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How EVE Online and Borderlands 3 merge citizen science and gaming

If we can take just a fraction of the time that’s spent gaming, and make it useful for science, then that’s practically a limitless resource.


The idea of citizen science isn’t a new one. Amateur scientists have been making important discoveries as far back as Ug the Neolithic hunter and her ‘wheel’, while even Newton, Franklin, and Darwin were self-funded for part of their careers, and Herschel discovered Uranus while employed as a musician. It’s only from the late 20th century that it’s crystallised into what we know today, with the North American Butterfly Association using its members to count the popular winged insects since 1975. Zooniverse has users classify images to identify stellar wind bubbles, track coronal mass ejections, and determine the shape of galaxies. Then there’s Folding@Home and other cloud computing projects—they count too.

UK plans to launch $1.1 billion ‘high-risk, high-reward’ science research agency

ARIA’s launch comes hot on the heels of the European Innovation Council’s new fund, which stands at $12 billion. The EIC was set up by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to try to help start-ups across Europe to scale up and compete with rivals in the U.S. and Asia, which have spawned several tech giants with market caps that run well into hundreds of billions of dollars.


The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) will fund “high-risk, high-reward” scientific research in the hope of achieving “groundbreaking” discoveries.

Dr. Paola Vega-Castillo — Costa Rica’s Minister of Science, Technology and Telecom — Bio-Economy

Is the Minister of Science, Technology and Telecommunications for the country of Costa Rica and has served in this role since June 1st, 2020.

Dr. Vega-Castillo was previously Deputy Minister of Science and Technology and also served as Vice President for Research and Outreach in the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR) where she promoted the strengthening of research and outreach, and linkages with the national and international sector for increasing the scientific publication and patents.

Dr. Vega-Castillo has a degree in Electronic Engineering from the ITCR and graduated with a PhD. in Microelectronics and Microsystems at Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg (TUHH).

We discuss the Costa-Rica National Bio-Economy Strategy — An initiative that has a knowledge-based, green, resilient, and competitive economy as its model and which also proposes the application of the principles of a circular bio-economy and the de-carbonization of production and consumption processes.

New Machine Learning Theory Raises Questions About the Very Nature of Science

A novel computer algorithm, or set of rules, that accurately predicts the orbits of planets in the solar system could be adapted to better predict and control the behavior of the plasma that fuels fusion facilities designed to harvest on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars.

The algorithm, devised by a scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), applies machine learning, the form of artificial intelligence (AI) that learns from experience, to develop the predictions. “Usually in physics, you make observations, create a theory based on those observations, and then use that theory to predict new observations,” said PPPL physicist Hong Qin, author of a paper detailing the concept in Scientific Reports. “What I’m doing is replacing this process with a type of black box that can produce accurate predictions without using a traditional theory or law.”

Qin (pronounced Chin) created a computer program into which he fed data from past observations of the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and the dwarf planet Ceres. This program, along with an additional program known as a “serving algorithm,” then made accurate predictions of the orbits of other planets in the solar system without using Newton’s laws of motion and gravitation. “Essentially, I bypassed all the fundamental ingredients of physics. I go directly from data to data,” Qin said. “There is no law of physics in the middle.”

The SARS-CoV-2 Virus Mutates Fast: The Science You Need to Understand About Coronavirus Variants and COVID-19 Vaccines

The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates fast. That’s a concern because these more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2 are now present in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa and other countries, and many people are wondering whether the current vaccines will protect the recipients from the virus. Furthermore, many question whether we will we be able to keep ahead of future variants of SARS-CoV-2, which will certainly arise.

In my laboratory I study the molecular structure of RNA viruses – like the one that causes COVID-19 – and how they replicate and multiply in the host. As the virus infects more people and the pandemic spreads, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve. This process of evolution is constant and it allows the virus to sample its environment and select changes that make it grow more efficiently. Thus, it is important to monitor viruses for such new mutations that could make them more deadly, more transmissible or both.

Cold Showers Pros And Cons — And Other Cold Therapies. The Science

Did you know, getting a bit cold from time to time can help you get fitter, live longer, reduce pain and discomfort and help you concentrate and feel great?
Whether it is cold showers, ice baths, swimming in open water or trying out cryotherapy, enduring the cold is becoming increasingly popular as a way to hack your body as an aid to longevity and a good health span.
And for a good reason.
It effects metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure and many biomarkers.
It improves pain tolerance and levels, your mood and energy levels.
It effects mitochondrial biogenesis and brown fat stores, even beiging previously white adipose tissue.
In fact, there are hardly any systems left untouched.
But it does have side effects as well, especially for those who have health issues, but they also have the most to gain.
If you want to get more detail then check out this video where I go into more depth looking at the subject and discuss the studies that have been done to assess the effects.
Have a great day.


In Cold Showers Pros And Cons — And Other Cold Therapies, I will be looking at the good, and the bad, when it comes to embracing cold therapies from cold water swimming and ice baths, through to cold showers and cryotherapy.

What are they all about?
How do they work?
Do they even work?
Are they dangerous?

If you want to know the answer to these and more then just watch this video.

And after yo have finished, why not try this one about the benefits of saunas… https://youtu.be/dTwOMjWnzhg As always the studies that I mentioned are linked here… ECT overview https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-proc… view of treatment Electroconvulsive Therapy for Depression: A Review of the Quality of ECT versus Sham ECT Trials and Meta-Analyses https://connect.springerpub.com/conte… Scientific Evidence-Based Effects of Hydrotherapy on Various Systems of the Body https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti… Plasma Renin study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti… Effects of long-term whole-body cold exposures on plasma concentrations of ACTH, beta-endorphin, cortisol, catecholamines and cytokines https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18382… Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures https://link.springer.com/article/10… The effects of exercise and cold exposure on mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and white adipose tissue https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti… Cold and Exercise: Therapeutic Tools to Activate Brown Adipose Tissue and Combat Obesity https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti… Cold-induced vasoconstriction may persist long after cooling ends: an evaluation of multiple cryotherapy units https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti

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