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The Army’s new tool for analyzing bomb shrapnel could lead to better body armor

March 3, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

A Marine tosses a grenade during an exercise in Kuwait last year.

A Marine tosses a grenade during an exercise in Kuwait last year. (Lance Cpl. Andrew Skiver / US Marine Corp/)

Every explosion is an event rich with data. The challenge is capturing that fleeting and violent information and rendering it sterile and useful. Announced in February, the US Army has a new tool to better capture the data from explosions, at least from practice battlefields.

The trajectory of a bomb, the scattered patterns of its shrapnel, the peculiar shape of its crater, even the holes it tears into the body armor of a person unfortunate enough to be nearby—every part of the aftermath is information, if only it can be recorded.

The novel tool collecting this information is dubbed the Fragmentation Rapid Analysis Generator using Computed Tomography (FRAG-CT). It is designed to streamline the collection and analysis of explosion data, and then create useful files for further research, Lisa King-Schiappa, the lead of the team that designed FRAG-CT for the Army’s Development Command, said in a statement.

With better, faster analysis, the Army can use that information to design new armor—and new bombs.

What is FRAG-CT, and how does it work?

The FRAG-CT method creates a data file of the bombs’ “fragmentation characteristics,” as well as a data file that can be used to design armor. In addition, it creates 3D files of each scanned fragment, which can be used in future analysis. Most notably, the Army claims that this analysis process is 200 times faster than collecting data by hand, allowing analysis time to shrink from “months to hours.”

Presently, classifying debris and shrapnel from deliberately set explosions is a massive, labor-intensive process.

A manual from the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board called “Procedures for the Collection, Analysis, and Interpretation of Explosion-Produced Debris” outlines exactly how much work goes into the traditional hand-cataloging method. This collection includes plotting out where each piece of debris falls, weighing it, describing its origin, and more.

It is not yet clear how, exactly, FRAG-CT will reduce the work of picking up and weighing individual debris pieces. The software as described can take in multiple data inputs, suggesting it would work with sensors and cameras.

How will it help the Army?

A better understanding of explosions can improve the design of both munitions and armor.

“Warhead development is an iterative process from design to prototype to testing and back to design,” Henry Hsieh, a mechanical engineer in the DEVCOM Armament Center, said in the press release. “This process is often cost prohibitive due to the time and labor required to collect and analyze vast amounts of data after a destructive warhead event. With this technology in place, warhead developers can rapidly and confidently design munitions adapted for our next generation of warfighters.”

Warhead design combines material science with a strong drive towards space efficiency. For a bomb to be useful, it needs to remain inert until deliberately armed, it needs to cause an explosion of a useful size, and it ideally uses the minimum amount of material to make all that work. After-effect analysis can let engineers know how much of the case was burnt in the blast, how much launched outward as shrapnel, and what sort of damage the blast caused. This can be applied to every kind of blast, from a grenade to an artillery round or a plane-dropped bomb.

Understanding the exact impact of a bomb on its surroundings, in useful detail and easily processed data, can also improve the design of armor.

Mike Maffeo is a senior engineer with DECOM who works on armor design for soldiers on foot. He said: “FRAG‐CT looks to be a real game changer in getting new fragment files quickly for armor assessment and vulnerability analysis. With all the data that is being collected by FRAG‐CT, it opens opportunities to increase the fidelity of the modeling and analysis.”

Much like modeling improves the ability of the Army to design new explosives, it also improves the ability of the Army to design armor resistant to new explosions. Maffeo continued: “Some of these newer munitions have asymmetric (non‐symmetric) burst patterns that are difficult to model without the right data. FRAG‐CT should allow us to get this type of data quickly.”

For now, the application of FRAG-CT seems limited to tester exercises and controlled explosions, rather than actual in-field analysis. But, using software to shorten the time it takes to understand a blast will improve weapon and armor design now, and likely suggests that future data analysis tools could see use beyond the laboratory setting.

A novel drug to prevent Lyme disease is now being tested in humans

March 3, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Clinical trials on a new Lyme disease prevention vaccine have begun.

Clinical trials on a new Lyme disease prevention vaccine have begun. (Nicoooografie/)

This story originally featured on Field & Stream.

A Massachusetts doctor may have discovered a shot that will prevent Lyme disease in humans. The drug received federal approval from the Food and Drug Administration to be tested on people at the end of 2020. The Phase 1 clinical trial on 66 human subjects began last week. If effective, the shot will be available in the Spring of 2023.

Mark Klempner of Massachusetts Biologics at the UMASS Medical School has been working on a cure for Lyme disease for a decade. With tick-related illnesses increasing in the eastern half of the country and on the rise in the Midwest, the state of Massachusetts invested $1 million in Klempner’s research. The doctor created a “pre-exposure prophylaxis” (PrEP) that delivers anti-Lyme antibodies directly to a patient. PrEPs are unlike vaccines, which trigger the patient’s immune system to produce antibodies. Instead, PrEPs supply antibodies directly. The shot would kill the bacteria from a tick bite before a person would be infected. Patients would need to be inoculated every year as the shot’s effectiveness would last for nine months.

