (or animal) can probably ever become a God who created the universe and all live in it. Or how many sons and daughters does God possibly have all over the universe?
Are we all made in the image of god (imago dei), hopefully not. E.g. I can not and will never believe that e.g. Hitler or Stalin and their henchmen were made in the image of god rather than in the image of the devil.
Does God even need sons and daughters? I don't thinks so.
P.S. I believe, I am myself a deeply religious person as probably my blog can attest to. I do respect all major religions. Can we all get along in peace and harmony please!
P.S. I am not and I do not claim to be an expert on religion or the history of religions.
Israel strikes Houthi targets, oil facility, in Sana'a, Yemen
Good news! Bravo!
While Western countries hesitated, surrendered and allowed a bunch of terrorists (unfortunately, in the thousands as reported) in Yemen to threaten world maritime trade, Israel took matters again in its own hands!
Many months ago Western countries should have issued one last warning to the Houthi terrorists!
Reminder: The Middle East is a tough neighborhood! The usual Western niceties maybe misunderstood as being pusillanimous.
Beer for the masses? North Korean beer bar opens in Pyongyang
More on the hermit dictatorship! Maybe extra beer will help with mourning over the many killed soldiers in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
California declares state of emergency over bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle. Really!
Governor Newsom is crazy! What is in his hair gel! There are only a few infections!
Tyrant Assad 'sold Syrian military secrets to enemy Israel to let him ESCAPE'
If confirmed, the this story is incredible! It would make Israel look invincible!
"Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad traded his country's military secrets with Israel in exchange for safe passage out of the country, it has been claimed.
The murderous tyrant allegedly handed over coordinates for weapons depots which Israel is now using to drop bombs on Syrian targets.
A journalist from Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, said a reliable source told him Assad handed over a list with "the location of weapons depots, missile systems, and warplanes as a guarantee that Israel would not target him during his flight.""
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
Donald Trump unveils new hairstyle in viral video
Good news! Changing his old playboy hairstyle was long overdue!
Syria is “not a threat to the world” its new Islamist leader tells BBC
Recommendable! Give this man a chance. Trust, but verify! For the West, be ready to accept a conservative Muslim government, but hopefully tolerant and pluralistic government.
India to Reopen Embassy in North Korea? with Palki Sharma
Recommendable! When will the Korean peninsula be reunited? Germany was reunited in 1990.
Apple vs. Meta: Designing the Perfect AR Glasses
Recommendable! I think, I would go nuts wearing these glasses for an extended period. Too old for this new technology!
Syria's Mass Graves Expose Assad's "Killing Machine" with Palki Sharma
Sheer horror! Assad, the reincarnation of Dr. Mengele! Putin the Terrible is protecting a mass murderer! Nuremberg trial for Assad and his henchmen!
Image of the day
Bob Sagers, a cheesemonger (better than a warmonger) at a Salt Lake City grocery store, does Jesus modeling on the side. It pays to have long hair and a beard in Utah. Jesus models are in demand.
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