A radical new 'city battery' is capable of storing excess heat in molten silicon.  MIT researchers say their 'sun in a box' could store excess energy from solar and wind power, and deliver it back into an electric grid on demand.  This would allow cities to be powered not just when the sun is up or the wind is high, but around the clock.

The new design stores heat in large tanks of white-hot molten silicon.  It can then convert the light from the glowing metal back into electricity when it's needed.  The researchers estimate that a single storage system could enable a small city of about 100,000 homes to be powered entirely by renewable energy.

'One of the affectionate names people have started calling our concept, is 'sun in a box,' which was coined by my colleague Shannon Yee at Georgia Tech,' Asegun Henry, the Robert N. Noyce Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who is leading the project, said.

It would be vastly more affordable than lithium-ion batteries, which have been proposed as a viable, though expensive, method to store renewable energy.  They also estimate that the system would cost about half as much as pumped hydroelectric storage — the cheapest form of grid-scale energy storage to date.

The new storage system stems from researcher into concentrated solar power, which uses vast fields of huge mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto a central tower, where the light is converted into heat that is eventually turned into electricity.

'The reason that technology is interesting is, once you do this process of focusing the light to get heat, you can store heat much more cheaply than you can store electricity,' Henry said.

Concentrated solar plants store solar heat in large tanks filled with molten salt, which is heated to high temperatures of about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.  When electricity is needed, the hot salt is pumped through a heat exchanger, which transfers the salt's heat into steam.  A turbine then turns that steam into electricity.

Henry's team looked for a medium other than salt that might store heat at much higher temperatures, and settled on silicon — the most abundant metal on Earth, which can withstand incredibly high temperatures of over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Last year, the team developed a pump that could withstand such blistering heat, and could conceivably pump liquid silicon through a renewable storage system, and they have also fabricated a miniature graphite tank and filled it with liquid silicon to test the plan.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Narcissists believe democracy is bad for society, and prefer a strong leader or military rule, researchers have found.  Researchers say they 'tend to feel entitled and superior to others, which results in lower tolerance of diverse political opinions.'

In contrast, people who take a positive, non-defensive self-view and trust others are more likely to show support for democracy, the research found.

'Support for democracy requires the ability to respect the views and opinions of others, even if one disagrees with them,' the researchers wrote.  They said the results could have major implications for the future of society, as many believe new  generations are becoming more narcissistic.

Excessive use of social media – in particular the posting of images and selfies – has been linked to a subsequent increase in narcissism, research has found.  One study warned findings could mean up to a fifth of the population could be at risk of developing such narcissistic traits associated with their excessive visual social media use.

Dr Aleksandra Cichocka, of Kent's School of Psychology, who led the study with Dr Marta Marchlewska, of the Polish Academy of Sciences said: 'The jury is out on whether the new generations are becoming more narcissistic than previous ones, but it is important to monitor how societal changes can affect the self.  We need to make sure we are not fostering feelings of entitlement or expectations of special treatment.  In the end, these processes may have important implications for our social and political attitudes.'

The study, the findings of which are published as My way or the highway: high narcissism and low self-esteem predict decreased support for democracy, consisted of two parts that analysed the relationship between different types of self-evaluation - narcissism and self-esteem - and support for democracy in the US and Poland.

The team set out to understand the psychological mechanisms driving support for democracy.  They built on previous research which demonstrated that basic personality traits can predict broader opinions about the organisation of the social world.

Researchers from Swansea University and Milan University studied the personality changes of 74 individuals aged 18 to 34 over a four-month period.  They also assessed the participants' usage of social media – including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat – during the period.  Those who used social media excessively, through visual postings, displayed an average 25% increase in such narcissistic traits over the four months of the study.  This increase took many of these participants above the clinical cut-off for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, according to the measurement scale used.

Narcissism is a personality characteristic that can involve grandiose exhibitionism, beliefs relating to entitlement, and exploiting others.  The study found that those who primarily used social media for verbal postings, such as Twitter, did not show these effects.

