fidzu : science

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has again hit out at proposed new European Union copyright rules which she claims is impossible for a platform like YouTube to comply with, and if done so, could harm the creative industries. Wojcicki said the European Parliament's vote in favor of an overhaul to copyright law two months ago is "unrealistic" because owners often disagree on who owns the rights to online material. In a blog post, she wrote: Take the global music hit "Despacito." This video contains multiple copyrights, ranging from sound recording to publishing rights. Although YouTube has agreements with multiple entities to license and pay for the video, some of the rights holders remain unknown. That uncertainty means we might have to block videos like this to avoid liability under article 13. Multiply that risk with the scale of YouTube, where more than 400 hours of video are uploaded every minute, and the potential liabilities could be so large that no company could take on such a financial risk. The consequences of article 13 go beyond financial losses. EU residents are at risk of being cut off from videos that, in just the last month, they viewed more than 90bn times. Those videos come from around the world, including more than 35m EU channels, and they include language classes and science tutorials as well as music videos. We welcome the chance to work with policymakers and the industry to develop a solution within article 13 that protects rights holders while also allowing the creative economy to thrive. This could include more comprehensive licensing agreements, collaboration with rights holders to identify who owns what, and smart rights management technology, similar to Content ID.

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12 Nov 2018 8:45pm GMT

Corkscrewing light may be slowed by axions, "simple" experiment may reveal them.

12 Nov 2018 8:08pm GMT

If you often sit on a train pondering how the rail networks are coordinated then you are more likely to be male, new research suggests. Likewise if friends often come to you with their problems, then chances are you're a woman. In the biggest ever study examining differences between the sexes, scientists have concluded that women really are more empathetic while men are more analytical and logical. Researchers at the University of Cambridge tested more than 680,000 people and found that on average women have a greater ability to recognise what another person is thinking intuitively and respond appropriately. On the other hand men have a stronger drive to view the world through 'rule-based systems', striving to learn how things work through their underlying parts. The study found that the traits can even predict which professions people choose, with those working in science, technology engineering and mathematics (Stem) scoring more highly in 'systemizing' or masculine traits, while those in non-stem jobs more likely to have 'empathetic' or feminine traits. Dr Varun Warrier, from the Cambridge team, said: "These sex differences in the typical population are very clear. "We confirmed that typical females on average are more empathic, typical males on average are more systems-oriented. "We know from related studies that individual differences in empathy and systemizing are partly genetic, partly influenced by our prenatal hormonal exposure, and partly due to environmental experience. "We need to investigate the extent to which these observed sex differences are due to each of these factors, and how these interact." How systems-focused are you? For the study, men and women were asked to respond to 20 statements measuring their level of empathy and systems-oriented thinking. Sentences included "I am interested in knowing the path a river takes from its source to the sea" and "I can easily work out what another person might want to talk about." On average men scored 9.87 out of 20 for empathy while women scored 10.79. Likewise for systems based thinking men scored 6.73 while women scored 5.45. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), also showed that people with autism are far more likely to display 'masculinized' traits and less likely to score highly for empathy, a phenomenon dubbed 'the Extreme Male Brain Theory.' 'Extreme Male Brain Theory' and theory of sex differentiation were first proposed by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge, nearly two decades ago but in the past is has been branded as 'neurosexism' by critics. The researchers said the huge study backed his claim that there really are fundamental differences between the minds of men and women at population level, although individuals can still be 'atypical' for their sex. "This research provides strong support for both theories," said Prof Baron-Cohen. "This study also pinpoints some of the qualities autistic people bring to neurodiversity. "They are, on average, strong systemizers, meaning they have excellent pattern-recognition skills, excellent attention to detail, and an aptitude in understanding how things work. "We must support their talents so they achieve their potential - and society benefits too." If you'd like to complete these measures and participate in studies at the Autism Research Centre please register here: http://www. cambridgepsychology.com

