CTC BLOG

tech2 News StaffOct 01, 2019 09:02:59 IST

After releasing the official build of the iOS 13 last month, Apple has been rolling out a few smaller updates, that primarily look at bug fixes and minor improvements in the operating system. Last week, iOS 13.1.1 was released which fixed issues like third party keyboard support, and now, the iOS 13.1.2 and the iPadOS 13.1.2 is rolling out for all users.

As per Apple’s changelog, the iOS 13.1.2 update introduces bug fixes for several issues, including problems with the camera, iCloud backup, flashlight, and more. It also adds a shortcut to run the HomePod.

iOS 13.

Below are the detailed changelog as per Apple’s website:

– Fixes a bug where the progress bar for iCloud Backup could continue to show after a successful backup
– Fixes an issue where Camera may not work
– Addresses an issue where the flashlight may not activate
– Fixes a bug that could result in a loss of display calibration data
– Fixes an issue where shortcuts could not be run from HomePod
– Addresses an issue where Bluetooth may disconnect on certain vehicles

Besides the iOS 13.1.2, Apple has also released iPadOS 13.1.2, which comes with a bug fix where the progress bar for iCloud Backup could continue to show after a successful backup. The update also fixes the problem in the iPads .where shortcuts could not be run from HomePod.

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Imagine that you’re a police officer. You spot a car ahead that is swerving all over the road. You pull the driver over and she’s clearly intoxicated. With slurred speech, she swears that she hasn’t had a drop of alcohol all day. Would you believe her?

In 2016, a woman who had a blood alcohol level four times the legal limit was acquitted of her DUI charge after it was discovered that she had an extremely rare condition called “auto-brewery syndrome.” People with this syndrome carry microbes in their intestines that produce abnormally high levels of alcohol, which they produce when they break down sugars and carbohydrates.

While auto-brewery syndrome is an extreme example, it makes one wonder: Could intestinal microbes be influencing other health or behavioral traits? Jing Yuan at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics in Beijing published a new study in Cell Metabolism showing that an intestinal microbe may cause fatty liver disease by producing high levels of alcohol.

I am a microbiologist and am intrigued by the roles intestinal microbes – known collectively as the microbiome – play in human health. As the author of the book, “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are,” I have done extensive research into how our microbiome affects our health, moods and behavior.

Diseased liver, without drinking

The accumulation of excess fats in the liver can cause serious health problems, including inflammation, which can lead to cirrhosis (scarring) and liver cancer. Most people associate fatty liver disease with alcoholism; however, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which affects a surprising 80 to 100 million Americans, arises without excessive alcohol intake.

There appear to be multiple causes of NAFLD such as obesity, insulin resistance, high cholesterol or hepatitis C infection. Now Yuan and her colleagues may have identified another.

The discovery occurred when physicians identified a patient who was suffering from both auto-brewery syndrome and severe NAFLD. When researchers examined stool samples from the patient, they found a species of bacteria called Klebsiella pneumoniae. This particular strain of K. pneumoniae was making between four and six times the quantity of alcohol that strains of the same bacteria make in healthy people. This prompted Yuan and her team to examine a cohort of 43 other patients with NAFLD. They discovered that 61% of them possessed K. pneumoniae excreting unusually high amounts of alcohol. Among 48 healthy people, only 6% contained such bacteria.

The team noted that K. pneumoniae bacteria were only slightly more abundant in the intestines of NAFLD patients. It was the quantity of alcohol that the microbes produced that differed. But could the excessive alcohol being made by the bacteria actually give rise to fatty liver?

Some people have a microbrewery in their gut

To address the question of causality, the scientists fed the high alcohol-producing K. pneumoniae bacteria to healthy mice. Within one month, these mice developed measurable symptoms of fatty liver, which progressed to cirrhosis within two months. The bacterial-triggered liver disease followed the same timeline the researchers observed when they fed the mice pure alcohol.

Looking for more evidence that these microbes were really to blame for fatty liver, the researchers transferred intestinal material from either mice or humans with NAFLD into healthy mice. When intestinal material from either humans or mice with NAFLD was transplanted into healthy mice, the healthy animals developed fatty liver damage.

The final proof was delivered when the researchers treated the intestinal material harvested from NAFLD mice with a virus that only kills Klebsiella. When intestinal material free of Klebsiella was transplanted into healthy mice, they didn’t develop any disease.

The results suggest, for the first time, that certain K. pneumoniae bacteria make excessive alcohol that can lead to fatty liver. This suggests that some K. pneumoniae-induced cases of fatty liver might be treatable with antibiotics. This worked when mice with K. pneumoniae-induced fatty liver were treated with the antibiotic imipenem, which reversed progression of the disease.

Since the K. pneumoniae bacteria convert sugar to alcohol, physicians may soon be able to diagnose this form of fatty liver with a simple blood test to measure blood alcohol levels in response to sugar. Yuan and her team showed that mice harboring the alcohol-producing Klebsiella bacteria became inebriated and showed increased blood alcohol levels after consuming sugar.

These are exciting findings. However, since all the participants in the study were from a Chinese cohort, it isn’t clear whether the phenomenon is widespread. Klebsiella bacteria are commonly found in human intestines, but it is unknown why some people harbor strains that make high levels of alcohol.

In the bigger picture, the study further illustrates the importance of the microbiome in regulating mood and behavior. Some people may contain intestinal microbes that are secreting alcohol, which might make them act as if they were drinking when in fact they only ate a sweet dessert, as was the case with the woman charged with DUI. Another interesting question that arises is whether these individuals have a greater tolerance for alcohol since they would be exposed to it constantly.

[ Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day. ]

tech2 News StaffSep 30, 2019 16:55:33 IST

Samsung’s first foldable smartphone — Galaxy Fold— will be launched in India tomorrow. The company has confirmed the news in a tweet. The launch of the smartphone was delayed due to various hardware issues that were pointed out by some reviewers soon after the phone’s announcement at Mobile World Congress 2019. These issues included screen damage as it was reported to be damaged and was unusable in just two days.

Now, finally, after taking some much needed time to fix the issues, we can now purchase the phone.

The screen on my Galaxy Fold review unit is completely broken and unusable just two days in. Hard to know if this is widespread or not. pic.twitter.com/G0OHj3DQHw

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019

The smartphone first landed in the Korean markets, followed by a launch in the US market last week.

Samsung Galaxy Fold is priced at $1,980 in the US.