However, in this group of participants, their initial levels of narcissism predicted a growth in this form of social media usage over time.  The more narcissistic they were to begin with, the more verbal postings they made later.

All but one of the people in the study used social media, and their average use was around three hours a day, excluding usage for work.  Some reported using social media for as much as eight hours a day for non-work related purposes.  Facebook was used by 60% of participants, while 25% used Instagram, and 13% used Twitter and Snapchat each.  More than two-thirds of the participants primarily used social media for posting images.

Professor Phil Reed, from Swansea University's Department of Psychology, led the research.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

A NASA scientist has claimed intelligent alien life may have already visited Earth.  Silvano P. Colombano, who works in NASA's Intelligent Systems Division, believes we may have missed it, as it could be very different from the traditional carbon based life humanity is used to.  He believes that current thinking about extraterrestrial life is far too narrow.

'I simply want to point out the fact that the intelligence we might find and that might choose to find us (if it hasn't already) might not be at all be produced by carbon based organisms like us,' Colombano wrote in a paper first presented at a 'Decoding Alien Intelligence Workshop' in March organized by the Search for Extraterrestiral Intelligence.

He believes that alien life may have gone far beyond human technology, and may even have mastered interstellar travel.

'We need to re-visit even our most cherished assumptions.  How might that change the above assumptions about interstellar travel?  Our typical life-spans would no longer be a limitation (although even these could be dealt with multi-generational missions or suspended animation), and the size of the 'explorer' might be that of an extremely tiny super-intelligent entity.  Considering further that technological development in our civilization started only about 10K years ago and has seen the rise of scientific methodologies only in the past 500 years, we can surmise that we might have a real problem in predicting technological evolution even for the next thousand years, let alone 6 Million times that amount!' he wrote.

He also warned that radio waves could be out of date.  He called for physicists to take part in 'speculative physics', grounded in our most solid theories but 'with some willingness to stretch possibilities as to the nature of space-time and energy' and to 'consider the UFO phenomenon worthy of study'

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Rare gold coins and a golden earring have been discovered in the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea in northern Israel - possibly left and never recovered as Crusaders conquered the city 900 years ago.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the find on 3 December of a small bronze pot holding 24 gold coins and the earring.  According to the authority, it was found between two stones in the side of a well in a house in a neighbourhood that dates back some 900 years, during the Abbasid and Fatimid periods.

The directors of the excavation, the IAA's Peter Gendelman and Mohammed Hatar, said the coins in the cache date to the end of the 11th century.  That makes it possible 'to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101, one of the most dramatic events in the medieval history of the city', an IAA statement said.

According to the Antiquities Authority, most inhabitants of the city were massacred by Baldwin I's army between 1100 to 1118 CE.  Baldwin I served as the king of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.  The authority said it can be presumed that the treasure's owner and his family likely died in the massacre or were sold into slavery.

The bronze pot in which the trove was held for the past millennium, which is itself a valuable item, was secreted between stones in a 1.5 meter-deep well.   The discovery was made during an excavation and conservation project at the Caesarea World Heritage site.  It was located in a house in a neighborhood dating to the Abbasid and Fatimid period, 900 years ago.  This bronze pot, which shows indications of once having an original metal lid, was given a makeshift ceramic stopper before being placed into the watering hole, according to The Times of Israel.

'The people broke a piece of ceramic and put it in as a stop-gap lid so the coins wouldn't fall out,' Dr. Robert Kool, coin expert at the authority, told the paper.  'It really seems to add up to the Crusader conquest, which was a pretty dramatic event.'  They would have been unable to return to the site of the cache and retrieve their hidden gold.

The cache is of a unique combination of coins not yet seen in Israel consisting of two types of coins: 18 Fatimid dinars, well known from previous excavations in Caesarea, where it was the standard local currency of the time; and a small and extremely rare group of six Byzantine imperial gold coins.  Five of the coins are concave and belong to the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071-1079 CE),' said Dr. Robert Kool, coin expert at the authority.