Lincoln, Nebraska, was selected as the test site. Lyme disease is relatively uncommon in that state, which means that scientists can more easily prove that the Lyme bacteria was introduced in the lab as opposed to being contracted by a previous infection. The initial testing likely will extend through an entire tick season, or through the end of the year.

The withdrawal of a Lyme vaccine that once was publicly available fast-tracked the study. Klempner says “Since we understood the mechanism of protection there, we were able to go right after the molecule that we thought would be productive. The clinical trial is finally here, we started it, and it’s a novel way to approach prevention of Lyme Disease, and we’re highly hopeful it will be safe and effective.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Lyme disease may infect nearly a half-million Americans each year.

Conservation and ecology research tackles global issues without global input

March 3, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

The scientists looked at 13 well-known journals in ecology and conservation to find out who the top authors—the people who published the highest number of papers—were. Only 18 percent of the top names in these journals are women.

Ecology, like many areas of science, has a long way to go before it is truly inclusive and equitable, a new study reiterates. The research, published on March 1 in the open-access journal Conservation Letters, found that male researchers in predominantly wealthy countries have a severely bloated footprint in the major ecology journals.

“We are facing global challenges with the global climate and biodiversity crisis,” says lead author Bea Maas, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Vienna. “And we are very aware that we need global perspectives to address these challenges.”

The scientists looked at 13 well-known journals in ecology and conservation to find out who the top authors—the people who published the highest number of papers—were. Those scientists are often the ones who end up in institutional leadership positions, says coauthor Richard Primack, a biologist at Boston University. Using data from Web of Science, the researchers pinpointed the top (approximately) 100 study authors for each journal between the years 1945 and 2019, eventually analyzing a list of 1051 individual authors.

“We found that women and the Global South are strikingly underrepresented,” says Maas. The “Global South” is a term used to describe a group of less wealthy countries that are mostly located in the Southern Hemisphere, while the “Global North” are more wealthy countries that mostly occupy the Northern Hemisphere.

It may not be so surprising that women weren’t given prominent roles in 1950′s labs, but growth since then hasn’t been particularly explosive, the study found. Only 18 percent of the top names in these journals are women. Additionally, the top 10 countries affiliated with these leading authors are the United States, the U.K., Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden—all Western countries in the defined Global North.

“For the whole list of top authors, we have only 42 countries represented,” says Maas. “That means that more than 150 countries are not showing up in the list at all.”

Many researchers work for institutions that aren’t actually in their country of origin. Still, Maas says, that affiliation is important, since it relates to particular resources and opportunities. Maas also says that the study’s binary approach to gender is not ideal, but is based on the currently available data—and that in the future, it will be important to expand out. In recent years, researchers have made public, both in the popular press and in academic journals, a wide range of inequities in science, from entrenched racial bias to a disregard for Indigenous rights and perspectives and a “sense of invisibility” for LGBTQ+ scientists.

Various factors such as funding, educational opportunities, and bias against researchers who don’t speak English can all contribute to geographic bias in science, Martin Nuñez, an ecologist at Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council, wrote in an email to Popular Science. And that geographic bias can manifest in a less-than-full picture of the world. For example, “It is very common to say that invasive species are not a problem in the tropics, but actually we don’t have that data!”

Asha de Vos, an adjunct research fellow at the Oceans Institute of the University of Western Australia and founder of the marine conservation organization Oceanswell in Sri Lanka, wrote in an email to Popular Science that she was pleased to see this study get published. “While the existence of these biases do not surprise me, the degree of bias is startling especially given the progress we think we have made in the past few years.”

A big problem in conservation science which could be reflected in these results, says de Vos, is “parachute” or colonial science—in which “researchers from the developed world come to countries in the global south, do research and leave without any investment in human capacity or infrastructure,” a process that can lead to publications that don’t include local partners.

The authors of the current study highlight a number of potential shifts in the ways leadership is assessed—suggesting, for example, that leaders seek out journal editors from underrepresented backgrounds and geographical areas, and that different metrics be used to assess academic recruits.

“If we keep selecting leaders of the community based on how much they publish,” says coauthor Primack, “we’re just going to keep perpetuating this situation of white men from English-speaking countries dominating science.”

Microsoft’s new Mesh platform turns your remote coworkers into holograms

March 3, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Soon after the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many offices quickly and unexpectedly moved to the cloud. Now, these “offices” only really exist in the abstract, relying on a patchwork of real-time messaging services like Slack, e-mail, and a suddenly endless stream of video conferences. The quick switch didn’t allow time for the idea of a truly digital office to take shape and deliver on the lofty promises of virtual reality spaces in which we could all hang out and handle our daily tasks.

