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May 23, 2021

Frontier Supercomputer to Get World’s Fastest Storage: 75 TB/s, 15 Billion IOPS, 700 PetaBytes

Posted by in category: supercomputing

OLCF’s Frontier is set to use a hybrid multi-tier storage sub-system with 700PB capacity and up to 75TB/s throughput.

May 23, 2021

Relational Processes in Ayahuasca Groups of Palestinians and Israelis

Posted by in categories: media & arts, neuroscience

“This study seeks to explore the potential role of the psychoactive brew ayahuasca in settings of intergroup contact to shift the awareness and attitudes related to the relations between groups embedded in ethnopolitical conflicts, including long-term disputes between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians. By doing so, the present study also seeks to 1) understand how psychedelics can affect relational and group-participatory processes and 2) expand knowledge on dynamics between these two groups by focusing on their interactions in a psychedelic group setting.”


Psychedelics are used in many group contexts. However, most phenomenological research on psychedelics is focused on personal experiences. This paper presents a phenomenological investigation centered on intersubjective and intercultural relational processes, exploring how an intercultural context affects both the group and individual process. Through 31 in-depth interviews, ceremonies in which Palestinians and Israelis drink ayahuasca together have been investigated. The overarching question guiding this inquiry was how psychedelics might contribute to processes of peacebuilding, and in particular how an intercultural context, embedded in a protracted conflict, would affect the group’s psychedelic process in a relational sense. Analysis of the interviews was based on grounded theory. Three relational themes about multilocal participatory events which occurred during ayahuasca rituals have emerged from the interviews: 1) Unity-Based Connection – collective events in which a feeling of unity and ‘oneness’ is experienced, whereby participants related to each other based upon a sense of shared humanity, and other social identities seemed to dissolve (such as national and religious identities). 2) Recognition and Difference-Based Connection – events where a strong connection was made to the other culture. These events occurred through the expression of the other culture or religion through music or prayers, which resulted in feelings of awe and reverence 3) Conflict-related revelations – events where participants revisited personal or historical traumatic elements related to the conflict, usually through visions. These events were triggered by the presence of ‘the Other,’ and there was a political undertone in those personal visions. This inquiry has revealed that psychedelic ceremonies have the potential to contribute to peacebuilding. This can happen not just by ‘dissolution of identities,’ but also by providing a space in which shared spiritual experiences can emerge from intercultural and interfaith exchanges. Furthermore, in many cases, personal revelations were related to the larger political reality and the history of the conflict. Such processes can elucidate the relationship between personal psychological mental states and the larger sociopolitical context.

Those who experience do not participate in the world. For the experience is “in them” and not between them and the world.”

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May 23, 2021

How photographers can use a drone for more than drone photography and videography

Posted by in category: drones

As a photographer, adding a DJI Mavic Mini to my gear locker felt like a final puzzle piece. I know I’m not alone in this feeling as many of my fellow photographer friends became pilots, as well, in the last year. But this doesn’t mean that we use our flying cameras just for drone photography and videography.

One reason for this slight phenomenon is an increase in client expectations. Reducing the skills of a photographer to just someone with lots of gear, there’s an assumption that videography is available for the asking. While I have invested in video gear like lights, a gimbal, clamps, arms, microphones and stands, my DJI Mavic Mini is up there at the top as a piece of video gear on offer. I previously wrote about my personal intro to drone life. Here are some ways that you, as a professional or hobbyist photographer, can find value in adding a drone to your bag of gear. And tricks.

While every photographer possesses video shooting capabilities in their DSLRs, it may be easier to use a drone as your first video shooting tool. One thing that DJI has done with their drones is made them out-of-the-box-ready to use. As opposed to figuring out which lens or menu settings to use, any DJI drone can capture stunning video on your first flight.

May 23, 2021

Origin of Information –“Something Very Old, Very Powerful and Very Special has Been Unleashed on Earth”

Posted by in categories: alien life, genetics, nanotechnology

Origin of Information —“Something Very Old, Very Powerful and Very Special has Been Unleashed on Earth” | The Daily Galaxy.


“Humans are strange…We are the aliens,” observes Columbia University astrophysicist, Caleb Scharf, noting that humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. “We also have a truly outsize impact on the planetary environment without much in the way of natural attrition to trim our influence (at least not yet).

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May 23, 2021

Groundbreaking Research Optimizes Body’s Own Immune System to Fight Cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering

First-of-its-kind study shows how engineered immune cells move faster to attack the tumor.

A groundbreaking study led by engineering and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities shows how engineered immune cells used in new cancer therapies can overcome physical barriers to allow a patient’s own immune system to fight tumors. The research could improve cancer therapies in the future for millions of people worldwide.

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May 23, 2021

Could blocking the sun save the planet?

Posted by in categories: chemistry, engineering, particle physics, sustainability

As the need for urgent climate solutions grows, scientists want to put more research into a technology known as solar geoengineering — the idea of chemically altering the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from Earth.

It is seen as a potential method of cooling the planet and offsetting climate change. But could such a technology curtail a climate catastrophe — or become the cause of it?

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May 23, 2021

This Beating Sesame Seed-Sized ‘Human Heart’ Grew Itself in a Lab

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Scientists have successfully grown a bundle of human stem cells into a tiny artificial “heart” the size of a sesame seed.

The pulsating mass is the first self-organizing miniature organ to resemble the human heart, including a hollow chamber enclosed by a wall of cardiac-like tissue.

Simple heart-like organs, or cardioids, have been built in the lab before, but only using a scaffold, a mold, or a matrix for the cells to assemble around.

May 23, 2021

North Hollywood High School team captures National Science Bowl crown

Posted by in categories: education, science

A team of North Hollywood High School science students emerged victorious Saturday over scholars from 63 other schools nationwide in this year’s U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Science Bowl Championship.

The win marks North Hollywood High’s second National Science Bowl championship, following the title captured in 2001.

The school has placed among the top five teams 12 times at the national event.

May 23, 2021

“Clyde’s Spot” on Jupiter Has Morphed Into a Strange, Complex Structure

Posted by in category: space

Many features in Jupiter’s highly dynamic atmosphere are short lived, but the April 2021 observation from the JunoCam instrument (top image) revealed that nearly one year after its discovery, the remnant of Clyde’s Spot had not only drifted away from the Great Red Spot but had also developed into a complex structure that scientists call a folded filamentary region. This region is twice as big in latitude and three times as big in longitude as the original spot, and has the potential to persist for an extended period of time.

The lower image was taken on June 2, 2020, around 3:56 a.m. when the spacecraft was about 28000 miles (45000 kilometers) from Jupiter’s cloud tops. The upper image was taken on April 15, 2021, at 4:58 p.m. PDT (7:58 p.m. EDT). At the time, the spacecraft was about 16800 miles (27000 kilometers) from Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 30 degrees South. Another citizen scientist, Kevin M. Gill, processed both images from raw JunoCam data.

JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.

May 23, 2021

Virgin Galactic rocket ship ascends from New Mexico

Posted by in category: space

Virgin Galactic on Saturday made its first rocket-powered flight from New Mexico to the fringe of space in a manned shuttle, as the company forges toward offering tourist flights to the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.

High above the desert in a cloudless sky, the VSS Unity ignited its rocket to hurtle the ship and two pilots toward space. A live feed by NASASpaceFlight.com showed the ship accelerating upward and confirmed a landing later via radar.

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