12 Nov 2018 8:00pm GMT

Freshly Exhumed writes: A new approach to controlling magnetism in a microchip could open the doors to memory, computing, and sensing devices that consume drastically less power than existing versions. The approach could also overcome some of the inherent physical limitations that have been slowing progress in this area until now. Researchers at MIT and at Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated that they can control the magnetic properties of a thin-film material simply by applying a small voltage. Changes in magnetic orientation made in this way remain in their new state without the need for any ongoing power, unlike today's standard memory chips, the team has found. The new finding is being reported today in the journal Nature Materials, in a paper by Geoffrey Beach, a professor of materials science and engineering and co-director of the MIT Materials Research Laboratory; graduate student Aik Jun Tan; and eight others at MIT and Brookhaven. As silicon microchips draw closer to fundamental physical limits that could cap their ability to continue increasing their capabilities while decreasing their power consumption, researchers have been exploring a variety of new technologies that might get around these limits. One of the promising alternatives is an approach called spintronics, which makes use of a property of electrons called spin, instead of their electrical charge. Because spintronic devices can retain their magnetic properties without the need for constant power, which silicon memory chips require, they need far less power to operate. They also generate far less heat -- another major limiting factor for today's devices.

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12 Nov 2018 8:00pm GMT

Comics legend helped create icons from Spider-Man and Iron Man to X-Men and Black Panther.

12 Nov 2018 7:07pm GMT

Stan Lee, who wrote and published a comic book legacy that spans from the Depression Era to the present day, who created Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk and Thor, has died. He was 95. Lee was born Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City in 1922, the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants, and at the age of 17, he began work as an assistant at Timely Comics, the company that would become Marvel Comics. Filling inkwells and fetching lunch, Lee's career began just in time for Superman's 1930s debut in Action Comics #1, kicking off the history of superhero comics. From a report: Lee, who began in the business in 1939 and created or co-created Black Panther, Spider-Man, X-Men, The Mighty Thor, Iron Man, The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Ant-Man and other characters, died early Monday morning in Los Angeles, a source told The Hollywood Reporter. (Joan Celia Lee, Stan's daughter, confirmed the news to TMZ.) Lee's final few years were tumultuous. [...] On his own and through his work with frequent artist-writer collaborators Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and others, Lee catapulted Marvel from a tiny venture into the world's No. 1 publisher of comic books and later a multimedia giant. In 2009, the Walt Disney Co. bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion, and most of the top-grossing superhero films of all time -- led by The Avengers' $1.52 billion worldwide take in 2012 -- featured Marvel characters. An exchange from one of Stan Lee's last interviews, which appeared last month: Interviewer: Do you feel like your legacy is secure? Stan Lee: Absolutely. Interviewer: What's on your wish list? Stan Lee: That I leave everyone happy when I leave. Interviewer: You won't leave anyone happy. Stan Lee: Well, I don't mean happy that I left. Happy that I took the right path. Interviewer: You always do, pop. It was just the people around you. It was never you. You were always the good guy, and there were just creeps around you, and it was this town. Never you.

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12 Nov 2018 6:55pm GMT

A hodge-podge of magnets, adhesive, and pull tabs make the iPad Pro tricky to service.

12 Nov 2018 6:30pm GMT

The names of the victims were also read over the Staples Center PA system

12 Nov 2018 5:19pm GMT

Sealed in a vault beneath a duke's former pleasure palace among the sycamore-streaked forests west of Paris sits an object the size of an apple that determines the weight of the world. Forged against a backdrop of scientific and political upheaval following the French Revolution, a single, small cylinder of platinum-iridium alloy has laid largely undisturbed for nearly 130 years as the world's benchmark for what, precisely, is a kilogramme. The international prototype of the kilogramme, or "Le Grand K" as it is tenderly known, is one of science's most hallowed relics, an analogue against which all other weights are compared and a totem of the metric system that accompanied the epoch of liberty, equality and fraternity.

12 Nov 2018 5:09pm GMT