Artificial reefs to develop fishing populations isn’t a new thing. China, however, is scaling the concept to a degree where they have developed “marine ranches” that provide fishing stock for large populations.
Category: Science
Do anything related to science biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc
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Hermit crab conservation
Someone noticed hermit crabs using plastic for their shell. They created an organization that cleans beaches and offers hermit crabs actual shells.
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Solar Sponges: Turning Sunlight Into Freshwater
Scientists have developed a new type of solar sponge that can turn salt water into freshwater.
Reporting in ACS Energy Letters, a team of scientists created a sponge-like structure filled with long, microscopic air channels that harness sunlight to turn saltwater into fresh, clean water. In an outdoor test, this simple system—just the sponge and a clear plastic cover—successfully produced drinkable water using only natural sunlight. It’s a step toward making low-energy, sustainable desalination more accessible
This will come in handy during the water wars.
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Coolness qualified
Science can now identify traits that make someone cool.
A new study suggests that there are six specific traits that these people tend to have in common: Cool people are largely perceived to be extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open and autonomous.
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Acid tripping with ChatGPT
People are using AI to ‘sit’ with them while they trip on psychedelics.
Peter—who asked to have his last name omitted from this story for privacy reasons—is far from alone. A growing number of people are using AI chatbots as “trip sitters”—a phrase that traditionally refers to a sober person tasked with monitoring someone who’s under the influence of a psychedelic—and sharing their experiences online. It’s a potent blend of two cultural trends: using AI for therapy and using psychedelics to alleviate mental-health problems. But this is a potentially dangerous psychological cocktail, according to experts. While it’s far cheaper than in-person psychedelic therapy, it can go badly awry.
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USA brain drain coming soon
- Europe has invested nearly a billion dollars in attracting top US scientific talent, including special additional funding for researchers to move their labs/research programs overseas.
- Individual European nations, such as France, have developed special programs to bring in displaced Americans.
- Japan has built a fund of ¥100 billion to attract researchers from abroad, with the Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe offering additional special postdoctoral positions for displaced scientists.
- Other countries, such as Canada and Australia, are also working to attract displaced American scientists.
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5 conversation types
A handy guide breaks down five conversation types, their purpose, their approaches, how to interact.
- Seeker
- Scientist
- Spaceholder
- Socialite
- Non-sequitourist
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Maybe the whales are communicating with us
If the movie Arrival suggests anything, it’s that communication with other species will have a different language. Whales may be communicating with humans.
Researchers at the SETI Institute and UC Davis have documented a striking new behavior in humpback whales. These whales, some weighing over 30 tons, are seen producing nearly perfect rings of bubbles that spiral to the surface. These aren’t random puffs. The whales often blow them during close encounters with humans and they seem to be watching what we do next.
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Do you want others to succeed?
Kottke found a video and provided a transcript of a simple social experiment: everyone in a class gets an A if the class votes unanimously for it.
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Infrared enabled contact lenses
Every day we get a little closer to the future, and recently, Chinese scientists have created contact lenses that can see infrared light.
The team screened various biocompatible polymeric materials (used to make commercial contact lenses) to find just the right refractive index and optical and mechanical properties, and integrated them with the aforementioned nanoparticles to make upconversion contact lenses (UCLs). Then they tested their lenses on mice, giving them a choice between a dark box and a box illuminated with infrared light. Mice wearing the contacts chose the dark box; those without augmented vision showed no preference. And the pupils of the contact-wearing mice constricted in response to infrared light, while brain imaging showed the visual processing centers reacting to it as well.