During the keynote at its Ignite conference today, however, Microsoft provided an early look at its vision of its holographic space for human collaboration. The platform, called Mesh, would enable users to wear augmented reality headsets (such as Microsoft’s own HoloLens gear) and offer virtual collaborative opportunities across a variety of apps from games to Office.

The idea goes beyond some of the more straightforward VR office concepts we’ve seen from companies like Facebook. Mesh envisions a true mixed reality application, in which holographic avatars can interact with objects that appear in your physical spaces. Imagine standing in your living room while a large interactive globe spins in front of you and a co-worker or teacher’s holographic avatar interacts with it.

From the video demos, it’s clear that Microsoft doesn’t envision the digital elements to fool participants into thinking they’re physically there. The other people’s avatars have clear indicators of their digital nature, whether it’s a generally cartoony appearance or a vaguely translucent nature consistent with what pop culture often presents as a hologram.

Though the project is in its early stages, Microsoft is offering companies a version of the AltspaceVR app, which is an enterprise-grade meeting solution for companies that want to hold virtual meetings. Eventually, however, the Mesh tech will roll up directly into Microsoft’s own work platform Teams.

The challenge with mixing realities

For a straightforward VR experience, apps can keep the process relatively simple. The program can plunk users in virtual seats around a digital space and use the headgear’s internal motion sensors to track participants’ head movements. Bringing precisely mapped digital objects and team members into a real-world space, however, offers a more in-depth challenge.

For photorealistic “holoportation” as Microsoft calls it, outside sensors need to capture real-time movement information. Creating a truly accurate hologram requires a complex setup like Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Capture Studio, which involves controlled lighting and high-tech sensors. Mesh comes with a scaled-back version of this tech that allows users to create less-detailed, customizable avatars that work right out of the box.

In addition to tracking the people, the system also needs to keep tabs on the location to allow people to interact with objects that may only exist in the cloud. Spatial maps handle this task by providing a detailed, three-dimensional picture of the space you’re in, as well as the other objects around you.

If you’ve ever used a VR headset or even something like the Xbox Kinect, then you’ve already experienced something similar. Mesh just envisions it on a much larger scale.

What can we actually do with this tech?

In many ways, Mesh feels like the natural extension of HoloLens. Microsoft’s head-mounted smart display already overlaid digital directions and objects onto real-world settings. Mesh can bring more people into the mix and allow them to manipulate digital versions of those objects right along with you.

As with HoloLens in general, Microsoft obviously considers industry its main customer base for the moment, but it’s looking beyond the work environment to other settings, including theaters. MIcrosoft is working with the aquatic research organization, OceanX, to add “holographic laboratories” to their ships in order to aid in its scientific pursuits.

The company also suggests a situation in which people from various locations attend one central performance. The company has already begun work with the company behind Cirque Du Soleil to provide access to shows via mixed reality.

Will we all have to wear a Hololens?

For now, Microsoft has stated its commitment to making Mesh available across different devices. If you want to experience the three-dimensional aspects of the technology, you’ll need an AR or VR headset, but the company hopes to make the experiences equally accessible for people using smartphones or tablets.

This device-inclusive attitude has been a part of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality vision for years now and it seems to be sticking with it, even as the concept and implementations evolve.

For now, the Mesh implementations are still only available in specific settings, most of which won’t roll out to the general public for some time. But, if Microsoft remains committed to the project and other developers jump on board to develop for the platform, it could provide an early look at what remote collaboration looks like as physical offices struggle to bounce back in the wake of the pandemic. Before long, you may be able to say “this virtual meeting could have been an email,” directly to the organizer’s holographic face.

Your favorite brunch foods are thousands of years old

March 3, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Should we split a side of goat bacon?

Should we split a side of goat bacon? (Pexels/)

What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Anchor, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you’ll love the show.

FACT: Ötzi the iceman ate a super primitive version of pancakes and bacon for his last brunch

By Sara Kiley Watson

The way we eat food has changed a lot over the years. But the one thing that hasn’t changed is that if you’re living in wintery climates like the Italian Alps, having a hearty meal of carbohydrates and fatty meats can put you on the right track for a tough hike. Ötzi the iceman, who roamed around what’s now known as Italy, met his unfortunate end 5,300 years ago when he was murdered on the icy mountaintops. His mummified corpse was found by hikers in the 1990s, but his stomach was mysteriously misplaced until a couple of years ago—and it turns out he definitely didn’t die hungry.

Inside his mummified stomach, researchers were able to find lipid-rich, almost bacon-like mountain goat meat. Additionally, they found fibrous bread and charcoal that points to a potential bread-like product cooked on a hot rock—more or less the earliest known iteration of a pancake. These definitely weren’t Instagram-worthy brunch dishes, but they did the trick in terms of prepping ancient humans for their prehistoric adventures.

