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An international team of researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and other telescopes has discovered the power source illuminating a so-called Lyman-alpha Blob -- a rare, brightly glowing, and enormous concentration of gas in the distant universe. Until now, astronomers wondered why these huge clouds of gas shined so brightly. The answer, in this example at least, appears to be two galaxies at the heart of the blob undergoing furious star formation and lighting up their surroundings. These large galaxies, which are destined to eventually merge into a single elliptical galaxy, are in the midst of a swarm of smaller galaxies. This appears to be an early phase in the formation of a massive cluster of galaxies.
Image credit: J.Geach/D.Narayanan/R.Crain
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Antimicrobial cutting boards. Flame-retardant carpets. Friction-resistant bearings. Engineered surfaces add value to the things we use, providing extra layers of safety, easing their operation, preserving their quality or adding utility. A new method of engineering polymer brush patterns developed at UC Santa Barbara promises to cut down processing time while adding versatility in design. Researchers are looking to greatly improve on the concept with a method of micron-scale surface chemical patterning that can not only decrease time and money spent in their manufacture, but also add versatility to their design.
Image credit: Christian Pester, UC Santa Barbara
With the cost of living in San Francisco soaring higher than ever, some people are stepping forward to find innovative solutions to create affordable housing and assistance programs that would preserve the diversity, culture, and giving spirit that has made San Francisco a world-class city.…
Rove beetle (Atheta pseudocrenuliventris) collected in Pacific Rim National Park, British Columbia, Canada, and photographed at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics (sample ID: BIOUG21083-E07; specimen record: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_RecordView?processid=CNPRR173-15; BIN: http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Public_BarcodeCluster?clusteruri=BOLD:ACU1496)
Hints of an early exodus of modern humans from Africa may have been detected in living humans. Present-day people outside Africa were thought to descend from a group that left their homeland 60,000 years ago, crossing through Egypt into the Arabian Peninsula. Now, analysis of nearly 500 human genomes appears to have turned up the faded signal of an earlier migration of Homo sapiens that has all but vanished. So the genetic evidence has shown that every non-African alive today could trace their origins to this fateful dispersal, still holds.
Reporting in the journal Nature, Luca Pagani, Mait Metspalu and colleagues describe hints of this pioneer group in their analysis of DNA in people from the Oceanian nation of Papua New Guinea.In order to reconcile the faint signature of an earlier migration out of Africa evidence may be found in people from Papua New Guineawith the genetic data from living populations, the prevailing view advanced by scientists was of a wave of pioneer settlement that ended in extinction.
But the latest results suggest some descendents of these pioneers survived long enough to get swept up in the later, ultimately more successful migration that led to the settling of Oceania. "The first instance when we thought we were seeing something was when we used a technique called MSMC, which allows you to look at split times of populations," said co-author Dr Mait Metspalu, director of the Estonian Biocentre in Tartu, told BBC News. "All the other Eurasians we had were very homogenous in their split times from Africans.
"This suggests most Eurasians diverged from Africans in a single event... about 75,000 years ago, while the Papuan split was more ancient - about 90,000 years ago," said first author Dr Luca Pagani, also from the Estonian Biocentre. "So we thought there must be something going on."
It was already known that Papuans, along with other populations from Oceania and Asia, possess some ancestry from Denisovans, an enigmatic sister group to the Neanderthals. The researchers tried to remove this component, but were left with a third segment of the genome which was different from the Denisovan segment and the overwhelming majority which represents the main out of Africa migration 60,000 years ago.
"This third component had intermediate properties which we concluded must have originated as an independent expansion out of Africa about 120,000 years ago," Dr Pagani told BBC News. "We believe this at least 2% of the genome of modern Papuans."
More information: Luca Pagani et al. Genomic analyses inform on migration events during the peopling of Eurasia, Nature (2016). DOI: 10.1038/nature19792
The Daily Galaxy via BBC Science
Image credit top of page arthistoryworld
A new design college has been set up to give students hands-on, vocational experience, and has been backed by the likes of Jamie Hewlett and Vince Frost.
The Strohacker Design School is an independent design college set up at Chichester University in Bognor Regis, which aims to provide an “alternative route” into the design industry, says founder Bill Strohacker.
The school also aims to create a “new design hub” in the south east of the UK by attracting local and international students, he adds.
Jamie Hewlett is co-creator of virtual band Gorillaz and comic strip Tank Girl, and Vince Frost is the Australian graphic designer behind the 2008 Venice Biennale branding and covers for magazines such as Wallpaper. Other backers include Tank Girl co-creator Alan Martin, and fine artist Lady Pippa Blake. Strohacker is hoping backers will work with students on projects and host talks.