Caesarea was constructed in the first century BC by King Herod at a time that Judea was part of the Roman Empire.  Through the centuries, Caesarea was conquered several times.   First built by Herod the Great between 20 and 11 BC, Caesarea proved an important port city to several conquerers, including the Roman and Byzantine empires.

Archaeologists think the pot of gold was stashed as invaders ransacked the city, some 900 years ago.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

There are ten digital STIs that can harm your device when you're looking at adult content, according to computer security firm Kaspersky Lab.

These are:

1.   Trojans – They might masquerade as innocent programs, but they carry a harmful payload.

2.   Drive-by downloads - Cyber-criminals look for insecure web sites and plant a malicious script into the code on the pages.  These take advantage of any unpatched applications on your computer and infect them automatically

3.   Click-jacking – Click-jacking involves tricking someone into clicking on one object on a web page while they think they are clicking on another.  Clickjacking can be used to install malware, gain access to a victim's online accounts or to enable their webcam.

4.   Tinder bots – These are automatic programs designed to masquerade as real people on a dating site to lure users into clicking on them, with the aim of tricking the victim into disclosing confidential data.

5.   Cat-Phishing - This is when cyber-criminals pose on dating sites or chat rooms, encouraging people to click on links for live sex chat or adult images.

6.   Ransomware - Cyber-criminals use 'blockers' to stop the victim accessing their device, often telling them this is due to 'illegal pornographic content' being identified on their device.  Anyone who has accessed porn online is probably less likely to take the matter up with law enforcement.

7.   Worm - This is a program that replicates, but does not write its code to other files: instead, it installs itself once on a victim's device and then looks for a way to spread to other devices.

8.   Pornware – This could be a legitimate program, but might be adware installed by another malicious program, designed to deliver inappropriate content to the victim's device.

9.   Spyware - Software that enables an attacker to secretly obtain information about the victim's online activities and transmit it covertly from their device.

10.  Fake Anti-virus - Fake anti-virus programs prey on people's fear of malicious software which they believe may have been installed whilst looking at porn.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

Nielsen could be spying on what you watch to deliver personalized ads during live TV.

The TV ratings and data company will study demographic information like consumers' age and gender to determine which advertising spots would be most effective.  After looking at that information, Nielsen would insert targeted ads between live programming on smart televisions, replacing generic cable TV ads in the process.

For now, it's functioning as a pilot program that'll be limited to five U.S. markets, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Tampa, according to AdWeek.

The program uses a process referred to by those in the advertising industry as 'dynamic ad insertion.'  It relies on a combination of technologies to serve up the targeted ads, including chips in smart TVs and content recognition software.  In this case, Nielsen says it has partnered with chipmaker MediaTek, which the company said are in half of the world's smart TVs.

Nielsen is also taking advantage of the automatic content recognition technology created by Gracenote, which it acquired in 2017.  Content recognition technology involves using algorithms to analyze and identify when an advertisement might be playing on a certain television.  When the algorithm detects that an advertisement is playing, it would replace the cable TV ad with one that's been selected to fit the viewer's specific demographic.

Nielsen first announced that it would be running dynamic ad insertion pilots in May.  At the time, it said the trial would be limited to CBS, which planned to run the ads during live national broadcasts.  Now, Nielsen is adding A+E Networks to the dynamic ad insertion trial as well.

The firm has couched the technology as a way for advertisers to get the most out of their ad inventory, while marketers deliver more personalized ads and potentially generate a higher return on investment.  It also claims it will result in a better experience for consumers while they watch TV.

'Nielsen recognizes the huge opportunity addressable TV presents for our clients.  Marketers will be able to better realize the value of their advertising inventory, achieve maximum return on their ad spend and viewers will see messages that are most relevant to them,' Kelly Abcarian, senior vice president of product leadership for Nielsen, said in a statement.

