Belmore Falls, Wildes Meadow, Australia | by Sacha Styles
Fantastique ! JM 😍
Adding bits of irradiated plastic water bottles could cut cement industry’s carbon emissions
Discarded plastic bottles could one day be used to build stronger, more flexible concrete structures, from sidewalks and street barriers, to buildings and bridges, according to a new study.
MIT undergraduate students have found that, by exposing plastic flakes to small, harmless doses of gamma radiation, then pulverizing the flakes into a fine powder, they can mix the plastic with cement paste to produce concrete that is up to 20 percent stronger than conventional concrete.
Concrete is, after water, the second most widely used material on the planet. The manufacturing of concrete generates about 4.5 percent of the world’s human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. Replacing even a small portion of concrete with irradiated plastic could thus help reduce the cement industry’s global carbon footprint.
Reusing plastics as concrete additives could also redirect old water and soda bottles, the bulk of which would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Interesting! JM
Billet invité.
Profitant qu’elles ne sont plus au centre de l’attention, les banques européennes n’arrêtent pas de marquer des points gagnants en stoppant la poursuite de la régulation. Et tous les moyens sont bons pour y parvenir.
Afin d’éviter la séparation de leurs activités de spéculation et de dépôt, qui est intervenue aux États-Unis, elles ont choisi comme tactique la politique de la chaise vide. Un projet controversé de la Commission était sur la table depuis janvier 2014, mais comme aucun contre-projet n’a été proposé depuis 2015, celle-ci a renoncé au sien faute de pouvoir négocier un compromis ! Imparable !
Le Comité de Bâle étant moins complaisant et ne pliant pas si facilement, les banques n’ont là pas d’autre choix que de l’affronter. Pour leurs représentants – la Fédération bancaire française (FBF) s’est portée en première ligne – il est en effet impensable d’accepter de nouvelles règles de valorisation des actifs qui imposeraient une charge supplémentaire en fonds propres. Ayant le choix entre leurs deux arguments de toujours, la distorsion de concurrence et la restriction du crédit pénalisant l’économie, elles ont choisi le premier pour faire front.
Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, la directrice générale de la FBF, considère dans une interview à l’Agefi que « un problème d’équité » est en cause, la conduisant à reprendre sa formule affectionnée selon laquelle « il vaut mieux pas d’accord qu’un mauvais accord ». En effet, le statut quo qui en résulterait permettrait aux banques de continuer à valoriser leurs actifs en application de leurs modèles propres.
Ne comptez pas non plus sur les banques pour faire avancer le dossier de l’Union bancaire. Dans la même interview, la directrice de la FBF se déclare favorable à la première étape de garantie des dépôts, qui repose sur les fonds nationaux, et défavorable à la seconde, qui aboutissant à une mutualisation supposerait un examen du bilan de toutes les banques européennes, et pas seulement des plus importantes qui sont déjà sous la supervision de la BCE.
Afin d’éviter le renforcement d’une telle inquisition, les banques européennes appliquent une troisième méthode. Elles se réfugient derrière l’opposition allemande à ce que le mécanisme de supervision unique de la BCE mette son nez dans le bilan de ses banques régionales et de ses caisses d’épargne.
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Intéressant !
JM
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Dramatique!
JM
Our Cassini spacecraft has been exploring Saturn, its stunning rings and its strange and beautiful moons for more than a decade.
Having expended almost every bit of the rocket propellant it carried to Saturn, operators are deliberately plunging Cassini into the planet to ensure Saturn’s moons will remain pristine for future exploration – in particular, the ice-covered, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus, but also Titan, with its intriguing pre-biotic chemistry.
Under its shroud of haze, Saturn’s planet-sized moon Titan hides dunes, mountains of water ice and rivers and seas of liquid methane. Of the hundreds of moons in our solar system, Titan is the only one with a dense atmosphere and large liquid reservoirs on its surface, making it in some ways more like a terrestrial planet.