FACT: Ancient people fudged the sky charts, which means all our horoscopes are terribly off

By Purbita Saha

Last year astrology fans went wild when reports of a secret new Zodiac sign started making the rounds. The rumors got so out of hand that NASA had to step in with a centering explanation on its Tumblr account (we know!).

The space agency started by clarifying that astronomy and astrology are in no way the same field and practice, then dove into a mathematical breakdown of why a 13th sign wouldn’t really change people’s horoscope charts. The supposed missing constellation, named Ophiuchus by the Greeks, was described in early Babylonian texts—but somehow never made it into the official Zodiac with Aquarius, Sagittarius, Taurus, and so on.

The likely reason? It’s easier to split the sky into 12 parts to match the months, even though there are countless constellations that come in all different sizes.

So yes, astrology seems to pick and choose what it wants out of the heavens. But in a way, don’t we all? The Earth is continually shifting its axis, which means the Ancient Greeks and Babylonians saw the sun, moon, and stars in another light than we do. Our views of the universe aren’t constant over time, and that’s a fact that astrologists and astronomers can both get behind.

FACT: The uncanny valley makes us feel uncomfortable around almost-human things, but not because of ancient human doppelgängers

By Rachel Feltman

I recently saw a meme going around TikTok where people claim that the existence of the uncanny valley—where seeing something that looks almost human makes us uncomfortable—implies we once had to be wary of beings that looked almost exactly like us. I’d like to unpack that!

In 1970, a robotics professor from the Tokyo Institute of Technology named Masahiro Mori published an obscure article in an obscure Japanese journal where he hypothesized that a person’s response to a humanlike robot would abruptly shift from empathy to revulsion as it approached, but failed to attain, a lifelike appearance. Here he coined the term “uncanny valley.”

Researchers generally weren’t paying attention to the uncanny valley’s psychological, neurological, or evolutionary implications until around the turn of the 21st century, but the idea kept popping up more and more among people who worked with robotics—and then people who worked with computer generated animation—because as their work became more advanced, it became something they had to work harder to avoid. (One fun thing about looking back at the history of the uncanny valley is seeing how relative it is—some of the videos that famously sparked revulsion in viewers for looking too lifelike are now comically unrealistic.) Research on the subject has boomed in recent years, but results are still mixed.

As mysterious as the uncanny valley phenomenon is, we do have some theories about why we might find almost-human things unsettling.

One possibility is that this isn’t really unique to something looking “human” at all, but that our brains are simply uncomfortable when it’s not sure whether to put something in one category or another—like not being sure whether to register a figure as a cartoon or as a living being. Other theories hold that we might be freaked out because an imperfect robot seems like a human whose behavior doesn’t quite add up—like someone whose facial expressions seem less than genuine. A robot or animation that looks human enough might suddenly trigger something in our brain that raises our expectations for its behavior, prompting us to look out for cues that it might be masking its true emotions or acting erratically.

Relatedly, it’s possible that the more human something seems, the more triggered we are to look for signs of possible illness—because the closer something is to being our own species, the more likely we are to be able to catch what it has. And related to this is the idea that all of these feelings stem from our evolutionary need to be wary of corpses—not just because they might carry disease, but because the predator that killed them might be nearby.

Listen to this week’s episode to learn more about our complicated relationship with ersatz humanoids—and why it probably doesn’t boil down to an ancient alien conspiracy.

If you like The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week, please subscribe, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. You can also join in the weirdness in our Facebook group and bedeck yourself in Weirdo merchandise (including face masks!) from our Threadless shop.

The strongest fishing knots you can tie

March 2, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

When it comes to finding the strongest fishing knot, sometimes you've got to do a bit of experimenting.

When it comes to finding the strongest fishing knot, sometimes you’ve got to do a bit of experimenting. (C D-X/Unsplash/)

This story was originally featured on Field & Stream.

Fishing line has advanced remarkably in the past few decades. Nylon monofilament, fluorocarbon, and so-called “superline” give fishermen tremendous advantages in strength, visibility, and ease of use.

Each of the three primary line types behaves differently from the others, however, so picking the right line for the job isn’t easy. Our fishing lives are further complicated because a particular knot that works well for one type of line might not be worth a damn for another type. And what advantage is a great line if the knot you use fails?

So here’s what we did: We got our hands on some expensive equipment and a whole lot of line and began testing. We were surprised by some of the results. A couple of them changed the way we fish—and the same may be true for you. Here are the results from our test in determining the strongest fishing knot.

Splicing knots: How to tie fishing line together

Not all splicing knots are equally compatible with all three basic line types. I tested the strength of at least three or four different splicing knots for each of three line combinations to find what worked best.

