linkstream2 microblog

Multistep nucleation of nanocrystals in…solution
http://www.Nature.com/nchem/journal/v9/n1/full/nchem.2618.html Creation of Au-Au pair, expelling water, drives cluster formation

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To explain how the gold-rich aqueous phase forms and breaks down in Figures 1A and 2A, we
performed ab-initio calculations of a hydrated gold atom pair (Figure 4). This hydrated atom pair
becomes ionized when brought closer together: the left gold atom plus two nearby water molecules
form a linear cationic coordination complex, [Au(H2O)2]+1, while the right gold atom becomes an
anion surrounded by a simple hydration shell. Other (square planar and linear) complexes involving
chloride and hydroxide ligands may also participate, depending on pH (26, 33) (Section SI2). For
nanoclusters to form inside the gold-rich aqueous phase, pairs of gold atoms within it must be partially
dehydrated. In our calculations (Figure 4), this dehydration is delayed by a 7.6 kcal/mol (12.9 kBT)
energy barrier required to breakdown the linear cationic complex (close to the gold anion).
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also:
https://arxiv.org/abs/1605.04632

On the brink https://www.NewYorker.com/magazine/2017/09/18/the-risk-of-nuclear-war-with-north-korea/amp Pro-basketball player Rodman may be the best communication conduit betw. the US & N Korean dictator Kim

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a measure of how impoverished America’s contact with North Korea has become that one of the best-known conduits is Dennis Rodman, a.k.a. the Worm, the bad boy of the nineties-era Chicago Bulls. Rodman’s agent, Chris Volo, a hulking former mixed-martial-arts fighter, told me recently, “I’ve been there four times in four years. I’m in the Korean Sea, and I’m saying to myself, ‘No one would believe that I’m alone right now, riding Sea-Doos with Kim Jong Un.’ ” Rodman’s strange bond with Kim began in 2013, when Vice Media, aware of Kim’s love of the Bulls, offered to fly American basketball players to North Korea. Vice tried to contact Michael Jordan but got nowhere. Rodman, who was working the night-club autograph circuit, was happy to go. He joined three members of the Harlem Globetrotters for a game in Pyongyang. Kim made a surprise appearance, invited Rodman to dinner, and asked him to return to North Korea for a week at his private beach resort in Wonsan, which Rodman later described as “Hawaii or Ibiza, but he’s the only one that lives there.”
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Sweet taste, not just calories, dictates metabolic response
https://News.Yale.edu/2017/08/10/sweet-taste-not-just-calories-dictates-metabolic-response May explain link betw. diabetes & artificial #sweeteners

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“When sweet taste and calories do not align, the body’s metabolism is fooled, a finding that may help explain the link between artificial sweetener use and diabetes, a new Yale University study has found.” “}}

The case of human nose shape & climate adaptation
http://journals.PLoS.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006616 Comparing its Qst-Fst statistic w/ that for height & skin color

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“To address the question of whether local adaptation to climate is responsible for nose shape divergence across populations, we use Qst–Fst comparisons to show that nares width and alar base width are more differentiated across populations than expected under genetic drift alone. To test whether this differentiation is due to climate adaptation, we compared the spatial distribution of these variables with the global distribution of temperature, absolute humidity, and relative humidity. We find that width of the nares is correlated with temperature and absolute humidity, but not with relative humidity. We conclude that some aspects of nose shape may indeed have been driven by local adaptation to climate. However, we think that this is a simplified explanation of a very complex evolutionary history, which possibly also involved other non-neutral forces such as sexual selection.”
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#AI just made guessing your password…easier
http://www.ScienceMag.org/news/2017/09/artificial-intelligence-just-made-guessing-your-password-whole-lot-easier rather Number cracked raises #security/#privacy concerns HT @Rozowsky