It's not the first time smart television makers have been found to spy on consumers.  Many smart TV sets have apps and other technology installed in them that can track what shows people are watching, how long they're watching ads for and whether or not that lead to them purchasing something.

U.S. lawmakers have increasingly pushed back on these practices, however, as they argue that consumers don't necessarily want their TV watching habits to be fair game for advertisers.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

The U.S. Army has awarded a $6.9m contract to develop an 'Iron Man' exoskeleton to give soldiers superhuman strength and endurance.

Called Onyx, the battery-operated exoskeleton uses a suite of sensors, artificial intelligence and other technology to aid natural movements.  It is being built by Lockheed Martin, and was originally designed to help people with mobility problems.

Lockheed Martin said: 'It supports and boosts leg capacity for physically demanding tasks that require lifting or dragging heavy loads, holding tools or equipment, repetitive or continuous kneeling or squatting, crawling, walking long distances, walking with load, walking up or down hills, or carrying loads on stairs.  When human strength is challenged, ONYX makes the difference, reducing muscle fatigue, increasing endurance, and reducing injury.'

For the U.S. military, the appeal of such technology is clear: Soldiers now deploy into war zones bogged down by heavy but critical gear like body armor, night-vision goggles and advanced radios.  Altogether, that can weigh anywhere from 90 to 40-64 kg, when the recommended limit is just 50 pounds 23 kg.

'That means when people do show up to the fight, they're fatigued.  The fundamental challenge we're facing with infantry troops is they're carrying too much weight,' said Paul Scharre at the Center for a New American Security, who helped lead a series of studies on exoskeletons and other advanced gear.

The $6.9 million award from the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center is to research and develop the exoskeleton, called ONYX, under a two-year, sole-source agreement.

Keith Maxwell, the exoskeleton technologies manager at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, said people in his company's trials who wore the exoskeletons showed far more endurance.  'You get to the fight fresh.  You're not worn out,' Maxwell said.

Maxwell, who demonstrated a prototype, said each exoskelelton was expected to cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.  Early tests of a previous version showed that the exoskeleton has increased productivity anywhere from two to 27 times.

The United States is not the only country looking at exoskeleton technology.

B-TEMIA's medically focused system, called Keeogo, is sold in Canada for about C$39,000 ($30,000), company spokeswoman Pamela Borges said.

Samuel Bendett at the Center for Naval Analyses (CNAS), a federally funded U.S. research and development center, said Russia and China were also investing in exoskeleton technologies, 'in parallel' to the U.S. advances.  Russia, in particular, was working on several versions of exoskeletons, including one that it tested recently in Syria, Bendett said.

The CNAS analysis of the exoskeleton was part of a larger look by the Washington-based think tank at next-generation technologies that can aid soldiers, from better helmets to shield them from blast injuries to the introduction of robotic 'teammates' to help resupply them in war zones.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

NASA has revealed plans to take America back to the moon - but will rely on private firms to run the missions.  The space agency plans to work with nine private firms, ranging from small startups to giants like Lockheed Martin, to develop robotic landers and systems to mine the natural resources on the moon.  This will help develop the technology need for eventual manned missions, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine pledged to have a manned lunar base within a decade.

'We're building the next chapter of American exploration, returning to the moon - to stay,' the space agency announced.

'I think that it is possible we can have a presence on the moon with humans within a decade.  We're going to utilize the resources of the moon, and take this all the way to Mars,' said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

Bridenstine, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and Oklahoma congressman tapped by President Donald Trump in April as NASA chief, said the plan was part of Trump's Space Directive-1 policy.

'Today's announcement marks tangible progress in America's return to the Moon's surface to stay.  The innovation of America's aerospace companies, wedded with our big goals in science and human exploration, are going to help us achieve amazing things on the Moon and feed forward to Mars,' he said.