Note that in two cases, an easy-to-tie knot won out over a knot that scored a bit higher. That’s because a knot that you can tie quickly and efficiently is more practical and valuable than one that is a tiny bit stronger but requires much more valuable fishing time to tie. The “strength” percentages listed after the name of each knot indicate the strength of the knot compared with the leader’s actual unknotted line strength.

How to tie a blood knot (5-turn)

Strength: 83% | Monofilament to a fluorocarbon leader

For this test, I tied 10-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon to 10-pound Trilene Big Game monofilament, purposefully going with lines of similar diameters to simulate a common use of fluoro, such as in tying on a leader when fishing for heavily pressured steelhead or walleyes in clear water. Other, more high-tech knots fared not as well: A 3-turn Seaguar knot broke at 66%; a 3-turn surgeon’s knot at 65%; and 4-turn back-to-back Uni knots at 6%.

▲ Overlap and make five turns.

▲ Overlap and make five turns. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Bring the tag through the loop.

▲ Bring the tag through the loop. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Make five turns on the other side.

▲ Make five turns on the other side. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Bring the tag through the loop.

▲ Bring the tag through the loop. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Hold the tags and tighten.

▲ Hold the tags and tighten. (Pete Sucheski/)

How to tie a Palomar knot

Strength: 96% | Superline to a monofilament leader

I tied 30-pound Berkley FireLine Braid to 10-pound Big Game mono, two lines of similar diameters. The winner here is happily also the easiest to tie: a Palomar knot on either side of a small intermediate barrel swivel. In casting and reeling, the swivel must remain outside the tip-top guide. This limits leader length to 2 or 3 feet, which is usually adequate. If you require a knot that will travel through the rod guides, use a J knot, which tested at nearly 100% for this combination—but is much harder to tie than a Palomar.

▲ Pass the leader loop through the eye.

▲ Pass the leader loop through the eye. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Make an overhand knot.

▲ Make an overhand knot. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pass the swivel through the loop.

▲ Pass the swivel through the loop. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Repeat on the other side.

▲ Repeat on the other side. (Pete Sucheski/)

How to tie a J knot

Strength: 83% | Superline to a fluorocarbon leader

I tested four different knotting systems using 10-pound InvizX fluorocarbon and 30-pound FireLine Braid, also of similar diameters. Other trials were close but earned no cigars: A 4-turn surgeon’s knot broke at 80%; 5-turn back-to-back Uni knots at 75%; and a 3-turn Seaguar knot at 73%. The J knot is difficult to tie, but if you’re using a fluorocarbon leader, you are obviously concerned about visibility and shouldn’t go the Palomar-to-a-barrel-swivel route as explained above.

▲ Place parallel, tie an overhand knot.

▲ Place parallel, tie an overhand knot. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pass the tag back and forth through the loop.

▲ Pass the tag back and forth through the loop. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pass around the bottom.

▲ Pass around the bottom. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Tighten and trim.

▲ Tighten and trim. (Pete Sucheski/)

Two more splicing fishing knots

The Albright, and uni-to-uni splice are arguably the two most common knots for joining one piece of line to another. But splice points are quick to fail during a fish fight if improperly tied. Technique is often not the issue; rather, anglers don’t choose the right splice for the kinds of lines they’re trying to join. Learn when to put each into play, and you’ll put more fish in the net.

How to tie the Albright knot

An extremely secure connection for splicing lines of different diameters—or with different coatings—the Albright works best when the thinner line is being connected to a thicker line that allows for some “bite.” For example, thinner, harder mono leader material will bite into softer fly line when an Albright is cinched down. Likewise, thin, slick braid or coated wire leader will bite into softer, thicker mono. The trick to a secure Albright, however, is keeping the coils tight as you form it, and cinching it down hard until all the wraps lock firmly. An Albright that isn’t properly cinched will fail in a flash.

How to tie a uni-to-uni splice knot

This is actually a jam knot, meaning two separate knots are created and jammed together. This connection works best with heavier monofilament and fluorocarbon. While it’s strongest when used with lines of similar diameter, it will securely splice lines varying in diameter by a pound-test or three. Braid does not work well with a uni splice, as its skinny profile and slick coating tend to cause the knots to over-tighten and slip through instead of jamming. The uni splice maintains its strength under strain when tied with 15- to 80-pound-test, but it tends to fail with lighter lines, especially if jolted suddenly.

Terminal knots: How to tie lure and fishing hook knots

Arguments about the best terminal knot are endless. Usually they match one angler’s opinion against another’s. But to paraphrase knot maven Lefty Kreh, line-testing machines don’t have opinions. With that in mind, I tested the three basic types of line with various lure knots. Some of the results surprised even me.

Here also, the percentages listed indicate the strength of the knot compared with the line’s actual unknotted line strength.

How to tie a Trilene knot

Strength: 96% | Monofilament to a lure

I tested five different knots with 10-pound Trilene Big Game monofilament tied to an original Rapala, and the tried-and-true Trilene knot beat all. Notably, a 6-turn clinch knot and a 5-turn improved clinch also came in at 96%, but only if they were tied with extreme care. Otherwise, they broke at a much lower percentage. The widely used Palomar knot tested at 89%.

▲ Pass the tag through the eye.

▲ Pass the tag through the eye. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Repeat.

▲ Repeat. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Make five wraps.

▲ Make five wraps. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pass the tag through the loops.

▲ Pass the tag through the loops. (Pete Sucheski/)

How to tie a nonslip loop knot

Strength: 83% | Fluorocarbon to a lure

Fluorocarbon in general has gotten a bad rap for knot strength, which was borne out in this particular trial. Tying 10-pound InvizX to a small Rapala in three different ways gave results that were merely OK. The nonslip loop knot barely edged out a Palomar knot, at 83% vs. 82%. So take your pick, although the loop knot has the added advantage of allowing greater freedom of lure movement in fishing. A five-turn improved clinch knot came in at only 75%.

▲ Make an overhand knot.

▲ Make an overhand knot. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pass the tag through the eye and loop.

▲ Pass the tag through the eye and loop. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Make four wraps and pass the tag through the loop.

▲ Make four wraps and pass the tag through the loop. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pull the standing end and lure.

▲ Pull the standing end and lure. (Pete Sucheski/)

How to tie a Berkley Braid knot

Strength: 62% | Superline to a lure

Various knots made with regular 14-pound FireLine to a Rapala did poorly, percentage-wise. A regular eight-turn clinch knot would not hold at all, slipping out and coming untied at about 10 pounds of force. A Palomar knot, often recommended for superlines, broke at 63%, but I picked the Berkley Braid knot as a winner because it doesn’t require passing your lure through a loop as a Palomar does, which can be unwieldy.

▲ Pass the loop through the eye.

▲ Pass the loop through the eye. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Make eight wraps from the far end.

▲ Make eight wraps from the far end. (Pete Sucheski/)

▲ Pass the loop end between the eye and coils.

▲ Pass the loop end between the eye and coils. (Pete Sucheski/)

What kids know—and don’t know—about COVID-19

March 2, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

The pandemic will be a formative experience for many kids around the world.

The pandemic will be a formative experience for many kids around the world. (Jairo/Unsplash/)

Karen Ford is an adjunct associate professor at the School of Nursing, University of Tasmania. Andrea Middleton is a lecturer at the University of Tasmania. Steven Campbell is a professor of Clinical Redesign– Nursing, University of Tasmania. This story originally featured on The Conversation.

During the pandemic, children have been separated from family and friends, schools have been closed and there have been limitations on important activities, such as play.

We know a good deal about the physical effects COVID-19 has on children. But the impact on their mental and emotional well-being is less well understood—particularly from the perspective of children themselves.

Our recently published research highlights the importance of listening to children, about what they have to say, and the information they want about COVID-19.

Here’s what we did

We took part in an international study with children from six countries—the UK, Spain, Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and Australia.

We recruited children through our professional and social networks, for example sporting groups and community groups.

We asked children aged seven to 12 years about how they accessed information about COVID-19, about their understandings of the virus, and why they were asked to stay at home.

The survey was open when the highest level restrictions were in place across Tasmania, where the Australian arm of the study was based. In total, 49 children from Tasmania took part in the survey and 390 children internationally.

There were important differences across the countries when we conducted the survey, including the numbers of reported cases and deaths from COVID-19, as well as government responses and levels of restrictions.

For example, the reported deaths and cases were much higher in countries such as the UK and Brazil compared to Australia. Children in Sweden continued to attend school, whereas most children in other countries were learning from home.

What we found

There were many similarities across the different countries in the things important to children, what they had to say and what they wanted to know. But there were also differences across countries and between children.

More than half the children said they knew a lot or quite a bit about COVID-19. Their comments included:

It is a stupid virus.
It spreads really quickly.
People play it down and tell me it can’t kill people, but I know people are dying each day.

This drawing from Ben, aged 7, Tasmania, shows children express what they know about the coronavirus in many ways.

This drawing from Ben, aged 7, Tasmania, shows children express what they know about the coronavirus in many ways. (Courtesy Karen Ford/)

But they also had questions:

How and where did it start?
What does the coronavirus actually look like?
How does it make you poorly?

Some said they did not want to know any more about the virus:

It is boring.
I don’t want to know about it because it’s killing people and that makes me sad.

Children expressed different emotions about COVID-19. They said they felt “worried”, “scared”, “angry,” and “confused”.

Children knew the virus was particularly dangerous for vulnerable people:

It can possibly kill old and unhealthy people.

And they missed their friends and family:

When can we go back to school?

Children obtained information about COVID-19 from different sources, mostly from parents and teachers. Children also sought information from friends, TV shows, and the internet, including social media.

