Weekend Science Technology Society & Sundries, January 17-18

 Science & Technology

• Two-dimensional metamaterial surface manipulates light – Phys.org
• Carbon nanotube finding could lead to flexible electronics with longer battery life – Phys.org
• Artificial intelligence helps physicists predict dangerous solar flares – Phys.org
• Inside the World’s Most Advanced Coffee Laboratory – Motherboard
• Exosuits Could Save Factory Workers from Losing Their Jobs to Robots – Motherboard
• Pentagons $1.5 trillion mistake is one of many because of corrupt procurement – Next Big Future
• Elon expects a few million annual Tesla electric car sales by 2025 and a self-driving Tesla approved around 2023 – Next Big Future
• LPP Fusion improving design for micrometer accuracy in fitting key components – Next Big Future
• Production of 300,000 fuel pebbles per year will start in August as China prepare factory mass produced nuclear reactors – Next Big Future
• Flying Selfie Bots: Tag-Along Video Drones Are Here – IEEE Spectrum
• Brimstone and Nanotech May Boost Batteries – IEEE Spectrum
• Zinc-oxide Nanostructures Could Help Power Wearables – IEEE Spectrum
• Photonic Circuits Get a Boost from Combination of 2-D Materials – IEEE Spectrum
• Nanobowl Solar Concentrator Boosts Organic Solar Cell Efficiency – IEEE Spectrum
• Particles Make Paths to Get More Out of Batteries – IEEE Spectrum
• The myriad uses of amazing graphene – Cosmos
• Southeast Asia’s junkyards a gold mine – Nikkei Asian Review
•  Improved solar panels and printed electronics on the horizon with new discovery – Phys.org
• Lower-cost navigation system developed for self-driving cars – Phys.org
• Extending Einstein’s spooky action for use in quantum networks – Phys.org
• New material, technique efficiently produce hydrogen, syngas fuel feedstock – Phys.org
• Can Methane Act as a Storage Medium for Renewable Energy? – IEEE Spectrum
• Wonky, Warped and Weird: Pulsar Vanishes in Spacetime – Discovery
• Elon Musk Says He Will Build A Five-Mile Hyperloop Test Track, Probably In Texas – Business Insider

Medicine & Health

• Patent reform advocates are launching a ‘super-coalition’ to whack patent trolls – Washington Post
• Why Drugs Cost So Much – NY Times
• How the code of life passed through primitive kinds of cells – Phys.org
• Drug injection protects monkeys from vaginal HIV infection – MedicalXpress
• Protein involved in hibernation protects against neurodegeneration in mice – MedicalXpress
• Life at higher elevation linked to lower incidence of lung cancer, study suggests – MedicalXpress
• US painkiller abuse ‘epidemic’ may be declining, study says – MedicalXpress
• Stone Age man wasn’t necessarily more advanced than the Neanderthals – Phys.org
• One punch to knock out flu: Researcher sees universal flu vaccine ahead – MedicalXpress
• Implant mimicks spinal cord and brain membrane for long term spinal cord and brain repair – Next Big Future
• Dopamine Discovery Brings Cocaine Addiction Antidote A Bit Closer – Science 2.0
• Too Little Is Known About Probiotics To Say They Work – Science 2.0
• How To Boost The Immune System Of City Dwellers – Science 2.0
• Lack Of Exercise Causes 2X As Many Deaths As Obesity – Science 2.0
• Brain signature of emotion-linked pain is uncovered – New Scientist

Environment, Nature, Global Warming & Space

• 2014 Was the Hottest Year on Record – Bloomberg…good graphic…
• Implications of the Circumpolar Genetic Structure of Polar Bears for Their Conservation in a Rapidly Warming Arctic – PLOS
• Does Predation Risk Affect Mating Behavior? An Experimental Test in Dumpling Squid (Euprymna tasmanica) – PLOS
• Global Establishment Risk of Economically Important Fruit Fly Species (Tephritidae) – PLOS
• Measuring the impact of light-absorbing particles on Earth’s snowpack, glaciers, and ice cover – Phys.org
• Acceleration in sea level rise far larger than initially thought, study shows – Phys.org
• Asteroid to fly by Earth safely on January 26 – Phys.org
• Out of the pouch: Ancient DNA from extinct giant roos – Phys.org
• New contaminants found in oil and gas wastewater – Phys.org
• We burn 2.7 million gallons a minute, so why’s oil so cheap? – Phys.org
• After geoscientists joust, judge rules BP Gulf spill totaled 3.19 million barrels of oil – Science
• Sharks sink in fresh water – Science
• Deep-sea shrimp’s eyes have 12 retinas – Science
• What’s behind the hole in the Sun? – Cosmos
• Life on Mars – the evidence mounts – Cosmos
• Climate change, extinctions signal Earth in danger zone: study – Reuters
• Russia’s Forests Overlooked in Climate Change Fight – Scientific American
• Rate of environmental degradation puts life on Earth at risk, say scientists – Guardian
• Engaging with oil companies on climate change is futile, admits leading UK environmentalist – Guardian
• Design of the divine? – Washington Post
• New Research May Solve Puzzle in Sea Level’s Rise – NY Times
• Ocean Life Faces Mass Extinction, Broad Study Says – NY Times
• Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine ‘planetary boundaries’, scientists warn – Fairfax
• From the frontline: Live prawns and gamma detectors – Cosmos

History & Culture

• LOSING OUR MEMORY AND FINDING EACH OTHER – Narratively
• Free Speech and the Magna Carta – New Yorker
• The golden quarter: Some of our greatest cultural and technological achievements took place between 1945 and 1971. Why has progress stalled? – Aeon
• Indifference is a power: As legions of warriors and prisoners can attest, Stoicism is not grim resolve but a way to wrest happiness from adversity – Aeon
• The modern wedding: A white gown, a grand reception, a multi-tiered cake – the stuff of a traditional wedding or something else entirely? – Aeon
• Paul Cézanne Revered the Old Masters, yet Influenced Waves of Modernists as They Broke with the Past – Humanities
• Declinism: is the world actually getting worse? – Guardian
• From the frontline: Dating the ancient past in tiny bites – Cosmos
• Is winemaking an art or science? – Cosmos
• If There Is An Anthropocene Epoch, When Did It Begin? – Science 2.0
• How a crazy scientist duped America into believing vitamin C cures colds – Vox
• The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of “jaywalking” – Vox
• A Wild Goose Chase – Eater…good read…
• Which Alien World Should We Land on Next? – Motherboard
• The Drug Behind Last Year’s Three Botched Executions Is About to Be Used Again – Motherboard
• Why Americans and Brits spell words differently – Vox
• Reliving five eureka moments lost in history – New Scientist
• Meet the maestro: Beethoven’s fraught personal life – New Statesman

Politics & Society

• Corruption and Revolt – New Yorker
• Germany’s Strange New Right Wing Meets Charlie Hebdo – New Yorker
• Many more people are dying from gun suicides than gun-related homicides – Washington Post
• The time a major financial institution was hacked in under 15 minutes – Washington Post
• China’s Cyber Diplomacy: A Taste of Law to Come? – Chatham House
• We Know How You Feel – New Yorker….is this good or bad?…
• There’s a Problem in the Silk Road Trial: the Jury Doesn’t Get the Internet – Motherboard
• The ugly truth about sexual assault: More men admit to it if you don’t call it rape – Salon
• White House Sony Hack Sanctions on North Korea “Symbolic,” Former CIA Director Says – Recode
• Secret US cybersecurity report: encryption vital to protect private data – Guardian
• In U.S. academia, fields that cherish sheer genius shun women – Reuters
• The facts on Medicare don’t lie: it’s affordable and effective without a GP tax – Guardian
• They Are Not Exactly Charlie – Rolling Stone, Taibbi
• How Chinese success in education comes at a high cost – New Statesman
• America’s Dirtiest Cops: Cash, Cocaine and Corruption on the Texas Border – Rolling Stone
• The Cruel Waste of America’s Tech Talent – NY Times
• Policy backdowns of the Abbott government – Fairfax…the worst government in Australian history…
• A bitter pill – The Monthly
• Global scrutiny needed on terror financing – Nikkei Asian Review
• Are North Korea’s cyberwarriors based in China? – Nikkei Asian Review
• Evidence Points to Syrian Push for Nuclear Weapons – Der Spiegel
• Earth entered new epoch on July 16 1945, say scientists – Telegraph
• In China’s Antigraft Campaign, Small Victories and Bigger Doubts – NY Times