A new planet in our neighborhood - how likely is life there?

By Don Lincoln, August 24, 2016

Scientists working at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), using the La Silla telescope, claim to have discovered the closest exoplanet to Earth. Exoplanet means planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. Most of them are huge planets orbiting very near their star. The newly discovered planet, which orbits Proxima Centauri, a star within the so-called “habitable zone”, has been named Proxima b.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, which is the most common type of star in the galaxy. Red dwarfs are much smaller than our Sun, and are very dim. For instance, in the visible spectrum that we use to see, Proxima Centauri gives off 0.0056% as much light as the Sun.

So what about life? Are there any chances that an alien lizard might bask in Proxima Centauri’s light or try to find shade under an alien tree? Dr. Guillem Anglada-Escudé, co-author of the research from London University, believes that “there is a reasonable expectation that this planet might be able to host life”

But this belief is not consensual as other scientists think the prospect of life is improbable. Although the temperature of the planet is thought to be such that liquid water could exist, it is unlikely that Proxima b is habitable, as the planet is subject to stellar wind pressures of more than 2000 times those experienced by Earth from the solar wind. These winds would likely blow any atmosphere away, leaving the undersurface as the only vaguely habitable location on that planet. You shouldn’t imagine, thus, a lush and verdant world, with lovely blue waters, sandy beaches and green plants.

So, what’s the bottom line? First, the discovery is extremely exciting. The existence of a nearby planet in the habitable zone will perhaps increase the interest in efforts like Project Starshot, which aims to send microprobes (instruments that apply a stable and wellfocused beam of charged particles -electrons or ions- to a sample) to Proxima Centauri. On the other hand, Proxima b is unlikely to be a haven for people trying to escape the ecological issues of Earth, so we should not view this discovery as a way to ignore our own ecosystem.

Adapted from: < http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/24/opinions/nearbyplanet-opinion-lincoln/> Access Oct. 2016.

Glossário:

claim: afirmar; dwarf: anão; dim: opaco; give off: emitir; lizard: lagarto; bask: aquecer-se; belief: crença; wind: vento; undersurface: camada inferior; lush: viçoso; bottom line: aspecto fundamental; aim: visar/ter por objetivo; sample: amostra; haven: refúgio.

The Future of Jobs

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf Acessado em 19/09/2016

Today, we are at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. Developments in genetics, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing and biotechnology, to name just a few, are all building on and amplifying one another. This will lay the foundation for a revolution more comprehensive and all-encompassing than anything we have ever seen. Smart systems — homes, factories, farms, grids or cities — will help tackle problems ranging from supply chain management to climate change. The rise of the sharing economy will allow people to monetize everything from their empty house to their car. 

The Heyday of the Silents

GEOFFREY NOWELL-SMITH

 According to the text, it is CORRECT to state that

Improving with age? How city design is adapting to older populations 

There is no denying it: like it or not we are all getting older. According to the UN World Population Prospects report, the global population of older people is growing at an unprecedented rate. By 2050, for the first time in human history, there will be more over-65s than children under 15. The number of people over 100 will increase by 1,000%. And as by then 70% of the world’s population will likely live in cites, this will present huge challenges, and cities will need to adapt. “Small innovations can make a difference,” Recalcati adds. “Older people are less likely to drive, favouring public transport and walking. The average person over 65 manages a walking speed of 3km/hour. At 80 that goes down to 2km/hour, compared with the average for a working age person of 4.8km/hour. Reducing the distance between transport stops, shops, benches, trees for shade, public toilets and improving pavements and allowing more time to cross the road all encourage older people to go out.” In the UK, the government has just announced the building of 10 new towns designed to address ageing and health issues such as obesity. As well as encouraging more active lifestyles, the designs could include wider pavements, few trip hazards and moving LCD signs, making the streets easier to navigate for people with dementia and other age-related conditions. London-based charity Living Streets has also been working alongside communities carrying out street audits with older residents to see what improvements could be made, as well as campaigning at a strategic level to influence positive legislative and infrastructure changes. Their project Time to Cross campaigned to increase pedestrian crossing times which resulted in Transport for London (TfL) agreeing to a review. www.thegardian.com/cities/2016/ap/25/improving-with-age-how-city-design-is-adapting-to-older-populations.  