Children understood what the community was being asked to do and they had learnt the meanings of new words and terms. So they knew what social distancing meant and that they needed to stay 1.5 meters (or 6 feet) apart.

Children also knew key public health messages about washing your hands, not touching your face, and needing to stay at home “to save lives.”

Why does this matter?

Children have had an important role in society’s response to COVID-19. Their significant contributions to limiting the spread of the virus have included being separated from family and friends, and limitations on important activities that are part of their “normal” lives.

However, the impacts on children’s lives and well-being are largely unacknowledged. Their contributions should be acknowledged and they should be thanked for their part.

Children have a right to be provided with information in a form that is appropriate for their safety and well-being. Children need to have the opportunity to ask questions and learn about what COVID-19 means for them with adults they trust, including parents and teachers.

Children have questions about COVID-19. Questions are different for each child and not all children want the same amount of information.

What can adults do?

Adults should make the time and space to have conversations with children. They can ask:

What would you like to know?
What would you like to ask?

This approach means children are empowered to identify their needs and concerns, and the information they are provided is relevant and meets their needs.

Blacklight flashlights that reveal the secrets of your surroundings

March 2, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Love at first light.

Love at first light. (Unsplash/Amir Shamsipur/)

The first question you want to ask yourself when purchasing a blacklight flashlight is, “Do you really want to know?” These neat little gadgets employ ultraviolet light to make substances containing phosphors glow in the dark, so you can find out whether or not the carpet in your new apartment has been properly cleaned, if there’s evidence of bed bugs in a hotel room, or spot counterfeit cash. Enjoy these tips on what they can do (make sneaky scorpions gleam blue-green) and what they can’t (remove said scorpions from your shoes), and even have some fun discovering a hidden world.

Featuring a compact size of just 3.75 inches in length, this handy tool is ideal in canine catastrophes (but not feline). Contains components that can last up to 15 years.

Featuring a compact size of just 3.75 inches in length, this handy tool is ideal in canine catastrophes (but not feline). Contains components that can last up to 15 years. (TaoTronics/)

If you’re training a puppy or have an elderly dog prone to accidents, you aren’t always going to be there with cleaning supplies when a mishap occurs. When you scan your carpet with a blacklight flashlight, patches you’ve missed will emit fluorescent light, allowing you to deep clean problem areas more easily. A smaller flashlight will help you look into smaller corners and spaces under furniture.

Features water-resistant casing and can zoom in on your target with ease. Replenish the battery with a mobile power source, including laptops and phones.

Features water-resistant casing and can zoom in on your target with ease. Replenish the battery with a mobile power source, including laptops and phones. (DarkBeam/)

To optimize the power of your blacklight flashlight, always be sure your surroundings are as dark as possible. If you live in a city or have a streetlight just outside your living room window, make sure the shades are closed, and consider blocking any cracks of light from under your door with a towel. Results may be harder to distinguish on darker rugs or carpet, but if you’ve committed to using blacklight to attack messes, you can keep light-colored carpet looking fresh and new.

While still portable at 5.7 inches in length, this tool has a diameter of 2.2 inches that offers a wider beam than other compact choices. Powered by three AA batteries.

While still portable at 5.7 inches in length, this tool has a diameter of 2.2 inches that offers a wider beam than other compact choices. Powered by three AA batteries. (Vansky/)

While most people probably purchase a blacklight flashlight for cleanup purposes, the fluorescent world is not a total horror show. Antique collectors can use them to recognize uranium glass, and geologists can check out fluorescent minerals. Just be sure to follow the safety instructions for your light to protect your eyes and minimize your exposure to radiation.

COVID-19 cases aren’t dropping anymore

March 2, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Socially distanced events will continue to be a reality for a while.

Socially distanced events will continue to be a reality for a while. (Unsplash/)

Click here to see all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage.

If you’ve lost count (or never started), we are now at week 51 of the COVID era, which officially began on March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It’s been more than a year since the WHO announced there was a mysterious virus emerging in Wuhan, China. Since then, more than half a million Americans have died from the virus. Although we understand far more about SARS-CoV-2 now, there’s still a lot left for us to figure out.

Though a fair amount of us have likely reached COVID fatigue and a handful of vaccines to prevent the infection are either already in use or could be soon, it’s still crucial that we maintain our awareness of the severity of this crisis. Here’s a quick overview of the essential stats and figures:

US coronavirus cases

The United States has now reported more than 28.6 million cases in total, and 56,672 were reported just in the last day. We’re currently on the decline from our third—and by far largest—peak so far. Though some variants have public health experts concerned, we’ve been in a steady and marked decline for the past seven weeks. That’s a wholly positive sign.