He said future bases would be international, and that he hoped the US would lead the plans.

NASA plans to create a commercial marketplace called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services Program (CLIPS) to develop technology that will eventually establish a continuous Moon presence.  A maximum of $2.6 billion is earmarked for the project, and NASA will also  buy space on commercial robotic landers, along with other customers, to deliver payloads to the lunar surface.

'We want multiple providers that are competing on cost and innovation, Bridenstine said.

He hit back at claims the US has promised to go back to the moon before.  'This time, we're no kidding going to go.  We're taking shots at goal here, we want it to happen fast,' he told reporters.

He also outlined how the eventual manned missions will work.   Bridenstine said: 'Right now we're building a space station, we call it 'Gateway'.  That's going to be in orbit around the moon - think of it as a reusable command module where we can have human presence in orbit around the moon.'

Bridenstine told Hill.TV: 'From there we want reusable landers that go back and forth to the surface of the moon.  We think we can achieve this in about 10 years, the idea being prove the capability, retire the risk, prove the human physiology and then go on to Mars.'

'We're developing technology for when it is time to begin to learn to walk on the moon again.  When I was a little kid, there were humans on the surface of the moon. On the moon, there are precious resources, and we want to learn how to use them, and to go back with humans to explore how we can use them,' said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, who is leading the project.

Zurbuchen said the firms will compete to complete tasks NASA sets, but will be free to work out how they get there.

'The moon represents a proving ground.  It is the way we can reduce risk.  We can prove technology.  We can prove human physiology.  We can develop the capabilities to utilize the resources of the moon to survive on the surface of the moon and then we take all of those capabilities and we replicate them at Mars,' Bridestine told Hill.TV.

'Working with US companies is the next step to achieving long-term scientific study and human exploration of the moon and Mars,' NASA said in a press release.

CLPS will encourage smaller companies to develop 1,100- to 2,200-pound robotic landers that can deliver NASA's scientific payloads to the moon's surface.

'Using these services, the agency will accelerate a robotic return to Moon, with upcoming missions targeted for two to three years earlier than previously planned,' NASA has previously said.

NASA intends to award multiple contracts for these services through the next decade, with contract missions to the lunar surface expected to begin as early as 2019, and with a company's first delivery no later than Dec. 31, 2021.

'We'll draw on the interests and capabilities of U.S. industry and international partners as American innovation leads astronauts back to the Moon and to destinations farther into the solar system, including Mars.  We'll leverage commercial capabilities for these small payload deliveries, and CLPS missions will play an important role in our expanding and sustainable lunar exploration strategy,' said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine when the project was first announced in May.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk

China is building a $9 billion global navigation system to rival and eventually replace GPS in the country.   The alternative system, called Beidou, is currently being developed by the Asian superpower as the nation hopes to lessen its dependence on US tech.   Beidou is the Chinese name for the famed star constellation known in many other cultures as the 'Big Dipper'.

Escalating tensions between the two superpowers has made officials increasingly uncomfortable with the reliance on the US-owned GPS.

Beidou is currently operational in China and neighboring regions and will be globally available by 2020, the country claims.   It is set to be implemented in a wide variety of systems including smartphones, autonomous cars, planes and ships.

Analysts have said the endeavor is one of China's more ambitious undertakings; a remarkable feat for a nation also working towards conquering commercial space flight, cheap energy via an 'artificial sun' and a man-made moon.

'They don't want to depend on the US's GPS.  The Chinese don't want to be subject to something that we can shut off,' Marshall Kaplan, a professor in the aerospace engineering department at the University of Maryland, told Bloomberg Quint.

China started developing Beidou in the 90s and the total bill is expected to reach an estimated $8.98 billion to $10.6 billion by 2020.  That is the prediction of a 2017 analysis by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

This year the project has achieved major milestones as it launched 18 satellites, taking the total in operation to more than 40.  A further 11 are expected to be launched before the 2020 global roll-out.