We changed the shape of the phone, and the shape of tomorrow. Future unfolds on October 1, 2019. #GalaxyFold: https://t.co/zbm15DQE0w pic.twitter.com/xc190JNC2f

— Samsung India (@SamsungIndia) September 28, 2019

Here are the changes that Samsung made to the design of the device.

• The top protective layer of the Infinity Flex Display has been extended beyond the bezel which means that users will not be able to remove it.
• Additional reinforcements have been provided, most likely to the hinge, to better protect the device from external particles.
• The top and bottom part of the hinge has been strengthened with newly added protection caps.
• Metal layers underneath the Infinity Flex Display have been included for protecting the screen.
• The space between the hinge and body of Galaxy Fold has been reduced.

Even before the sale of the first foldable smartphone from the brand, though, rumour has it that the company is already working on another foldable smartphone that is likely to be launched alongside the Galaxy S11 smartphone series in February 2020.

Galaxy Fold specifications

When folded, you’re presented with a very narrow 4.6-inch display that appears very pocketable and easy to hold in small hands. Open it up, however, and you’re presented with a more spacious 7.3-inch display and a massive notch. Oh, and Samsung is calling this an Infinity Flex Display.

Specs? We’re looking at a screen resolution of 840×1960 (4.6-inches) or 1536×2152 (7.3-inches), a “7 nm” chipset, a whopping 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of uberfast UFS 3.0 storage. Samsung isn’t saying which 7 nm chipset it’s using so we can assume that there will be two variants, one running a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and one with a Samsung Exynos one.

You get not 2, not 3, but 6 cameras on the device. Three of these are on the back, two on the front of the 7.3-inch display and one on the front of the 4.6-inch display.

The smartphone is likely to be available in four colour variants — Cosmos Black, Space Silver, Martian Green and Astro Blue.

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Facebook leader Mark Zuckerberg recently took the unusual step of visiting lawmakers in Washington, including President Donald Trump in the White House. The reason? Congress’s anti-trust sub-committee has started demanding documents from Facebook and other big tech firms. It’s part of the committee’s investigation into whether dominant tech firms are acting anti-competitively. And Zuckerberg’s trip suggests the company is worried.

The increasing pressure coming from the US Congress is just one example of how governments all over the world are starting to fight back against the power of Facebook. The company is facing fines, regulation and even calls for it to be broken up. But regulators and politicians still face a significant challenge in reining in Facebook’s financial, political and social might.

In summer 2019, Facebook was hit by a US$5 billion fine from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as a US$100m fine from the Securities and Exchanges Commission over its involvement in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. The company also possibly faces fines of further billions in Europe for violating data protection laws.

But Facebook made US$16.6 billion from advertising in the three months to June 30, 2019 alone. So even such huge fines don’t necessarily amount to much of a punishment. However these penalties are only one check on Facebook’s power, and governments are increasingly willing to take action.

Alongside Congress’s review, the FTC, the Department of Justice and a number of state attorneys are investigating big tech firms including Facebook for possible anti-trust violations. The UK Competition and Markets Authority is also carrying out a market study into online platforms and the digital advertising industry. In Germany, Facebook is fighting an anti-trust action in the courts. And reports suggest EU anti-trust regulators are interested in scrutinising the company’s recently launched cryptocurrency Libra.

More generally, the EU has taken anti-trust action against several other big tech firms. Its recently re-appointed competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said that data use by tech companies may need further regulation.

It’s not just Facebook’s economic monopoly that politicians are worried about, however. Parliamentarians from a growing number of jurisdictions including Argentina, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Singapore, Ecuador, Mexico, Morocco, Trinidad and Tobago, and the UK are now regularly meeting as the International Grand Committee. Their goal is to examine the impact of social media, and particularly Facebook, on democracy.

Facebook is now the primary medium for political advertising and targeting. The firm has rolled out stricter rules and recently took down a UK Conservative Party ad for breaching them. But there are now demands in a number of countries to regulate social media advertising by political parties through statutory regulation, rather than relying on Facebook’s internal rules. In fact, Zuckerberg himself has called for legislation in this area.

New rules have been introduced this year in Australia and Canada. Meanwhile the UK government has yet to implement proposals from its Cabinet Office.

Many countries including Australia, India and Singapore have developed new measures to take down criminal or terrorist content or disinformation from social networks. And other governments are looking at the issue. This is a tricky area for regulation because questions remain around exactly how to define offending material and what processes can be put in place that respect human rights.

Many commentators argue that Facebook needs to do far more in this area but it is not in the firm’s financial interest to do so. Facebook is effectively being subsidised for the costs of its own failures by users, media organisations and others who flag up problem materials.

Instead, goes the argument, Facebook the polluter should pay to address the online pollution that it is creating. As a result a number of countries are discussing levies and enhanced taxes, not least because of Facebook’s accounting structure that enables it to pay as little as 1% of its revenue in tax.

“Exploitative abuse”

The bigger problem is the one that anti-trust investigations are looking at. This is the fact that, along with Google, Facebook soaks up the bulk of online and particularly mobile advertising. If you want to advertise online, you are effectively obliged to use its services. The German Cartel Authority, the Bundeskartellamt, has called Facebook’s combination of user data drawn from a variety of data sources, “an exploitative abuse” of its dominant position.

The difficulty is in challenging that position given the global nature of the internet and the way the most successful internet firms tend to inevitably attract a majority of users. One solution would be to force Facebook to sell its other social network apps, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger so it didn’t have so many sources of data on users.

But, as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has highlighted, another significant problem is the fact its business is vertically integrated. This means it controls different parts of the advertising industry. It is effectively a social media network, a media distribution company, a media buying company, an advertising exchange and a data analytics company. For this reason, some argue that structural separation of Facebook’s internal functions might be a more powerful solution.

One thing is clear, fixing Facebook will take coordinated international regulation. At the core of this discussion of course is corporate power in the age of surveillance capitalism. Facebook’s repeated failures mean that legislative and regulatory action has reportedly now even turned to the question of criminal investigation. We’re some way yet from effective action but it looks increasingly like governments, legislators and regulators will not accept the status quo. Where Facebook has users, governments will regulate.

I didn’t know what the world looked like at 5:00 a.m. until my son began rowing for the Detroit Boat Club Crew, the oldest continuous rowing program in North America.

The sight of young rowers slicing through the water in unison in narrow sculling boats, against the backdrop of dawn on the Detroit River, is simply awe-inspiring.

This year, I am working with the Detroit Boat Club Crew, overseen by the nonprofit Friends of Detroit Rowing, to combine the sport of rowing with a new curriculum that teaches middle and high school students science and mathematical concepts.