Read the text. 

Amazon keeps expanding its empire 

Elizabeth Weise  

Amazon has doubled the number of air freight cargo planes it is leasing, a further build out of its internal delivery system.  

Atlas Air Worldwide on Thursday said it had signed an agreement with the Seattle internet retailer to operate 20 Boeing 767 for the company for ten years. 

Operations under the agreements are expected to begin in the second half of 2016 and ramp up to full service through 2018, Atlas said. 

In addition, Amazon will acquire as much as 20% of Atlas. 

The planes will be used to move packages between Amazon’s fulfillment centers, which package goods, to its sortation centers, which sort them into local delivery pallets that can be taken to the Post Office for bulk delivery, the company said.

The planes will also be used by Amazon to move goods between its fulfillment centers across the country to other centers where they are needed for one- and two-day delivery, as no one Amazon center can stock the 20 million items Amazon typically has available for two-day delivery.  

The deal isn't surprising, said John Haber, CEO of Spend Management Experts, a supply chain management consulting firm. 

“This is just the most recent step in Amazon building out a massive logistics network designed to move more of their transportation and distribution under their direct control," he said. 

Available in:<http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/05/06/amazon-further-builds-out-air-freight-network/84035574/> . Access on: May 2016

.

Read the text and choose the CORRECT option. 

Portable devices

Buddy, can you spare a watt?

Trading power could free users from dead-battery tyranny  

ONE of the most annoying features of smartphones is that they run out of power just when you need it most. After a day of e-mailing, streaming music, downloading podcasts, watching cat videos and snapping selfies, a device can easily be left without enough charge to make an emergency call. What would help, reckons Paul Worgan of the University of Bristol, in England, is to give portable devices the ability to share some of their power.  

Mr Worgan and his colleagues have come up with a wireless-charging system which they call PowerShake. To use it someone holds a phone with an expiring battery against another device—a phone, or even a smartwatch or a fitness band—and this initiates a power transfer from one to the other. Some 12 seconds of contact provides enough juice to make a one-minute telephone call. One minute of contact would allow, say, a four minute music video to be watched. The researchers will present their idea to CHI2016, a conference on computer-human interaction, in San Jose, California, in May. 

Available in:<http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21697800-trading-power-could-free-users-dead-batterytyranny-buddy-can-you-spare>. Access on: may 2016. 

 Leia o texto a seguir.

                                      WHAT MAKES US HELP OTHERS? WHAT MAKES US SELFISH?

Kitty (Catherine) Genovese was a 28-year-old New York City woman stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York, in 1964. It took her about a half-hour to die, as she crawled on the streets shouting for help. At the time, newspapers reported that over three dozen people saw or heard her crying for help after she was stabbed, but they did nothing. Instead of calling the police, they closed their windows. They did not want to get involved. No one called until the final assault, each of them perhaps thinking that someone else would do it. Eventually, someone did call, but it was too late. Later reports cast doubt on the complete accuracy of the original New York Times story about the incident. That story was based on the initial police report. The number of witnesses who heard the screams may have been closer to a dozen, and the number who actually saw something may be a half-dozen. Still, a half-dozen did not respond, and the incident became a symbol of the alienation of the big city. Sadly, news reports are filled with stories about ordinary humans acting inhumanely as apathetic bystanders. Search for “people ignore man dying on street” in Google, and you will get thousands of results.

www.newswekk.com/can-459362

Leia o texto a seguir.

                                              CAN ADDICTION TO SMARTPHONES TRIGGER ADHD?

