In a study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, scientists found caffeinated sleep-deprived individuals make as many mistakes performing a complex task as people who are sleep deprived but non-caffeinated. The complex task was meant to simulate real-world scenarios in which people need to make many decisions in a certain order, such as performing surgery, flying an airplane, or operating heavy machinery. Kimberly Fenn, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University, told CBC Radio's Quirks &...
The popular certified digital objects known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have spawned a new generation of collectors convinced of their huge potential, Tech Xplore reports. NFTs, which are digital objects such as drawings, animations, pieces of music, photos, or videos whose authenticity is confirmed by blockchain technology, generated nearly $2.5 billion in sales over the first five months of 2021, according to the specialized NonFungible website. The big auction houses sell them regularly, as Sotheby's is doing...
A team of Boston University biologists conducted research that reveals it is possible to accurately predict the abundance of different species of soil microbes in different parts of the world. The team recently published their findings in a new paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution. "If we know where organisms are on Earth, and we know how they change through space and time due to different environmental forces, and something about what different species are doing,...
Understanding the process and technology of detecting unmarked graves has become a focus following the announcement that preliminary findings from a survey of the grounds of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., indicate that the remains of 215 children could be buried at the site, CBC reports. That determination was made by a specialist who used ground-penetrating radar (GPR), a geophysical survey method to examine the site. The technology is used on sites to determine the presence...
A team of researchers has found that among tightly situated wind farms in German waters, wind speeds at the downstream windfarm are significantly slower. As the researchers write in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, this braking effect results in a large-scale low-wind pattern noticeable in mean wind speeds. On average, they extend 35 to 40 kilometers – in certain weather conditions up to 100 kilometers. The output of a neighbouring wind farm can thus be reduced by...
Graphene may be among the most exciting scientific discoveries of the last century. While it is familiar to us – graphene is considered an allotrope of carbon, meaning that it is essentially the same substance as graphite but in a different atomic structure –graphene opened up a world of possibilities for designing and building new technologies, phys.org reports. The material is two-dimensional, meaning that each "sheet" of graphene is only one atom thick, but its bonds...
In a 6-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which is a 34-year-old law on computer hacking, CNET reports. At issue was the conviction – which the Supreme Court ruling overturned – of a former police officer who allegedly received payments in return for searching for a license plate in a police database. Under CFAA, it is illegal to "access a computer with authorization and to use such...
A study of two methods for reconstructing ancient temperatures has given climate researchers a better understanding of how cold it was in Antarctica during the last ice age around 20,000 years ago. For decades, the leading science suggested ice-age temperatures in Antarctica were on average about 9 degrees Celsius cooler than at present. An international team of scientists led by Oregon State University's Christo Buizert has determined that while parts of Antarctica were as cold as...
Quic, Google's planned replacement for Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), seems to finally be on its way. In fact, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) published Quic as a standard for the worldwide network earlier this week, Tech Xplore reports. This protocol might replace TCP, which has dominated Internet transmission since 1974. Online services and web browsers have been experimenting with this technology for years, but now that the IETF has officially released the standard, global users...
Larry Chen, the former school teacher from a Chinese village who became one of the world’s richest people, is closing in on losing his billionaire status as shares in his online-education business slump, Bloomberg reports. GSX Techedu Inc. shares have plunged 88% since late January, wiping almost $14 billion from Chen’s fortune and leaving him a net worth of about $1.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Chinese firm has been buffeted...