The innovative approach is tackling two areas of concern for Detroit youths: promoting physically active lifestyles and preparing youth for successful careers in scientific and technological fields.

Knowledge gap

Over the next 10 years, STEM job creation – jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – will outpace non-STEM jobs significantly.

Across the nation, STEM jobs are predicted to grow 17%, as compared to 9.8% for non-STEM positions.

STEM figures largely in occupations with the fastest expected growth in the coming years – such as biomedical engineers, network systems and data communications analysts, medical scientists, computer programmers and app developers.

People in STEM fields can expect to earn 26% more money on average per year and are less likely to experience job loss in Michigan.

Yet, Michigan is failing to produce enough skilled STEM workers to meet the needs of employers now and may fail to meet them in the future. According to the National Commission on Mathematics and Science for the Twenty-first Century, 61% of the new jobs that will open in the 21st century will require skills possessed by only 20% of the current workforce.

What’s more, youth in southeast Michigan are not active enough. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention recommends one hour of daily physical activity, but only 13% of southeast Michigan kids under 18 are engaged at that level. According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, 17% of U.S. children ages 6 to 12 engage in no physical activities.

Rowing curriculum

Over the next school year, our group has scheduled rowing and classroom sessions with Detroit youth between the ages of 11 and 15.

Practice for each cohort of 30 students, over the eight-week session, will include experiences on land as well as on the water.

Our curriculum, which aligns with content standards of the state of Michigan, aims to enhance knowledge and skills of rowing techniques.

The basic principles of rowing appear quite simple, but in reality, rowing success is complex. Momentum is transferred to the water by pulling on the oar and pushing with the legs, which causes the seat to slide backwards. The oars pivot on a “lock-pin assembly,” which levers the water backwards. The motion of the boat is complicated by the movement of the rowers within the boat, the current of the water and wind speed.

Rowing leans heavily on STEM concepts commonly found in the fields of mathematics, physics and kinesiology. Through the sport, our curriculum covers works from the famous Greek mathematician Archimedes up through NASA engineer Katherine Johnson.

For example, potential and kinetic energy, boat velocity and rowers’ mass are strategies for teaching essential concepts.

Looking ahead

We are continuing to look for new ways for students to learn complex concepts through rowing.

For example, we are raising money for an indoor rowing tank to provide instantaneous analysis of rowing force data, creating a year-round rowing physics lab. Youth will sit in a boat in the indoor tank and simulate rowing actions. We hope that this will ultimately facilitate students’ analyses of their own and teammates’ activity data.

Promoting critical thinking skills, problem-solving and innovation through STEM education is necessary for job creation and retention for youth in the 21st century. Physical activity and participation in sports such as rowing is essential for mental and physical health and well-being.

We hope that fusing the components of STEM and rowing will result in an engaging educational experience, healthier youth and future careers in high-demand fields.

[ You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter. ]

Agence France-PresseSep 30, 2019 17:06:39 IST

In Slovenia’s dramatically beautiful Karst region, six astronauts have been put through their paces for future missions — not in a flashy futuristic space centre but deep underground in the area’s network of cold, dark and muddy caves.

This Wednesday they emerged blinking into the light after swapping their spacesuits for caving gear and spending six full days underground in the UNESCO-listed Skocjan cave system.

All in all they completed six weeks of training organised by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) CAVES programme.

Inhospitable and hard to access, caves are almost untouched worlds and ideal traps for scientific evidence.. image credit: ESA

But why were they heading underground?

“Living in a cave is very similar to living in space, mentally. Actually, I thought it was much harder than living in space,” 43-year-old Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi told AFP.

Onishi’s harsh tone is unsurprising given temperatures in the cave fluctuate between six and 10 degrees, not to mention 100-percent humidity and the fact the participants only had the light of their headlamps to guide them.

“Caves are a fantastic alien world. You actually live in an environment which is terrifyingly difficult, different and risky,” said Loredana Bessone of the CAVES programme.

Cavenauts

This was the sixth time the programme had been run, but the first outing in Slovenia’s caves.

After two weeks of learning about speleology, or cave exploration, the “cavenauts” are dispatched to explore and map the underground maze, gathering scientific material and relying on teamwork to solve various problems.

The experiments include monitoring life in the caves such as microscopic organisms as well as assessing atmospheric conditions.

[embedded content]

“The main goal for the astronauts is to work together as a team and achieve a mission in a very complex environment, to prepare better for an analogous situation, which is space,” the head of the programme’s science component Francesco Sauro said.

One of the astronauts, Germany’s Alexander Gerst, told AFP about the feeling of complete isolation from the world outside in the silent darkness.

You feel “deprived of all sensual input, out of your comfort zone”, said 43-year-old,  who has already completed two missions on the International Space Station.

Onishi and Gerst were joined by colleagues from the United States, Canada and Russia.

Our planet is special

NASA’s Jeanette Epps admitted that when it came time to finally leave, she was “kind of sad” despite the cold, slippery conditions which had been made more dangerous by rainy weather.

“But then I looked up and… it was beautiful,” she said.

“Just the smell alone and the sunlight on your face, I didn’t realise how different I felt being in the cave,” 48-year-old Epps said.

Onishi had slightly prosaic concerns once he was “back on the ground”.

The CAVES training course takes astronauts to the depths of Earth to improve their communication, problem-solving and teamwork skills. image credit; ESA

“Honestly speaking I was a little timid because I didn’t know how badly I smelled after six days of life in a cave,” he said.

“So, when I saw people on the ground of course I was happy to see them but I tried to be far from them,” Onishi said, laughing.

Despite the hygiene concerns, he said the programme had been unique in the opportunities for learning non-technical skills needed for space voyages.

Bessone agrees and says astronauts from all over the world are queueing up to participate in the programme and that few others can create an experience so valuable in preparing for conditions in space.

“We’re coming back next year!” she said.

For Gerst coming back out into nature after the experience was also valuable on a deeper level.

“It reminds me of what a fantastic planet we have, the same as looking from a space station looking down on this blue planet. You realise that our planet is very special, unique in space”.

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Widespread antibiotic use is largely to blame for the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria, which is currently one of the biggest threats to global health. Not only does antibiotic resistance already cause an estimated 700,000 deaths a year, it’s also made numerous infections, including pneumonia, tuberculosis, and gonorrhoea, harder to treat. Without knowing how to stop bacteria from developing antibiotic resistance, it’s predicted that preventable diseases could cause 10m deaths a year by 2050.