President Xi Jinping has aspirations of transforming China into a global leader for emerging technologies and is relentlessly pursuing several avenues in the field of space exploration.  Beidou will likely have the most far-reaching implications for governments, companies and consumers .  The secondary global navigation system will require the manufacture and installation of unique infrastructure, materials, components and software.  A shift away from the US monopoly on the field and the introduction of a competitor is forcing the industry to embrace the imminent change.  As China prepares to eradicate traces of GPS in the country, firms are scrabbling to make devices Beidou compatible for the 2020 switch-over.

Beijing-based NavInfo, which supplies Tesla BMW, hopes to begin mass producing semiconductors for Beidou navigation in the next two years, according to Wang Yan, a project director.  It is expecting demand of up to 15 million Beidou-compatible chips a year for autonomous vehicles alone.   The firm began providing Beidou-enabled mapping and positioning services for the Singapore government in September.

'China needs to have its own satellite navigation system from a long-term, strategic perspective. Beidou is the only option,' Mr Wang said.

China is the world's largest and most lucrative largest auto market and the government wants all cars to be using Beidou by 2020.   German giant Volkswagen is preparing for the changing of the guard and modifying its equipment ahead of time to allow for Beidou network access.    The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said: 'At the moment, Volkswagen Group China does not sell cars with Beidou-enabled equipment, but the next infotainment system generation for cars in the Chinese market will be rolled out in 2020.  This system will be ready to receive Beidou information.'  Toyota, the Japanese car manufacturer, is also in discussions about integrating Beidou with its existing technology.

Smartphones are another major user of navigation technology and most handsets from Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi support Beidou as well as GPS.   US-based company Qualcomm is the world leader in the production of smartphone chips and said it has been supporting Beidou 'for a long time'.

China is using the technology in its planes as and the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or COMAC, installed the tech last year.  It was became the first plane to use Beidou.  Planes built outside the country currently do not have Beidou but it is believed the nation will require planes flying in China to use the system.

Extracted from: www.dailymal.co.uk

Pasta prepared with mealworms raised in your own home?

The unusual dinner idea could soon be a reality, if Hong Kong entrepreneur Katharina Unger has her way.  The 28-year-old is the founder of Livin Farms, a start-up that has been making insect incubators since 2016, and is now working on a compact model to cultivate mealworms it says is suitable for use in kitchens, and in biology classrooms.

Unger said: 'In 2050, we're going to be nine billion people on the planet, so we have to find new solutions to feed ourselves, and to feed the next generations.  Insects offer a really great alternative to current meat production because they can be grown on food waste, with very little space, with very little water, and they taste great.'

The firm will also send buyers a magazine with regular recipes from chefs, along with experiments owners can carry out to try and boost their output.

While many people squirm at the prospect of eating insects, they are common fare in countries such as Thailand and China.

'They are high in protein and low in cholesterol,' said Li Ching, owner of the People of Yunnan restaurant in Hong Kong, adding that he considered deep-fried grasshoppers, stick-bugs and silkworms to be beneficial for his health.

However, Hong Kong-based nutritionist Miles Price says the production of alternative proteins such as insects remains largely unregulated, and this may have significant implications for food safety and consumer acceptance.  'We need to enforce a more rigorous approach to production ... which will give confidence to consumers to say that this is a safe protein source,' he said.

Livin Farms believes that their self-contained hive system provides a do-it-yourself solution, as the mealworms can be fed with food scraps, harvested weekly, frozen and then cooked in various ways.  It can produce 10-20g every week while still keeping the system running.  This versatility of the inch-long larvae of the mealworm beetle, which is found in many part of the world, is an additional advantage.

'Unlike meats, I can prepare this in two different ways, savoury and sweet. I think it's really dynamic, I can play around with this,' said Livin Farms head of operations Clayton Wong, as he demonstrated cooking mealworms with peppers, tomatoes and onions in a tomato mascarpone pasta sauce.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk