Fuckcars: Your Car Is Spewing Microplastics That Blow Around the Word
When you drive, tiny bits of plastic fly off your tires and brakes. Now scientists have shown how all that road muck is blowing into “pristine” environments like the Arctic. Today in the journal Nature, researchers model how microplastics from our cars are travelling from densely populated regions into the environment.
“That which withers in the age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art. This is a symptomatic process whose significance points beyond the realm of art. One might generalize by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.” - Walter Benjamin
The biopsychosocial model is an interdisciplinary model that looks at the interconnection between biology, psychology, and socio-environmental factors. The model specifically examines how these aspects play a role in topics ranging from health and disease models to human development. This model was developed by George L. Engel in 1977 and is the first of its kind to employ this type of multifaceted thinking.
Scientists Say You Can Cancel the Noise but Keep Your Window Open
Researchers in Singapore developed a system that’s sort of like noise-canceling headphones for your whole apartment. Their results were published on Thursday in Scientific Reports. The prototype is not yet the most practical device in real world conditions, but it points the way toward the development of technologies that may help ease the strain of noisy city living.
Microsoft’s AI generates voices that sing in Chinese and English
Researchers at Zhejiang University and Microsoft claim they’ve developed an AI system — DeepSinger — that can generate singing voices in multiple languages by training on data from music websites. In a prepint paper they describe the novel approach, which leverages a specially-designed component to capture the timbre of singers from noisy singing data.
Shale boss says US has passed peak oil
"The shale sector has not been gifted with discipline" - Matt Gallagher
US crude production has already peaked, according to one of the country’s leading shale executives, as producers battered by the price crash shun new output growth and start trying to become profitable. Matt Gallagher, chief executive of Parsley Energy, one of Texas’s biggest independent oil producers, said the record output level struck earlier this year would be the high-water mark. “I don’t think I’ll see 13m [barrels a day] again in my lifetime,” the 37-year-old Mr Gallagher told the Financial Times.
Robotic lab assistant is 1,000 times faster at conducting research
Researchers have developed what they say is a breakthrough robotic lab assistant, able to move around a laboratory and conduct scientific experiments just like a human.