However, the downturn has lost some of its momentum in the past 10 days and is beginning to look like the start of a plateau. It’s also possible that the apparent fall in case numbers is partially due to plummeting testing rates nationwide, making case counts artificially low as less people get tested for the virus. Certainly a large chunk of the reason is that social distancing, especially following the holidays, has made a big difference in how easily COVID-19 is spreading. For these reasons, it’s still crucial that we maintain the precautions that produced this decline— namely social distancing and mask wearing, along with getting vaccinated if you can.

Coronavirus stats around the world

Going by total case counts, the current top 10 countries for COVID-19 are:

US
India
Brazil
Russia
UK
France
Spain
Italy
Turkey
Germany

But what these countries generally have in common is large populations. The list of total cases per 100,000 people tells a very different story (not counting countries with fewer than 100,000 people):

Montenegro
Czech Republic
Slovenia
Luxembourg
Israel
US
Panama
Bahrain
Portugal
Aruba

The US is the only country on both lists, which is a testament to how poorly we’ve handled the pandemic. Every other nation with a lot of case counts generally has it by virtue of having a large population.

Israel remains on this list despite having the highest vaccination rate of any country, but recent data shows that the vaccine is working. A combination of the British variant of COVID sweeping the nation, along with a lockdown-weary population returning to normal life, has caused a massive uptick. Case numbers are expected to come down as the vaccination effort continues.

The most recent hotspots

Over the past several weeks, most US states experienced their largest wave of cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. The good news is that every state seems to have surmounted the wave and new cases are now generally on the decline. Scientists aren’t sure why we’re seeing such a dramatic downturn nationwide, but speculate that it could be a combination of mask-wearing, social distancing, and the promise of spring ahead. While none of the states are currently peaking or plateauing, cases still remain at an all time high in most regions of the country.

The coronavirus death toll and hospitalization rate

At least 514,404 Americans have now died from COVID-19.

In the last week, there has been an average of 67,470 cases per day, which is a 21 percent decrease compared to the average cases per day two weeks ago. Deaths are also down 17 percent in the same period.

Even as the overall caseload in America continues to trend downward, the number of cases remains higher than at any other point in the past year. While vaccines offer a light at the end of the tunnel, including Johnson & Johnson’s newly authorized single dose, COVID-19 is essentially everywhere at this point and the effect of new variants remains to be seen. It’s just as important now as it was at the start of the pandemic to remain vigilant.

Ergonomic dog beds to keep your pup cozy and comfortable

March 2, 2021 MadMadNews Reposted Filed Under: PopSci, SCITECH

Keep your pup happy and comfy.

Keep your pup happy and comfy. (Unsplash/Jordan Bigelow/)

We know there are many mattress options available for humans: spring-loaded, firm, temperature-controlled, or hybrids to name a few. But did you know there are many options for dogs too? Dogs can sleep up to 14 hours a day and puppies up to 20, so you want to make sure you choose a great, ergonomic bed to keep them comfortable and cozy.

This brand might be well known for top-quality human mattresses; they also make great models for man’s best friend.

This brand might be well known for top-quality human mattresses; they also make great models for man’s best friend. (Casper/)

A memory foam mattress is a great way to give your dog a little bit more support. This soft, thick material can make a big difference, especially if you have an older dog with achy joints or arthritis. Memory foam gently lifts the body, which relieves common pressure points and leads to a longer, healthier rest. Just make sure you get a memory foam bed with a washable, removable exterior to keep things fresh, and you’ll be ready to roll while your pup dreams of running after squirrels.

Perfect for pups both big and small, this soft bunk has egg-crate style cushions to support pressure points, distribute weight, and improve air circulation.

Perfect for pups both big and small, this soft bunk has egg-crate style cushions to support pressure points, distribute weight, and improve air circulation. (Furhaven/)

There are many expensive dog beds out there, often for a good reason, but finding a cozy bed doesn’t have to break the bank. The best thing to pay attention to is size and material. If you have a small dog, like a beagle or dachshund, you probably don’t need a bed larger than 35 inches. A medium-sized dog, like a border collie or shiba inu, will be snug and warm in a bed that’s under 33 inches. A large dog, like a German shepherd or standard poodle will be happy in a bed under 40 inches. Orthopedic foam is a great thing to consider for general comfort and extra support for older dogs. We recommend getting a bed with bolsters, which provide a sense of security and satisfies their natural instinct to dig and burrow.

With a washable exterior that can survive a brutal attack from your young puppy, this unit will support your pooch while saving your wallet from purchasing replacements.

With a washable exterior that can survive a brutal attack from your young puppy, this unit will support your pooch while saving your wallet from purchasing replacements. (Carhartt/)

While support, size and comfort should be your priorities when it comes to selecting a bed for your dog, you can also think about how your pooch treats his stuff. If you know your dog tends to chew up, dig in, or slobber all over the bed to the point where you always have a replacement on standby, we recommend going with a model with a cover made from canvas rather than plush or microfiber, so it’ll last longer.