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The new study aimed to speed this up by applying deep learning, a brain-inspired approach at the cutting edge of AI. Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, started with a so-called generative adversarial network, or GAN, which comprises two artificial neural networks. A “generator” attempts to produce artificial outputs (like images) that resemble real examples (actual photos), while a “discriminator” tries to detect real from fake. They help refine each other until the generator becomes a skilled counterfeiter.
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How to Follow #HurricaneIrma
https://www.NYTimes.com/2017/09/06/upshot/how-to-follow-hurricane-irma.html Presentations of weather #uncertainty – cones, spaghetti plots, ensemble forecasts, &c

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Besides individual model runs, there are two other types of
model-based maps you might see on the internet. They’re both “spaghetti plots,” which depict many forecast tracks…..
While you might think that these capture the full range of
uncertainty, they often do not. They’re even more prone to understate the total uncertainty than the N.H.C. “cone.”
…
Another type of spaghetti plot shows an ensemble forecast. Unlike a typical “determinist” forecast, which takes current conditions and simulates a single scenario forward, an ensemble model varies initial conditions slightly and then simulates, propagating uncertainty through the forecast.
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Search for #AntiAging Secrets Starts w. Blood [biomarkers]
https://www.Wired.com/story/a-search-for-anti-aging-secrets-starts-with-the-blood-of-600-estonians Alternatively walking speed may be test best predictor

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“It’s possible this is all a wild goose chase, and that we already have a powerful biomarker for aging. Steve Cummings, a longtime aging researcher at UCSF, pulled together NIH study data from over 30,000 people over 30 years to look for markers of disease-free survival. The strongest, most consistent signal he found isn’t in blood at all: It’s walking speed. …
They identified a few molecules as well, like cystatin-C, which tells you how healthy your kidneys are (can’t live without your kidneys), and a few other measurements that reflect inflammation. But even with lots more molecules to work with, Cummings still thinks that blood-based tests are more hype than anything else. “Even 20 to 30 predictors together adds only a little to prediction of survival by age,” Cummings says. “And I’m confident that walking speed alone will outperform any new biological marker.””
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Picture imperfect
http://www.Economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21572915-digital-imaging-insurers-publishers-law-enforcement-agencies-and-dating-sites-are Photoshop add-ons for finding doctored photos – eg @Fourand6

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“Efforts to automate the detection of doctored images are bearing fruit. Last year Fourandsix Technologies, a start-up based in Silicon Valley, began selling an add-on for Photoshop, called FourMatch, that determines whether an image has come straight from a camera or has been manipulated. It compares the “metadata” associated with the image against a database of signatures that represent the characteristic ways in which different devices capture and compress image data, to ensure that the image is what it claims to be. …So a human analyst is still needed “in the loop”, says Mr Farid, one of the firm’s co-founders. A trained eye can spot inconsistencies in shadows, reflections and incorrect perspective.”
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Sampling DNA From a 1K-Year-Old…Manuscript
https://www.theAtlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/the-secret-life-of-illuminated-manuscripts-as-told-in-dna/536172/ As reported from a unsubmitted preprint. Pot. #privacy implications

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Remarkably, the authors say they extracted all this DNA without destroying even a tiny piece of parchment. All they needed were the crumbs from rubbing the book with erasers, which conservationists routinely use to clean manuscripts. The authors report their findings in a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, though they plan to submit it to a scientific journal.”
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.@StephenKing’s Family Business
http://www.NYTimes.com/2013/08/04/magazine/stephen-kings-family-business.html 4 writers: father, 2 sons & a daughter-in-law

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Tabitha is an accomplished writer with eight novels to her credit, and two of their three children, Joe and Owen, are novelists. (Naomi is a Unitarian Universalist minister.) Joe’s “NOS4A2,” a sprawling mix of horror and fantasy that is his third critically praised best seller, was published last April; Owen’s second work of fiction, a
well-received comedic novel titled “Double Feature,” was published in March. Owen, perhaps inevitably, married a writer, Kelly Braffet, whose third novel, a literary thriller called “Save Yourself,” is out this month. And Stephen’s much-anticipated sequel to the “The Shining,” titled “Doctor Sleep,” comes out this fall.

Circus performers, klezmer musicians — those are the kinds of entertainers we usually expect to see in a family business, not writers.
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