The school has just two graphic design courses a three-month full-time course, and a nine-month part-time course.
Both courses are open to A-Level students seeking an alternative to university, and graduates, as well as people who want a career change and current designers.
They aim to “provide students with the exact skills that modern design agencies are looking for”, says Strohacker.
The courses will involve students working in a studio environment tackling live industry design briefs “with more realistic time scales”, says Strohacker.
Students will work “in small groups” from 9am-5pm, five days a week over three months for the full-time course, or two evenings a week over nine months for the part-time course.
The school will support students after they have completed their studies, by helping them to find employment and providing industry contacts and CV and portfolio workshops for the following year.
It has also partnered with crowdfunding platform Education Aid, which aims to help students from underprivileged backgrounds by enabling them to borrow money to cover course fees interest-free.
“What we are trying to offer potential students is an alternative to the normal education route,” says Strohacker. “What happens to the kids who don't make the required entry grades for university, but are no less talented or passionate about design? Or those who cannot afford or do not want the increased debt attached to their education?”
The school's head lecturer is John McFaul, who has 20 years of experience working with brands such as Pepsico, Levi's and New Balance. Other tutors include illustrators, graphic designers and those working in advertising.
“We are hoping…we can help to produce competent, inspired, dedicated design students ready to walk straight into a junior position,” says Strohacker.
The courses open in September 2016 and are priced at £6,295 for the full-time three-month course, and £5,995 for the part-time nine-month course. The three-month course runs three times a year. Course spaces are limited to 10 students, and all graduates will receive a certificate.
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Tate director Nick Serota suggests solution for Neo Bankside tenants who don't want to make an exhibition of themselves
You have paid £4.5m for a luxury London flat with floor to ceiling windows and glorious views across the Thames to St Paul's Cathedral. So do you want to put up net curtains?
Residents in the block Neo Bankside should consider it if they want their privacy to be maintained, the director of Tate Sir Nicholas Serota said on Wednesday.
Related: First look: inside the Switch House Tate Modern's power pyramid
Related: Neo Bankside: how Richard Rogers's new 'non-dom accom' cut out the poor
Continue reading...The visual identity for UEFA Euro 2020 has been unveiled in London and features a bridge depicted as “the universal symbol of connection.”
The quadrennial football tournament is normally held in one European city, but in 2020 it will be held in 13 cities across Europe, with London playing a key role as the semi-finals and final will be held at Wembley.
Y&R Portugal won a tender for the project after an international pitch.
Y&R Portugal's bridge motif forms part of the main identity and is a symbolic gesture to the uniting of the 13 cities.
Across the brand the bridge has been used in different ways and according to UEFA, acts to “unite all European citizens of football, including countries, cities, players, teams, fans and partners”.
Y&R creative director Hélder Pombinho says across the brand as a whole “bridges become the common denominator that brings host cities together as one”.
Famous bridges from each city feature alongside other monuments, buildings and stadia, and the role of the fans is also reinforced.
Pedro Gonzalez, managing director of the branding team at Y&R Portugal, says that the brand has been shaped by the idea of “United Citizens of Football”, which he says was “a strong insight that led our creative team to an inspired idea: an inclusive bridge that crosses all of Europe, taking football to the fans.”
The host cities are London, Munich, Rome, Baku, St Petersburg, Bucharest, Amsterdam, Dublin, Bilbao, Budapest, Brussels, Glasgow and Copenhagen.
The post UEFA builds bridges with new Euro 2020 identity appeared first on Design Week.
The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset has launched in the UK this week, and designers can now get their hands on a pair at a number of retail stores.
The basic pack is available for £549, and comes with the headset, a sensor, a remote and an Xbox One wireless controller. Also included is VR platform game Lucky's Tale, various 3D 360 degree videos and VR movies, and access to the Oculus Store.
The set can now be purchased at John Lewis, Curry's PCWorld, Game Digital and London department store Harrods. It can also be bought online from Amazon.
Oculus Rift is also going to be taking over retail stores across the UK with demo presentations over the next month, where visitors will be able to try out games and films on the headset before they buy.
The product can only run on a PC, and requires an up-to-date operating system of Windows 7 or newer, and a memory of 8GB RAM or above.
Oculus Touch controllers to cost £190 in the UK. Crikey. pic.twitter.com/zg9JTNiCg8
— Nick Summers (@nisummers) September 20, 2016
Oculus Touch controllers, which will allow greater control and more natural use of the hands during VR experiences, are due to launch in October. Oculus VR is yet to reveal a price, though a store display in Game allegedly proposed the price of £190 for a pair.
Oculus Rift is manufactured by Oculus VR, which originally started out as a Kickstarter campaign in 2012. Facebook acquired the company in 2014.
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