Some of the ways that bacteria become resistant to antibiotics is through changes in the bacteria’s genome. For example, bacteria can pump the antibiotics out, or they can break the antibiotics down. They can also stop growing and divide, which makes them difficult to spot for the immune system.

However, our research has focused on another little known method that bacteria use to become antibiotic resistant. We have directly shown that bacteria can “change shape” in the human body to avoid being targeted by antibiotics – a process that requires no genetic changes for the bacteria to continue growing.

Virtually all bacteria are surrounded by a structure called the cell wall. The wall is like a thick jacket which protects against environmental stresses and prevents the cell from bursting. It gives bacteria a regular shape (for example, a rod or a sphere), and helps them divide efficiently.

Human cells don’t possess a cell wall (or “jacket”). Because of this, it’s easy for the human immune system to recognise bacteria as an enemy because its cell wall is noticeably different. And, because the cell wall exists in bacteria but not in humans, it’s an excellent target for some of our best and most commonly used antibiotics, such as penicillin. In other words, antibiotics targeting the wall can kill bacteria without harming us.

However, bacteria can occasionally survive without their cell wall. If the surrounding conditions are able to protect the bacteria from bursting, they can turn into so-called “L-forms”, which are bacteria that don’t have a cell wall. These bacteria were discovered in 1935 by Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel, who named them after the Lister Institute where she was working at the time.

In a lab, we often use sugar to create a suitably protective environment. In the human body, this change in form is typically triggered by antibiotics that target the bacteria’s cell wall, or certain immune molecules – such as lysozyme, a molecule that’s present in our tears which helps protect us from bacterial infections.

Bacteria without a cell wall often become fragile and lose their regular shape. However, they also become partially invisible to our immune system, and completely resistant to all types of antibiotics that specifically target the cell wall.

Scientists long suspected that L-form switching might contribute to recurrent infections by helping bacteria hide from the immune system and resist the antibiotics. However, it was difficult to find evidence for this theory due to the elusive nature of L-forms and lack of appropriate methods to detect them.

Watching bacteria change shape

Our study, published in Nature Communications, looked specifically at bacterial species associated with recurrent urinary tracts infections (UTIs). It found that many different bacterial species – including E. coli and Enterococcus – can indeed survive as L-forms in the human body. This is something that has never been directly proven before. We were able to detect these sneaky bacteria using fluorescent probes that recognise bacterial DNA.

We tested urine samples from elderly patients with recurrent UTIs by growing them in a petri dish high in sugars. Not only did this environment help protect bacteria from bursting, it also isolated the L-form bacteria that were present in these samples. In a separate experiment, we were able to see the whole process take place in living zebrafish embryos in the presence of antibiotics.

Importantly, our study shows that antibiotics need to be tested in conditions more reflective of the human body. The ones that are currently used in the medical laboratory don’t provide enough protection for delicate L-forms to survive.

Before we can fully understand how important L-form switching is compared to other forms of antibiotic resistance, further research using more patients will be needed. It will also be important to investigate what role L-forms may play in other recurrent infections, such as sepsis or pulmonary infections.

Until now, research into L-forms has been a controversial field, but our hope is that these findings will motivate more research into L-forms in disease situations. Our hope is that these findings will help find a way to clear these sneaky bacteria from our body. Combining cell wall active antibiotics with ones that would kill L-forms might be one solution of fighting antibiotic resistant infections.

Our battle with bacteria is ongoing. As we come up with new strategies to fight them, they come up with ways to fight back. Our study highlights yet another way that bacteria adapt that we’ll need to take into account in our continuing battle with infectious disease.

tech2 News StaffSep 30, 2019 13:03:26 IST

NASA is close to finding life on Mars, a chief scientist at the agency said, but the world isn’t ready for the “revolutionary”.

In the next two years, rovers from the American (NASA) and European (ESA) space agencies will be launched to Mars to seek out evidence of life. These missions launch within weeks of each other, arriving on Mars by March 2021.

NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is designed to search for habitable conditions on Mars where ancient past microbial life, if not complex lifeforms like humans, existed. The Mars 2020 rover will drill into Mars’ bedrock before packing up test-tube-sized samples of rock for transport back to Earth. This will be the first attempt to time material from Mars that will have been returned to Earth.

The ESA’s ExoMars Rover, dubbed “Rosalind” in memory of British chemist Rosalind Franklin, who was fundamental to the discovery of the structure of DNA, will search for extra-terrestrial signatures of Martian life by drilling some 6.5 feet into Mars’ surface to dig up samples. These samples will then be crushed and studied for its chemical content in the rover’s mobile laboratory.

Jim Green, chief scientist at NASA talks about the ExoMars rover. Image: NASA

While the Mars 2020 mission is timed for a launch in July/August 2020, the ExoMars rover is slated to launch on July 2020. Both rovers are expected to arrive on Mars within weeks from each other in February (Mars 2020) and March (Rosalind) of 2021.

Jim Green, the Chief scientist at NASA, added that discovery of life on Mars will give scientists a new set of questions to explore.

“It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don’t think we’re prepared for the results,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “I’ve been worried about that because I think we’re close to finding it and making some announcements.”

NASA’s Curiosity rover in its previous site location at Vera Rubin Ridge. Image courtesy: NASA/JPL

Green compares the potential discovery of Martian life to Copernicus’s find that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

“What happens next is a whole new set of scientific questions. Is that life like us? How are we related?” he said.

Mars isn’t the only planet that was considered uninhabitable till recent findings suggest they may once have had suitable conditions for life to blossom. Even Venus and an exoplanet 30 light-years from Earth might be/have been habitable. A vast and active network of waterways running beneath the surface of Mars was also discovered earlier this year.

(Also read: Ancient Venus didn’t just have flowing oceans, it likely also supported life, think scientists) 

An illustration of Starship in space. Image: SpaceX

In a fairly interplanetary-themed weekend, Elon Musk, too, unveiled the design of the SpaceX Starship, a shuttle for crew and cargo to Mars from Earth. The viability of space travel hinged on making perfectly reusable rockets, according to Musk. And the fully-developed Starship spacecraft is intended as a reusable, refuellable rocket.

SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft ready to shine. Image credit: Pauline Acalin

Musk said it could take off for the first time in about two months and reach 65,000 feet before it lands back on Earth.

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tech2 News StaffSep 29, 2019 16:01:04 IST

Social media platforms based in the US, including Facebook and WhatsApp, will have to share encrypted messages with UK Police, according to a report by Bloomberg.