We measured inattentiveness and hyperactivity by asking participants to identify how frequently they had experienced 18 symptoms of ADHD over each of the two weeks. These items were based on the criteria for diagnosing ADHD in adults as specified by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The results were clear: More frequent phone interruptions made people less attentive and more hyperactive. These findings should concern us. Smartphones are the fastest-selling electronic gadget in history—in the 22 seconds it took to type this sentence, 1,000 smartphones were shipped to their new owners. Even if one of those 1,000 users became more likely to make a careless mistake, ignore a friend in the middle of a conversation or space out during a meeting, smartphones could be harming the productivity, relationships and well-being of millions.

As with all disorders, symptoms of ADHD form a continuum, from the normal to the pathological. Our findings suggest that our incessant digital stimulation is contributing to an increasingly problematic deficit of attention in modern society.

So consider silencing your phone, even when you are not in the movie theater. Your brain will thank you.

www.newswekk.com/can-459362  

 Leia o texto a seguir.

                                                               LEARNING FROM THE LAZARUS EFFECT

Most clinical trials for cancer drugs are failures. But for a handful of patients, a drug proves to be nearly a cure. What can science learn from these “exceptional responders”?

 For years, Grace Silva had experienced odd episodes with her throat — bouts of swelling and radiating pain that seemed to resolve with antibiotics — but her doctors couldn’t explain what was wrong. Finally, after a flare-up in the summer of 2010, Grace was referred to a specialist, an ear doctor who felt something amiss on the left side of her throat: a lump. The Silva family agreed that it was time to get Grace, then 54, to a thyroid specialist. Grace’s daughter Melanie tracked down the name of one at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a 90-minute drive from Grace’s brown clapboard split-level near New Bedford, Mass. In September 2010, the specialist delivered the diagnosis: anaplastic thyroid cancer. It was bad, he warned her, and she would need surgery. Grace’s other daughter, Karrie, was marrying in a few weeks. “Can’t it wait?” Grace asked. It could not. “And whatever you do,” the specialist said, “please don’t look it up on the Internet.”

www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/magazine/exceptional-responders-cancer-the-lazures-effect.html

 Leia o texto a seguir.

Scientists invent silk food wrap that's biodegradable and could replace plastic cling film

Bananas and strawberries kept at room temperature for more than a week did not go off after they were coated with a near-invisible film made from silk

                                                                                                                        Ian Johnston

 Scientists have invented a cling film-like food wrap made from silk that can preserve fruit for more than a week, as a natural, biodegradable alternative to plastic.

International concern has been growing about plastic waste, particularly the amount that gets into the sea. One estimate is that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans.

Doctors have also warned that containers made from certain kinds of plastic could be harmful to health.

Now a team of biomedical engineers at Tufts University in the US have developed a technique that enables food to be coated with an almost invisible layer of fibroin, a protein found in silk, which helps make it one of nature's toughest materials.

The lead researcher, Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto, told The Independent that the world should probably move "towards processes that are more efficient and more naturally derived" and develop materials that "are closer to the things that surround us, rather than having more man-made, processed materials ... for the general well-being of our planet".

"It's a wise way of thinking about how we manage the resources of our planet, to maybe use renewable systems as opposed to non-renewable systems," he said.

"The pervasiveness of plastic and all the inorganic chemicals that leach out, albeit at very slow rates, can affect us in many ways."

When asked what the chances were that silk-derived products would replace plastics, Professor Omenetto said: "That's our dream."

However he said the use of plastic was widespread and "incredibly cost effective" so it might take some time to convince people to change.

The same team previously made a silk cup that could be used, at least once, for coffee as a possible replacement for plasticlined cardboard cups.

In a paper in the journal Scientific Reports, they described how strawberries and bananas could be preserved for a week or more.

The fruit is coated by dipping it in a liquid containing a tiny amount of fibroin, but the wrap could also be applied with a spray. The silk is produced naturally by worms of moths.

Strawberries left for seven days at room temperature became discoloured and went soft, but those coated with the silk protein stayed juicy and firm.

Available in: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/silk-plastic-cling-film-food-wrap-marine-pollution-food-fruit-vegetables-tufts-universityfiorenzo-a7017401.html. Access on: May 2016.