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A systematic review of research published until June 18th, 2020 suggests that people who consume meat, on average experience lower levels of depression and anxiety.
It is estimated that 5% of Americans, 8% of Canadians, and 4.3% of Germans follow a vegetarian diet. A majority of Euro-Americans cite concerns about the impact of meat consumption and meat farming on the environment and animal welfare as reasons for their vegetarianism. Vegetarians in India, on the other hand, where they constitute 30% of the population, largely cite the ethic of purity or religious beliefs. Vegetarians who are not motivated by ethical, environmental, or purity concerns are instead motivated by the purported health-benefits of vegetarianism.
A recent meta-analysis by Urska Dobersek et al. examined the connection between meat consumption and two psychopathologies – depression and anxiety. The connection between vegetarianism and mental health is a controversial issue in health science, with studies reporting both beneficial and detrimental effects of meat abstention. However, vegetarianism and veganism have steadily grown more popular as “healthier” lifestyles.
Researchers examined 20 papers published from 2001 to 2020, to examine differences in depression and anxiety between meat abstainers and meat consumers. The findings from 17 cross-sectional studies, 2 mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, and 1 randomized controlled trial were used. According to researchers, studies included in the meta-analysis were selected for methodologic rigor (“design, sampling and recruitment, specification and analysis of outcome, and interpretation and communication of results”) and whittled down from a pool of nearly 7354 potentially relevant studies.
Researchers found a significant association between meat consumption/abstention and the incidence of depression and anxiety, with individuals who consumed meat having lower average depression and anxiety levels than meat abstainers. Crucially, they found that the difference in depression and anxiety levels was greater in high-quality studies compared to low-quality studies.
FLIR System's drone weighs 33 grams and the U.S. army is buying it in bulk, repeatedly.
Nano drones have become a major military tool over the past few years, and the most recent announcement of FLIR Systems being awarded an additional $20.6 million contract for their Black Hornet 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems (PRS) by the U.S. Army is one big example of that.
While the contract is huge, the FLIR Systems Black Hornet 3 is only the size of a cellphone. This extremely light and nearly silent drone can fly up to 25 minutes, and provide many military advantages in combat.
With this second contract, FLIR Systems will be providing the service with additional miniature reconnaissance drones as part of the ongoing soldier-borne sensor program, National Defense reports.
The relationship between FLIR Systems and the U.S. Army began in late 2018. Then, later on in January 2019, FLIR Systems was awarded a hefty $39.7 million contract with the service to supply the Black Hornet 3s. Those systems are currently being delivered for fielding.
Recently, in May 2021, FLIR won an additional $15.4 million contract to deliver even more drones to the U.S. Army.
In total, the U.S. Army has paid over $85 million dollars and the company delivered more than 12,000 units of the nano-UAV (it's unclear exactly how many was delivered to the U.S.).
Weighs only 33 grams
The drone weighs 33 grams or so (1.16 oz) which makes it pretty easy to use in combat. Wells stated, "It’s almost pocket portable as opposed to rucksack portable and [it] really doesn’t add a load burden to the soldiers and servicemen and women that are out there using it." [Reply]
LongSufferingToady 10-19-2021, 12:48 AM
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NASA is predicting that the upcoming lunar eclipse on November 19, will be the longest eclipse in 100 years. It could last up to 3 hours and 28 minutes. pic.twitter.com/MoWdAJxALp
NASA is predicting that the upcoming lunar eclipse on November 19, will be the longest eclipse in 100 years. It could last up to 3 hours and 28 minutes. pic.twitter.com/MoWdAJxALp
Formed from the stem cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which it takes its name, xenobots are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide. The tiny blobs were first unveiled in 2020 after experiments showed that they could move, work together in groups and self-heal.
Now the scientists that developed them at the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering said they have discovered an entirely new form of biological reproduction different from any animal or plant known to science.
"I was astounded by it," said Michael Levin, a professor of biology and director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University who was co-lead author of the new research.
"Frogs have a way of reproducing that they normally use but when you ... liberate (the cells) from the rest of the embryo and you give them a chance to figure out how to be in a new environment, not only do they figure out a new way to move, but they also figure out apparently a new way to reproduce."
The C-shaped parent xenobots collect and compress loose stem cells together into piles which can mature into offspring.
Robot or organism?
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the ability to develop into different cell types. To make the xenobots, the researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to incubate. There's no manipulation of genes involved.
"Most people think of robots as made of metals and ceramics but it's not so much what a robot is made from but what it does, which is act on its own on behalf of people," said Josh Bongard, a computer science professor and robotics expert at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study.
"In that way it's a robot but it's also clearly an organism made from genetically unmodified frog cell."
Bongard said they found that the xenobots, which were initially sphere-shaped and made from around 3,000 cells, could replicate. But it happened rarely and only in specific circumstances. The xenobots used "kinetic replication" -- a process that is known to occur at the molecular level but has never been observed before at the scale of whole cells or organisms, Bongard said.
With the help of artificial intelligence, the researchers then tested billions of body shapes to make the xenobots more effective at this type of replication. The supercomputer came up with a C-shape that resembled Pac-Man, the 1980s video game. They found it was able to find tiny stem cells in a petri dish, gather hundreds of them inside its mouth, and a few days later the bundle of cells became new xenobots.
The parent rotates a large ball of stem cells that is maturing into a new xenobot.
"The AI didn't program these machines in the way we usually think about writing code. It shaped and sculpted and came up with this Pac-Man shape," Bongard said.
"The shape is, in essence, the program. The shape influences how the xenobots behave to amplify this incredibly surprising process."
The xenobots are very early technology -- think of a 1940s computer -- and don't yet have any practical applications. However, this combination of molecular biology and artificial intelligence could potentially be used in a host of tasks in the body and the environment, according to the researchers. This may include things like collecting microplastics in the oceans, inspecting root systems and regenerative medicine.
While the prospect of self-replicating biotechnology could spark concern, the researchers said that the living machines were entirely contained in a lab and easily extinguished, as they are biodegradable and regulated by ethics experts.
The research was partially funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a federal agency that oversees the development of technology for military use.
"There are many things that are possible if we take advantage of this kind of plasticity and ability of cells to solve problems," Bongard said.
The study was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PNAS on Monday. [Reply]
Scientist invents lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavours
We’ve all been there — watching late-night TV and a commercial comes on for something that looks positively drool-worthy. Maybe it’s gooey pizza, a frosty beer, or steaming baby back ribs. We think “how I wish I could get my hands on that right now” but instead settle for a bowl of cereal or some crackers and cheese.
A Japanese professor wants to change that, and has developed a prototype for a lickable — yes, lickable — television screen device that can imitate food flavours.
According a report from Reuters, the device is called Taste the TV (TTTV) and it uses a carousel of flavour canisters that release in combination to mimic the tastes of particular foods.
Originally Posted by listopencil: Scientist invents lickable TV screen that can imitate food flavours
We’ve all been there — watching late-night TV and a commercial comes on for something that looks positively drool-worthy. Maybe it’s gooey pizza, a frosty beer, or steaming baby back ribs. We think “how I wish I could get my hands on that right now” but instead settle for a bowl of cereal or some crackers and cheese.
A Japanese professor wants to change that, and has developed a prototype for a lickable — yes, lickable — television screen device that can imitate food flavours.
According a report from Reuters, the device is called Taste the TV (TTTV) and it uses a carousel of flavour canisters that release in combination to mimic the tastes of particular foods.
Saw that there was activity in here and was thinking someone posted about the James Webb telescope finally launching. I think I'll start a GDT for it! [Reply]