Both Earth and Titan have nitrogen-dominated atmospheres – over 95% nitrogen in Titan’s case. However, unlike Earth, Titan has very little oxygen; the rest of the atmosphere is mostly methane and traced amounts of other gases, including ethane.
There are three large seas, all located close to the moon’s north pole, surrounded by numerous smaller lakes in the northern hemisphere. Just one large lake has been found in the southern hemisphere.
The moon Enceladus conceals a global ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy surface. Some of that water even shoots out into space, creating an immense plume!
For decades, scientists didn’t know why Enceladus was the brightest world in the solar system, or how it related to Saturn’s E ring. Cassini found that both the fresh coating on its surface, and icy material in the E ring originate from vents connected to a global subsurface saltwater ocean that might host hydrothermal vents.
With its global ocean, unique chemistry and internal heat, Enceladus has become a promising lead in our search for worlds where life could exist.
Saturn’s two-toned moon Iapetus gets its odd coloring from reddish dust in its orbital path that is swept up and lands on the leading face of the moon.
The most unique, and perhaps most remarkable feature discovered on Iapetus in Cassini images is a topographic ridge that coincides almost exactly with the geographic equator. The physical origin of the ridge has yet to be explained…
It is not yet year whether the ridge is a mountain belt that has folded upward, or an extensional crack in the surface through which material from inside Iapetus erupted onto the surface and accumulated locally.
Saturn’s rings are made of countless particles of ice and dust, which Saturn’s moons push and tug, creating gaps and waves.
Scientists have never before studied the size, temperature, composition and distribution of Saturn’s rings from Saturn obit. Cassini has captured extraordinary ring-moon interactions, observed the lowest ring-temperature ever recorded at Saturn, discovered that the moon Enceladus is the source for Saturn’s E ring, and viewed the rings at equinox when sunlight strikes the rings edge-on, revealing never-before-seen ring features and details.
Cassini also studied features in Saturn’s rings called “spokes,” which can be longer than the diameter of Earth. Scientists think they’re made of thin icy particles that are lifted by an electrostatic charge and only last a few hours.
The powerful magnetic field that permeates Saturn is strange because it lines up with the planet’s poles. But just like Earth’s field, it all creates shimmering auroras.
Auroras on Saturn occur in a process similar to Earth’s northern and southern lights. Particles from the solar wind are channeled by Saturn’s magnetic field toward the planet’s poles, where they interact with electrically charged gas (plasma) in the upper atmosphere and emit light.
Saturn’s turbulent atmosphere churns with immense storms and a striking, six-sided jet stream near its north pole.
Saturn’s north and south poles are also each beautifully (and violently) decorated by a colossal swirling storm. Cassini got an up-close look at the north polar storm and scientists found that the storm’s eye was about 50 times wider than an Earth hurricane’s eye.
Unlike the Earth hurricanes that are driven by warm ocean waters, Saturn’s polar vortexes aren’t actually hurricanes. They’re hurricane-like though, and even contain lightning. Cassini’s instruments have ‘heard’ lightning ever since entering Saturn orbit in 2004, in the form of radio waves. But it wasn’t until 2009 that Cassini’s cameras captured images of Saturnian lighting for the first time.
Cassini scientists assembled a short video of it, the first video of lightning discharging on a planet other than Earth.
Cassini’s adventure will end soon because it’s almost out of fuel. So to avoid possibly ever contaminating moons like Enceladus or Titan, on Sept. 15 it will intentionally dive into Saturn’s atmosphere.
The spacecraft is expected to lose radio contact with Earth within about one to two minutes after beginning its decent into Saturn’s upper atmosphere. But on the way down, before contact is lost, eight of Cassini’s 12 science instruments will be operating! More details on the spacecraft’s final decent can be found HERE.
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Scientific evidence of a ‘higher’ state of consciousness has been found in a study led by the University of Sussex.
(Image caption: Image created using brain imaging technology, showing changes in neural signal diversity while under the influence of LSD)
Neuroscientists observed a sustained increase in neural signal diversity – a measure of the complexity of brain activity - of people under the influence of psychedelic drugs, compared with when they were in a normal waking state.