This new rule is part of a new treaty between the two countries, which will reportedly be signed sometime next month.

In accord with the treaty, all US-based social media firms will have to share information to support investigations into individuals suspected of serious criminal offenses including terrorism and pedophilia.

Facebook, however, as opposing the new rule. “We oppose government attempts to build backdoors because they would undermine the privacy and security of our users everywhere. Government policies like the Cloud Act allow for companies to provide available information when we receive valid legal requests and do not require companies to build back doors,” Facebook told Bloomberg in a statement.

Representational Image.

We have also reached out to Facebook to learn if this new rule would have any effect in India.

The Indian government has long been pushing WhatsApp to start tracing the origin of a message. Last month, Tamil Nadu advocate general said that end-to-end encryption is not essential to the platform. “End-to-end encryption was introduced to WhatsApp later. Therefore, it is not essential to the platform. It was a business decision. It is a question of business policy versus law,” E Manoharan, the Additional Government Pleader for the State of Tamil Nadu had said.

WhatsApp, however, the platform has always denied it, claiming that it would violate user privacy.

WhatsApp currently does not store data on messages. However, if it accedes to India’s demand, it will need to redesign its entire architecture. Such a move could result in a backlash from privacy activists around the world who are worried that traceability will gag free speech on the internet, as governments could use the power to snoop on citizens.

WhatsApp has repeatedly been stressing that the importance of the company’s support for encryption and how important it is for the product. A few months ago, the Indian government also asked WhatsApp to digitally fingerprint every message sent on its platform without breaking its encryption.

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Manish BehlSep 29, 2019 18:34:38 IST

What is your country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product)?
Does it in any way define how your country is progressing?
How do you know if its people are really happy?
Is economic growth alone, the single source indicator of people’s happiness?

If advancement (in the materialistic sense) and economic development led to happiness, the most developed countries should also be the happiest. Yet, we’ve found that this isn’t necessarily true.

New-age economists are constantly juggling “GDP” and its relationship to happiness. Since happiness is a transient, finite emotion, it is challenging to measure in analysis, using numbers. Moreover, when we capture happiness, it needs to be in contrast with some base level.

Scottish scholar Adam Smith, also referred to as the Father of Modern Economics and among the most important thinkers in the field, raised an important question, one as relevant today as it ever was: “How can human values and the needs of business, work together to create prosperous and civilised societies?”

Happiness… as ancient wisdom defines it

In ancient Hindu scripture, happiness is referred to as “ananada” or “sukh” which translated to joy, a state of bliss and satisfaction, which can be achieved in three forms.

Bhautik, or materialistic, which develops from physical and material achievements and comforts of life
Mansik, meaning mental, emotional or psychological, which arises from a sense of freedom from worries, afflictions, fear and anxieties. It also comes with attaining success, power and position, name and fame, getting acknowledged or recognised, respected and loved.

Bhutan is in pursuit of happiness.

Adhyatamik, meaning spiritual. This kind of joy arises from serenity of one’s own mind, in finding peace and purpose, helping other people, the environment and society. It also come with attaining deeper self-awareness and spiritual knowledge.

(Also read: How Japanese concepts of IKIGAI, mindfulness can make our lives wholesome and rewarding)

Understanding this, social scientists have looked into various measures to capture this state such as individual and social well-being, life satisfaction, freedom, sense of belonging, self-worth and sense of security, to name a few. But throughout history, there are examples in ancient wisdom that this is not a modern quest.

Bhutan and its “pursuit of happiness”

Very early in his life and monarchy, the young king of the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan understood this well. He questioned the prevalent economic growth indices system and strongly opposed the notion that GDP alone could deliver happiness and wellbeing to society.

In 1970, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of Bhutan, a teenager wise beyond his years, believed that individual happiness is indicated by growth and signs of progressive development of his people. On a trip to India in 1972, he was interviewed by a journalist at the Bombay airport, and he announced the term “Gross National Happiness” (GNH), as a holistic and sustainable approach to development.

“Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product,” King Wangchuck said.

The term symbolizes the importance of sustainable development with a holistic approach towards the concept of growth and progress, with an equal importance to non-economic aspects of wellbeing.

The concept of happiness isn’t new to this mountain kingdom, if we went by Bhutan’s legal code in 1629. It stated that, “If the government cannot create happiness for its people, then there is no purpose for government to exist.”

The Code stressed on laws to promote happiness for all living beings – not through economic progress of Bhutan, but by creating a flourishing human society living in harmony with nature.

Bhutan – a living example of a mindful nation

Who wouldn’t like to live in a country which has 78 percent of its land under forests, and is one of the happiest places on the planet?

Bhutan, where 92 percent of the population reported happy, is regarded as one of the most peaceful places on Earth – free of terrorism, riots, social, religious or communal hatred, racial biases, and prejudices or any kind of discrimination or domination by powerful. With pristine and beautiful nature, rivers and streams pure enough to drink water from them directly, Bhutan is also the only carbon-negative country in the world.

Bhutan is a land where ruler loves his people and is determined for their realistic development. Healthcare, education and public services are free, human life and values are safe, and people live in harmony with nature and culture.

Wisdom and the environment are still frozen in time in Bhutan.

This is perhaps because the yardstick for progress and development in the country is GNH, and not GDP like every other nation in the world.

Happiness score of countries according to the World Happiness Report 2018. Image: Wikimedia Commons

How Bhutan measures Gross National Happiness

Over the years, world leaders and economists have developed a dogmatic neurosis on GDP as a measure of progress. National policies revolved around means to boost GDP and very little attention is given towards genuine environmental and socio-economic wellbeing and standard of living. Today there is a lot of research that shows that wealth alone does not contribute to life satisfaction or happiness.

Researchers and economists were always on the lookout for how human satisfaction and happiness can be identified and measured. In any economy, there is a need to measure these factors to drive policies towards a more holistic and realistic benchmark for development. With the introduction of term GNH, Bhutan has sparked a debate on what real human development truly is.

(Also read: Mindfulness is not just about meditation, but has proven scientific benefits)

Today, Bhutan is considered a living example where GNH reflects their understanding of human development and happiness. Measuring this progress indicator is extremely important for the holistic development of a society. Now, this small Kingdom of Bhutan is showing the world, the power and value of equal and harmonious society. Their constitution stipulates “the State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.”

