Scientific American-Today in Science

"Boeing's Starliner reaches orbit."

Views expressed in this science and technology update are those of the reporters and correspondents.  Accessed on 05 June 2024, 2046 UTC.

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Russ Roberts (https://hawaiisciencejournal.blogspot.com).

 

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June 5, 2024: Robot loggers could save lives, we learn better from people we like, and Boeing's Starliner lifts off.  —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

TODAY'S NEWS

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The mission is sending two astronauts to the International Space Station. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

• Boeing's Starliner spacecraft, in its first crewed launch, successfully reached low-Earth orbit late this morning. | 7 min read

• A new COVID variant dubbed “FLiRT,” could be leading to a slight uptick in cases. | 6 min read

• Cuckoo birds lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. This has driven the evolution of new species. | 3 min read

• Relentless heat waves make AC too expensive for many people, especially poorer households. | 2 min read

• Physicists have succeeded in cooling down molecules so much that hundreds of them lock in step, making a single gigantic quantum state--a crucial advance for quantum computing. | 4 min read

Velocity-distribution data for a gas of rubidium atoms before, during and after the appearance of a Bose–Einstein condensate. The peak forms as all the atoms occupy the lowest possible quantum energy state. National Institute of Standards and Technology

More News

TOP STORIES

Auto-Logger In Sweden, researchers successfully tested a prototype of an autonomous logging machine. Scientists equipped a robot-run vehicle called a forwarder with computer vision, which it used to identify, pick up and release cut logs in a designated clear-cut area. Nearly all forests in Sweden are managed for commercial logging, paths are well identified, and satellites provide information on logged areas. Loggers in the U.S. cut from both plantations and wild stands that autonomous robots would have a harder time navigating. Why this matters: Logging is a particularly dangerous job; the U.S. has one of the highest fatality rates in the profession. “I, along with other contractors in this area, have problems getting help working in the woods, so I can see why at least making the forwarder an automated process would be helpful,” says Thomas Douglass, who runs a logging company in Maine. What the experts say: For future versions of the robotic logger, “[I] would definitely hope that it takes into account the fuller range of where it’s operating, whether it includes wildlife, other contaminants or bugs that come with the logs to avoid any infestations, and its sensitivity to the terrain,” says Dalia Abbas, a forester who has investigated the effects of logging operations in environmentally sensitive areas.

Like Minds In a recent experiment, participants sorted images of random faces into two groups depending on whether they liked or disliked them–they even invented fake personas for the faces. Next, researchers displayed the faces “presenting” household objects on various backgrounds. The participants were more likely to remember which object appeared on which background when the object was presented by a face they liked.  Why this is interesting: These results support the idea that we learn better from people we like, the researchers say. If most of people’s knowledge comes from a limited set of liked individuals—largely because of their similarities to us—their beliefs can remain unchallenged, leading to narrowing viewpoints. This may be the basis for polarization and extremism. What the experts say: “We give an explanation of why people are biased. The fundamental mechanism may be that we are more likely to expand our knowledge based on information provided by people we like,” says Inês Bramão, a psychologist at Sweden’s Lund University and co-author of the new study.

WHAT WE'RE READING

• Criminals and con-artists have flooded the market with counterfeit weight-loss drugs. | Vanity Fair

• In Baltimore, Black men in their 50s to 70s are the hardest hit by opioid overdoses. | The New York Times

• Journalists prompted several AI image generators to portray a "beautiful woman." The results were remarkably (and creepily) the same. | The Washington Post

EXPERT PERSPECTIVES

• Since the end of March when bird flu (H5N1) was confirmed in U.S. cattle, sales of raw milk have been surging, despite warnings from the FDA. Trust in government agencies is at an all-time low, and federal officials have done zero reflection on how public communications during the COVID pandemic might be improved to better avoid serious disease outbreaks in the future, writes Maggie Fox, a science and health journalist. "After 25 years of watching, waiting and worrying about bird flu, what finally tips it over into a pandemic could be American contrariness," she says. | 5 min read

More Opinion

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IMAGE OF THE DAY

Dr José Oliver

Enormous engraved rock art of anacondas, rodents and other animals along the Orinoco River in Colombia and Venezuela may have been used to mark territory 2,000 years ago; the engravings are likely among the largest rock art in the world, according to a new study. The above is a telephoto shot of monumental rock art of a snake body in Colombia, with humans in the foreground. | 4 min read

It's fascinating that how much we like a face influences how well we learn new information from that face. And the researchers in the study above found that which faces we like most often remind us of ourselves (or appear to share the same values or background). For now, I don't plan to include my headshot in this newsletter, though I hope that our shared love of science helps you learn from what I write about every day.

Send me your ideas and feedback: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow!

—Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

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