The diversity of brain signals provides a mathematical index of the level of consciousness. For example, people who are awake have been shown to have more diverse neural activity using this scale than those who are asleep.
This, however, is the first study to show brain-signal diversity that is higher than baseline, that is higher than in someone who is simply ‘awake and aware’. Previous studies have tended to focus on lowered states of consciousness, such as sleep, anaesthesia, or the so-called ‘vegetative’ state.
The team say that more research is needed using more sophisticated and varied models to confirm the results but they are cautiously excited.
Professor Anil Seth, Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex, said: “This finding shows that the brain-on-psychedelics behaves very differently from normal.
“During the psychedelic state, the electrical activity of the brain is less predictable and less ‘integrated’ than during normal conscious wakefulness – as measured by ‘global signal diversity’.
“Since this measure has already shown its value as a measure of ‘conscious level’, we can say that the psychedelic state appears as a higher ‘level’ of consciousness than normal – but only with respect to this specific mathematical measure.”
For the study, Michael Schartner, Dr Adam Barrett and Professor Seth of the Sackler Centre reanalysed data that had previously been collected by Imperial College London and the University of Cardiff in which healthy volunteers were given one of three drugs known to induce a psychedelic state: psilocybin, ketamine and LSD.
Using brain imaging technology, they measured the tiny magnetic fields produced in the brain and found that, across all three drugs, this measure of conscious level – the neural signal diversity – was reliably higher.
This does not mean that the psychedelic state is a ‘better’ or more desirable state of consciousness, the researchers stress; instead, it shows that the psychedelic brain state is distinctive and can be related to other global changes in conscious level (e.g. sleep, anaesthesia) by application of a simple mathematical measure of signal diversity. Dr Muthukumaraswamy who was involved in all three initial studies commented: “That similar changes in signal diversity were found for all three drugs, despite their quite different pharmacology, is both very striking and also reassuring that the results are robust and repeatable.”
The findings could help inform discussions gathering momentum about the carefully-controlled medical use of such drugs, for example in treating severe depression.
Dr Robin Cahart-Harris of Imperial College London said: “Rigorous research into psychedelics is gaining increasing attention, not least because of the therapeutic potential that these drugs may have when used sensibly and under medical supervision.
“The present study’s findings help us understand what happens in people’s brains when they experience an expansion of their consciousness under psychedelics. People often say they experience insight under these drugs – and when this occurs in a therapeutic context, it can predict positive outcomes. The present findings may help us understand how this can happen.”
As well as helping to inform possible medical applications, the study adds to a growing scientific understanding of how conscious level (how conscious one is) and conscious content (what one is conscious of) are related to each other.
Professor Seth said: “We found correlations between the intensity of the psychedelic experience, as reported by volunteers, and changes in signal diversity. This suggests that our measure has close links not only to global brain changes induced by the drugs, but to those aspects of brain dynamics that underlie specific aspects of conscious experience.”
The research team are now working hard to identify how specific changes in information flow in the brain underlie specific aspects of psychedelic experience, like hallucinations.
CNEWSMatin.fr Près de 30 000 femmes, seules ou en équipe, ont pris le départ de La Parisienne ce dimanche matin, sous la tour Eiffel. La 21e édition de cette fameuse course 100 % féminine a d’ailleurs été lancée par la ministre des Sports, Laura Flessel. Dans une …
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For a new series titled Natura Insects, Montreal-based creative Raku Inoue arranged a variety of leaves and blooms to create the delicate components of stag beetles, butterflies, and other insects. While the same results could be easily produced using digital or collage techniques, Inoue pushed the concept even further and used real flowers which he then photographed as you see here. You can see more from the series on Instagram. (via Abudeezo)
Billet invité.
En Europe, contrairement aux États-Unis, les plus hautes autorités marchent sur des œufs. Christine Lagarde vient de proposer un compromis aux créanciers de la Grèce dont le FMI fait partie, accordant un délai non précisé aux opposants à toute réaménagement de sa dette, qu’elle continue d’exiger, tout en ne s’opposant pas au versement des 7 milliards d’euros de la tranche en suspens afin de permettre au gouvernement grec de ne pas faire défaut sur ses remboursements de l’été, mais sans y participer.