The core of GNH was based on its 4 primary pillars:

1. Good governance
2. Sustainable socio-economic development
3. Cultural preservation
4. Environmental conservation

To cultivate widespread understanding and holistic coverage, the range of pillars was expanded to nine domains:

1. Psychological well being
2. Health
3. Education
4. Time use
5. Cultural diversity and resilience
6. Good governance
7. Community vitality
8. Ecological diversity and resilience
9. Living standards

With this broadening of scope, Bhutan’s GNH Index today examines both socio-economic attributes like living standards, health, and education and non-traditional areas of culture and psychological wellbeing. It has now become a holistic scale of the general wellbeing of Bhutanese people rather than a subjective psychological ranking of ‘happiness’ alone.

A key takeaway from the GNH Index is respect for not only human materialistic progress. It also acknowledges a thriving society and well-rounded wellbeing of the nation.

A timeline of Gross National Happiness growing in acceptance.

Conscious leaders bring mindful change

Recently, in my interview with former Cabinet Minister Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk (who served as Minister of Economic Affairs and later as Minister of Education from 2013 to 2018), he said, “GDP based progress model contributed to world economies for some time but now we also are getting clear evidence and signs from Bhutan’s GNH initiative that the old model of GDP is broken.”

He shared Bhutan’s GNH model of the last few decades where they don’t strive for unsustainable material pursuit but reinforce holistic development through respecting nature, ecosystem and balancing with inclusive human aspects of life, family, community and social development.

Small nation, big heart

Bhutan’s approach to GNH is radically different from the global general approach to measuring a country’s progress on levels of happiness of its people.

United Nations Ex-General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon appreciated the Bhutanese government’s efforts in initiating a debate on the link between happiness, well-being and prosperity and paving the way through its labors. The UN’s sustainable growth panel noted that while material prosperity is important, it is far from being the only determinant of wellbeing.

All major policies created in Bhutan consider in view their impact on the country’s Gross National Happiness. The policies take into account equality, family integrity, health, gender equity, and satisfying jobs, among other things. A positive effect of such policies are leading to the foundation of a safe and supportive community where trustworthiness of the people is high, and fear of victimization by other human beings is ideally non- existent.

Mindfulness and happiness from Bhutan

Global spiritual leader, poet, peace activist, Vietnamese monk, Scholar, and Master – Thich Nhat Hanh has said these profound words: “Mindfulness as a source of Happiness”.

Mindfulness along with focus and agility promotes kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, peace of mind, wisdom, and contentment which are the important ingredient for human happiness and progress.

Taking GNH to next level Bhutan is now they are introducing Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence Meditation to all the schools and government institutions. They feel it is one of the best ways to harness human potential and cultivating realistic happiness.

Bhutan Honourable Minister Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk acknowledges the power of Mindfulness as one of the ways to find and fulfill the happiness of Bhutanese people. Through practices of Mindfulness Meditation they are training teachers, government officials and creating a culture of compassion and empathy for all its people. In his belief, through a change with educators and government officials, a culture of happiness and well-being can be reinforced.

The Honourable Minister is coming to India to share his experience and knowledge at Mindfulness India Summit 2019. He will talk about bringing happiness and wellbeing in our daily life, education, communities, society and nation and learn ways to improve environmental, political, educational and organisation degradation.

It is my humble and earnest request to all governments of nations and my fellow humans to make GNH base for human happiness and implement this mindful approach to shift the culture in prosocial and compassionate direction to foster appreciation of human diversity and common humanity while pursuing social and economic goals.

The author is the founder of Mindfulness India Summit, Mindful Science Centre and Beyond Mind Learning. 

The second edition of Mindfulness India Summit will be held on 30-31 Oct 2019 at ‘The Westin Mumbai’ with speakers from across the world including Harvard Medical School, Oxford Mindfulness Centre, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, UNESCO-MGEIP, Daniel Goleman among others.

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The Associated PressSep 29, 2019 15:04:40 IST

Elon Musk has unveiled a SpaceX spacecraft designed to carry a crew and cargo to the moon, Mars or anywhere else in the solar system and land back on Earth perpendicularly.

Elon Musk at SpaceX’s launch facility.

In a live-streamed speech from SpaceX’s launch facility near the southern tip of Texas, Musk said Saturday that the space venture’s Starship is expected to take off for the first time in about one or two months and reach 65,000 feet (19,800 meters) before landing back on Earth.

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He says it’s essential for the viability of space travel to be able to reuse spacecraft and that it’s important to take steps to extend consciousness beyond our planet.

A crowd watched as Musk spoke from a stage in front of the large spacecraft, which has a reflective, metal exterior.

Musk says Saturday marked the 11th anniversary of a SpaceX rocket reaching orbit for the first time.

SpaceX Starship spacecraft

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tech2 News StaffSep 28, 2019 13:48:05 IST

For quite some time scientists have harboured an interest in exploring Saturn’s moon Titan with many believing that the below the Nitrogen-rich atmosphere there is a possibility of life in its deep lakes of liquid methane and ethane. For the purpose of this mission, NASA is in the process of testing a new Transformer-like Shapeshifter robot.

Shapeshifter 3D model.

As per NASA, this new robot would be capable of morphing into multiple configurations. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA is currently testing a  3D-printed prototype of Shapeshifter. NASA says that the robot looks like  “a drone encased in an elongated hamster wheel” and that it can split into two halves that use small propellers making the robot float through the air like drones.

If the testing is successful then the future version of the Shipshifter would be like a ‘mothercraft’ lander housing 12 mini-robots or ‘cobots’. The mothercraft would act as the main power source and would carry a set of scientific instruments that would analyse surface samples. The cobots, on the other hand, could work together to transport the mothercraft to different locations on the surface.

However, if you believe that this mission is going to take off any time soon, then don’t get your hopes up. While NASA could give the go-ahead for the Shapeshifter the launch is most likely very far off. Even so, these tests could spawn separate missions to find extraterrestrial life.

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You might already have what’s often called a “smart home”, with your lights or music connected to voice-controlled technology such as Alexa or Siri. But when researchers talk about smart homes, we usually mean technologies that use artificial intelligence to learn your habits and automatically adjust your home in response to them. Perhaps the most obvious example of this are thermostats that learn when you are likely to be home and what temperature you prefer, and adjust themselves accordingly without you needing to change the settings.

My colleagues and I are interested in how this kind of true smart home technology could help people with dementia. We hope it could learn to recognise the different domestic activities a dementia sufferer carries out throughout the day and help them with each one. This could even lead up to the introduction of household robots to automatically assist with chores.

