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Science and Technology links (July 6th, 2019)
- Jim Keller, the vice president of silicon engineering at Intel, is optimistic regarding the continued exponential progress in computing: “It’s going to keep going, Moore’s law is relentless.”
- England did away with free college. The result?
England’s shift has resulted in increased funding per head and rising enrolments, with no apparent widening of the participation gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students.
The authors make available a short summary of their paper.
- Japanese have significant lower risks of cardiovascular diseases. Yet the difference is not explained with normal risk factors such as cholesterol (which is higher in Japan) or blood pressure (higher in Japan).
- A protein called eNAMPT has a rejuvenating effect on mice when injected in the blood. Older mice and humans have lower levels of this protein compared to the young.
- Music training does not improve academic outcomes.
- We can grow functional hair out of stem cells.
- Even a little bit of exercise appears to be enough to promote learning and make the brain healthier. (Source: Nature, tested in mice)
- Future computers might benefit from persistent memory that is both fast and requires very little power. (Source: Nature)
- We sent a spaceship that runs on a solar sail. A solar sail is,
as the name suggest, a sail pushed by solar winds. - The Bitcoin cryptocurrency uses about 0.2% of the world’s electricity consumption (46 TWh).
- China is producing over 25% of the world’s factory output. The USA is second at 17%, Japan is at less than half the USA while India is a mere 3%.
- A Russian scientist is demanding the right to do “germline gene editing” to cure deafness in some families. Germline editing is drastic in the sense that it changes the genome of children and all their descendants.