Côté banques, la mise en œuvre de la procédure de bail-in prévue dans le cadre de l’Union bancaire continue d’être soigneusement évitée. En Espagne, Santander est en piste pour racheter Banco Popular en cherchant à lever sur le marché 7 milliards d’euros pour couvrir le financement global de l’opération et remettre la banque sur ses pieds. La Commission et le gouvernement italien étudient pour leur part la liquidation de la Banco Popolare di Vicenza et de Veneto Banca, les deux suivantes sur la liste des grandes malades après MPS. Alternativement à un bail-in, cette formule a ses avantages, permettant d’injecter des fonds publics sans que cela soit assimilé à une distorsion de concurrence, et donnant deux ans pour réaliser la vente des établissements en bénéficiant. Pour mémoire, il n’était pas été procédé autrement dans le cas de HSH Nordbank il y a un an en Allemagne, et le délai court…
La Commission et la BCE sont aux avant-postes de ces sauvetages destinés à surtout ne pas faire de vagues et à assurer la stabilité politique. Pas question de compliquer encore la tâche de Mariano Rajoy et Matteo Renzi, qui ont déjà fort à faire pour rester au pouvoir en Espagne et y revenir en Italie. Entamant la partie finale de son mandat, Mario Draghi tient bon de son côté face à l’accumulation des pressions destinées à lui faire engager la réduction des mesures non conventionnelles. Il s’est déclaré convaincu que la zone euro avait toujours besoin, et pour longtemps, d’une « quantité extraordinaire de soutien monétaire » et ne veut pas en démordre.
Tous ceux qui alignent les arguments contraires et voudraient lui voir tourner la page sont, dans leur impatience, à la recherche d’une normalisation prématurée, avec en tête l’idée que la roue tourne, c’est à dire que le cycle économique redevient favorable. Ils ne saisissent pas que la BCE agit en soutien de l’Italie, dans le cadre d’une mission occulte qu’elle ne peut pas revendiquer. Le président de la banque centrale est au chevet de son système bancaire et fait obstacle à la hausse du poids de sa dette. Convaincu que les élections législatives, qui prennent le chemin d’être avancées à l’automne, remettront peut-être Matteo Renzi en selle mais ne règleront en rien la précarité de la situation italienne. C’est d’ailleurs pour cette raison que ce dernier a proposé de les avancer. Pour justifier sa position, Mario Draghi considère également que la remontée de l’inflation n’est durable que si les mesures de soutien monétaire de la BCE la soutiennent, en attendant qu’une hausse des salaires intervienne, ce qui n’est pas pour demain.
Pour autant, la crise politique européenne n’est pas terminée. Le raz de marée en faveur du nouveau président annoncé aux législatives françaises exprime avant tout la force du rejet des partis et la politique qu’ils ont mené plus que l’assentiment à une politique qu’il reste à découvrir. Il renforce à nouveau le caractère monarchiste du régime, annonciateur d’autres tensions à venir. Qui osera prononcer la phrase magique : « si nous ne faisons pas de conneries, nous sommes là pour vingt ans » ?
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“We are investigating the question of why the heart muscle doesn’t renew,” said senior author Dr. James Martin, professor and Vivian L. Smith Chair in Regenerative Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “In this study, we focused on two pathways of cardiomyocytes or heart cells; the Hippo pathway, which is involved in stopping renewal of adult cardiomyocytes, and the dystrophin glycoprotein complex (DGC) pathway, essential for cardiomyocyte normal functions.
More information: Yuka Morikawa et al, Dystrophin glycoprotein complex sequesters Yap to inhibit cardiomyocyte proliferation, Nature (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nature22979
Hawaii becomes 1st state to formally adopt Paris climate agreement pledges: “Time for states and governors to lead.” bit.ly/2s2vmN2
Fantastique!!! JM Z.