The growing number of people with dementia is encouraging care providers to look to technology as a way of supporting human carers and improving patients’ quality of life. In particular, we want to use technology to help people with dementia live more independently for as long as possible.

Dementia affects people’s cognitive abilities (things like perception, learning, memory and problem-solving skills). There are many ways that smart home technology can help with this. It can improve safety by automatically closing doors if they are left open or turning off cookers if they are left unattended. Bed and chair sensors or wearable devices can detect how well someone is sleeping or if they have been inactive for an unusual amount of time.

Lights, TVs and phones can be controlled by voice-activated technology or a pictorial interface for people with memory problems. Appliances such as kettles, fridges and washing machines can be controlled remotely.

People with dementia can also become disoriented, wander and get lost. Sophisticated monitoring systems using radiowaves inside and GPS outside can track people’s movements and raise an alert if they travel outside a certain area.

All of the data from these devices could be fed in to complex artificial intelligence that would automatically learn the typical things people do in the house. This is the classic AI problem of pattern matching (looking for and learning patterns from lots of data). To start with, the computer would build a coarse model of the inhabitants’ daily routines and would then be able to detect when something unusual is happening, such as not getting up or eating at the usual time.

A finer model could then represent the steps in a particular activity such as washing hands or making a cup of tea. Monitoring what the person is doing step by step means that, if they forget halfway through, the system can remind them and help them continue.

The more general model of the daily routine could use innocuous sensors such as those in beds or doors. But for the software to have a more detailed understanding of what is happening in the house you would need cameras and video processing that would be able to detect specific actions such as someone falling over. The downside to these improved models is a loss of privacy.

The smart home of the future could also come equipped with a humanoid robot to help with chores. Research in this area is moving at a steady, albeit slow, pace, with Japan taking the lead with nurse robots.

The biggest challenge with robots in the home or care home is that of operating in an unstructured environment. Factory robots can operate with speed and precision because they perform specific, pre-programmed tasks in a purpose-designed space. But the average home is less structured and changes frequently as furniture, objects and people move around. This is a key problem which researchers are investigating using artificial intelligence techniques, such as capturing data from images (computer vision).

Robots don’t just have the potential to help with physical labour either. While most smart home technologies focus on mobility, strength and other physical characteristics, emotional well-being is equally important. A good example is the PARO robot, which looks like a cute toy seal but is designed to provide therapeutic emotional support and comfort.

Understanding interaction

The real smartness in all this technology comes from automatically discovering how the person interacts with their environment in order to provide support at the right moment. If we just built technology to do everything for people then it would actually reduced their independence.

For example, emotion-recognition software could judge someone’s feelings from their expression could adjust the house or suggest activities in response, for example by changing the lighting or encouraging the patient to take some exercise. As the inhabitant’s physical and cognitive decline increases, the smart house would adapt to provide more appropriate support.

There are still many challenges to overcome, from improving the reliability and robustness of sensors, to preventing annoying or disturbing alarms, to making sure the technology is safe from cybercriminals. And for all the technology, there will always be a need for a human in the loop. The technology is intended to complement human carers and must be adapted to individual users. But the potential is there for genuine smart homes to help people with dementia live richer, fuller and hopefully longer lives.

tech2 News StaffSep 28, 2019 15:28:32 IST

While Google’s Pixel 4 lineup is set to be announced on 15 October, almost all the specs of the device are out in the open thanks to a variety of leaks. The Pixel 4 and 4 XL are said to come with Android 10 out-of-the-box with the traditional stock Android UI although Google does like to add some of its own features in the mix. One of them happens to be the Pixel launcher which as it so happens is available for download right now.

The Google Pixel 3a XL features the latest Android 9 Pie. Image: Omkar G

As per a report by XDA-Developers, this version of the Pixel Launcher happens to be identical to the one launched on the Pixel 3. However, there is one extra gesture present in the Pixel 4 Launcher that has been missing on all previous Pixel devices. This new gesture will let you pull down the notification menu by swiping down on any part of the home screen.

Notably, this swipe gesture has been present on many smartphone OEMs for a couple of years including also the third-party Nova launcher skin. If you like you can download the new Pixel Launcher here and it will work with on any Pixel smartphone running Android 10 but for devices like the Essential Phone and OnePlus 7 Pro, the launcher requires some modifications which should appear in due time.

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To keep global heating below 2°C, the world’s appetite for meat must change. This will mean reducing meat consumption in most developed countries and limiting the increase in developing countries. But how do you convince people to break the habit of a lifetime?

Our recent paper, published in the journal Appetite, looked at how “nudging” might help. This is an approach from behavioural psychology that aims to subtly change a person’s behaviour. In the same way a gentle nudge on the shoulder might alert you to something nearby, subliminal nudges in advertising or on signs help to affect the subconscious choices people make. To change a person’s diet, nudges could help them choose meat substitutes over the real thing.

Read more: Can eating less meat really tackle climate change?

It’s possible for people to still enjoy the taste of meat with alternatives – varieties of insects are high in protein, and their environmental impact is minimal. About 2 billion people already eat insects as part of their daily diet. But given that many people associate insects with dirt and disease, it’s not guaranteed that bugs will make the cut as a major source of protein in the future.

But plant-based meat substitutes are surging in popularity in many developed countries. There is now a range of plant-based products that attempt to mimic the texture and taste of a variety of meats using ingredients such as soy or peas. The market share of these products has grown significantly in recent years – and the market is projected to expand by 28% per year until 2030. Our recent study found that people who regularly work out and opt for high-protein diets are particularly interested in alternative sources that can deliver the same benefits as meat.

Despite this growth in plant-based substitutes, meat consumption is still predicted to rise around the world. So alternatives are not enough – behaviour has to change.

Nudge, nudge

Nudging people away from meat could include changing the layout of places where food is bought or eaten, or designing menus so that vegetarian options are given equal or greater prominence than meat dishes.

But the complexity of food choice means that these may not be as effective outside experiments. In the real world, what people choose to eat is driven by a whole host of factors including the smell or texture of food and cultural norms.

Nudges tend to work by targeting unconscious thoughts and behaviours. Many of our food choices tend to rely on this, through habit or convenience. You’re more likely to pick the option you’ve tried before and enjoyed, or that you know is easy to prepare, without carefully thinking about it. People remain reluctant to buy food that their partners or children may reject. So attitudes to meat and plant-based substitutes still need addressing to alter eating behaviour.

Read more: Why cutting meat from your diet could be a revolutionary act

One area that shows particular promise is targeting people at specific stages in their lives. We found that older people would still want to eat foods which they had eaten as children. If children are given access to more plant-based proteins – and educated on their benefits for health and the environment – they might remain a valued component of their diet throughout their lives.

There are reasons to be optimistic that the dietary changes needed to limit global heating are achievable. Attitudes towards meat consumption are already changing, and there are plenty of options to try and encourage more people to pursue a diet that’s better for them and the planet.

tech2 News StaffSep 28, 2019 17:06:59 IST

There is some troubling news if you are an iPhone user as today an iOS security researcher has posted what he claims is a “permanent unpatchable bootrom exploit” that could be used to bypass boot security for millions of iPhones.

iPhone. Reuters

Developer axi0mx, who had earlier, as per a report by arstechnica, developed software to “jailbreak” older Apple iOS devices, has said that iPhone 4S to iPhone X are all vulnerable to this new exploit. “This is possibly the biggest news in the iOS jailbreak community in years. I am releasing my exploit for free for the benefit of iOS jailbreak and security research community,” he said in a post on Twitter.

Axi0mx has said that he has not released the full jailbreak with Cydia but only just an exploit which can be used by researchers and developers to “dump SecureROM, decrypt key bags with AES engine, and demote the device to enable JTAG.

He said that the exploit can only be executed locally over USB and that the vulnerability was discovered via a patch issued to the beta of iOS 12 in the summer of 2018. He also said that it is possible that the exploit has been discovered by another researcher and is already in use.

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In a rare instance of environmental success, the United Nations has just announced it believes the damage to the Earth’s protective ozone layer will be fully restored by the year 2050. This stands in stark contrast to the increasing alarm over the climate emergency, caused by an increasing greenhouse effect.

Both the ozone layer and the greenhouse effect ultimately help control how much ultra-violet (UV) radiation from the sun reaches the Earth’s surface, and how much infra-red (IR) radiation escapes to space. Both these forms of radiation have a critical impact on the habitability of a rocket planet.

Clearly controlling this radiation is a pressing issue on Earth. But it also presents a challenge for those who dream of colonising Mars.

Ultra-violet radiation is a form of light which has a wavelength ranging from 10 – 400 nanometers (1nm is 0.000000001 metres in length). This is shorter and more energetic than visible light. By contrast, the wavelength of a typical 4G phone network is a few tens of centimetres.

Solar-UV can drive the production of the essential Vitamin D in human skin, but excess levels can cause an array of health problems including sunburn, skin cancer and cataracts. It can also damage plants and harm crop production.

On Earth, almost all solar UV is absorbed by the ozone layer, a region of the Earth’s atmosphere extending from about 15–30km in altitude. Without it, life on Earth would be in a lot of trouble.

Ozone is a naturally occurring molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms. The formation of this molecule is carefully balanced by a process called the Chapman cycle, in which ultraviolet light breaks the ozone down into a single oxygen atom and an oxygen molecule. Natural factors can act as catalysts for this such as volcanic activity and the Earths radiation belts.

The first observations that the ozone balance was in trouble were made in the 1980s. It was determined that the widespread use and emission of certain chemicals like chloroflourocarbons had caused severe damage to the ozone layer.

This prompted the international community to adopt the Montreal Protocol in 1987 – so far the only UN agreement ever ratified by every member state.

IR radiation has a subtly different effect on Earth and other planets. All objects emit a range of light depending on their temperature. An object at an average temperature of a million degrees would primarily emit x-rays (as some star systems do).

The sun, at an average temperature of 5,700°C, emits most strongly in visible light (specifically in yellow), while objects at room temperature emit in IR. This is why people show up clearly in an infra-red camera.

Sunlight, primarily at visible wavelengths, passes through the atmosphere and warms the Earth’s surface. To maintain thermal equilibrium, the Earth then emits light back into space, but it does so in IR. Certain molecules in the atmosphere let a large amount of visible light pass through (which is why they are invisible to the human eye) but reflect back or scatter the IR light emitted by the surface – making the surface warmer.

The chemicals involved in this process are what we know as greenhouse gases, the most commonly known is carbon dioxide, but methane and nitrous oxide are also important. What complicates the climate issue is that water vapour and ozone itself are all greenhouse gases too.

This is one of the many factors that make climate modelling a very complex topic. The greenhouse effect itself is usually described as a bad thing, but it is actually essential to life. Without any greenhouse effect, it is relatively easy to show that the Earth would be at an average temperature of -24°C, instead of our current 14°C.

Like many natural processes though, human activity has modified the greenhouse effect such that this essential feature of our planet’s habitability is now becoming dangerous. We have ample evidence that humans have increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and as a result, the global average temperature.

Lessons for colonisers

The challenge for future colonists hoping to live on Mars is quite the reverse of that on Earth. Its thin atmosphere means that even though there is a large concentration of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse effect is quite weak and needs to be boosted. But a recent study has shown that even if the remaining carbon dioxide in rocks on Mars was vapourised and put into the atmosphere, there would not be enough of it to generate a sufficient greenhouse effect to make the planet warm enough to live on.

Compared with Earth, there is also very little ozone on Mars, and the thin Martian atmosphere allows much more solar-UV to reach the surface. So intense is this radiation that the top few centimetres of Martian soil are essentially sterilised once a day, with any complex molecules that might be useful for life being destroyed.

So what could we do to make the climate more similar to Earth’s? Previous ideas have included installing a giant magnet in space near Mars to protect the atmosphere and firing nuclear weapons at the surface.

A recent paper suggests we could use silica aerogel – a synthetic and ultralight material made by taking a gel and replacing the liquid component with a gas – to cover regions of the surface. This would in effect function as an artificial ozone layer, being almost transparent in visible light but blocking UV.

The use of silica aerogel would also rapidly heat up the ground underneath it to above the freezing point of water by way of an artificial greenhouse effect. Placing silica aerogel shields over ice-rich areas of the surface would generate an environment suitable for plant growth, with minimal human intervention.

This alone cannot terraform the red planet, as the Martian atmosphere is constantly being lost to the solar wind. However, it would at least provide a much less hostile environment, on a smaller scale, for future visitors. While still a difficult prospect, this is currently the most practical way of making areas of Mars a less extreme environment.

Ultimately, the success of the Montreal Protocol demonstrates both the viability of collective international action to solve an environmental problem, and that environmental modification is possible on a planetary scale in quite a short span of time. It also demonstrates clearly just how sensitive planetary environmental processes can be to artificial changes, for good or ill.