Monthly Archives: July 2022

Every once in a while, a specific clip goes viral showing a fleshy pink strand that appears to be dragging a larger, spherical object that looks a bit like a foam dodgeball.

Though the fascinating footage seldom fails to draw attention, it's often miscontextualized in a way that gets slapped down by actual experts. So let's dive in what's really going on here?

As it's usually labeled, the scene depicts a microscopic slice of life. But the most fascinating part of the video is that the strand appears to be walking. Trudging its fluffy, Big Bird-esque feet one after the other, the molecule performs what can only be described as a confident little strut, Gisele-stompingits way down some kind of dare we say? biological runway.

To be fair, the clip which took off on Twitter once again this week, complete with the bafflingly almost-coherent caption "This is how Protein Moving in Microscope" is very intriguing. Fun colors! Big feet! Truffula Tree vibes! And seriously, look at him go. That's a WALK.

But like so many things we see online, there are a lot of missing details not to mention outright inaccuracy at play here.

The actual animation dates back to 2006, when it was published by a pair of Harvard University researchers working with an artist and animator named John Liebler.Together, the trio took several years to produce a dramatized 3D modeling of internal cellular function titled "The Inner Life of the Cell."

So right off the bat, it turns out that this is emphaticallynot"how protein moving in microscope." Though it depicts a genuine biological process, the footage is computer generated.

It is true that the strand represents a protein, though that limited context is too vague to tell the whole story.

In reality, there are many different proteins, three of which kinesins, myosins, and dyneins are considered "motor" proteins.

As their name suggests, these high-energy bad boys, powered by ATP that is, the main energy molecule that essentially powers all known life are responsible for making sure that materials needed for building cellular infrastructure get to where they need to go, and are also the source of most muscle contraction.

In other words, motor proteins are in charge of moving stuff. And to do so, they themselves need ways to get from place to place.

The loofah-footed protein in the viral clip was animated to show how kinesins are thought to move. And yes, they really are believed to "walk" along molecular rails called microtubles.

Different motor proteins are understood to move differently myosins carry out a type of scooting motion, while dyneins have been shown to swing from tiny cellular monkey bars with grappling hook-like arms.

As for what the kinesin in the video might be dragging?

The ambulatory little guys are believed to carry a number of necessary materials, including but not limited to vesicles AKA, tiny lil' sacks that the body creates to transport things like enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters and proteins and organelles, which are in essence tiny organs that perform a number of necessary functions inside individual cells.

But the way that the kinesin is moving its freight is actually an area where this video is now outdated. Scientists no longer think that kinesins pull or drag their cargo, as is seen in the viral clip.

Rather, these jacked little messengers are believed to carry their assigned freight overhead while they strut down molecular pathways. Arm day everyday.

Fascinatingly, scientists have still barely scratched the surface of what's possible with more motor protein research. Perhaps most excitingly, it's believed that because these molecules play an important role in cell division, figuring out how to selectively annihilate or otherwise manipulate cancerous motor proteins may one day be usedas the mechanism behind promising future treatments.

There's no denying that the clip is an awe-inspiring reminder of the vast and complex world inside every living thing, including ourselves.

But please don't believe everything you read online.

More on cool cell tings: Doctors Gene-edit Patient's Liver to Make Less Cholesterol

The rest is here:
The Real Story Behind That Viral Clip of a Protein With a Confident Strut - Futurism

"I have tears in my eyes, because I love the grass and they like playing in it."Greener Pastures

It's hard to imagine somebody crying over the loss of a grass lawn when there are so many other things going on in the world, but that's exactly what the Wall Street Journal said happened this week.

In the Western US, some homeowners have gotten rid of their grass lawns as the worst drought in 1,200 years rages on. But some are clinging to the hope that their thick, green lawn will be able to pull through. In California, the WSJreported that record low rainfalls mean efforts to save water are more important than ever but that doesn't mean every resident is on board.

"My kids are asking me, what is going wrong with this grass?" one Calabasas resident told the WSJ. "I have tears in my eyes, because I love the grass and they like playing in it."

It's difficult to feel sympathy for a family in a wealthy suburb complaining about a brown lawn when there are so many other alternatives and when it's bad enough that water districts and cities in the region are struggling to maintain critical infrastructure.

This year, Lake Mead hit its lowest water level on record. The lake is the largest water reservoir in the US in terms of capacity and is located in both Arizona and Nevada.

The WSJreported that in 2021, the Nevada legislature passed a law requiring most property owners except single-family homes to remove their grass by 2026, and other municipalities have deployed "water cops" to make sure people are obeying local water cutback measures.

There's no denying the truth: lawns suck up lots of water. In California and parts of the Western US, there's not enough for everyone to maintain outdated monoculture lawns.

That's a good thing, because lawns aren't great for the environment even when there's no drought.

The folks who don't seem to know it, however, are the ones who care more about appearances than whether their neighbor will have enough drinking water in the years to come.

More on heat waves: Tech Reviewer Says Heatwave Causing Samsung Batteries to Burst Out of Phones

More here:
An Evil Force Is Sucking the Life Out of California: Lawns - Futurism

It emits 85% less GHG.Cool Move

Bill Gates, billionaire and cofounder of Microsoft, has thrown some weight behind an air conditioning startup hoping to be much more environmentally friendly than the competition.

CNBC reported this week that Gates' cleantech investment fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures is leading Blue Frontier's current $20 million investment round.

It's a fitting move for Gates, who hopes to slow climate change partly through a focus on reducing the "green premium,"which Breakthrough defines as "the additional cost of choosing a clean technology over one that emits a greater amount of greenhouse gases."

Sinking money into Blue Frontier could help reduce both its costs and its prices.

In March, the Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Xeroxs Palo Alto Research Center released a study that found that 531 million tons of carbon dioxide are released each year by AC units cooling the air, and that 599 million tons are emitted while removing humidity from it.

Blue Frontier's units combine dew-point-style cooling with liquid desiccant dehumidification, which they claim creates a 60 percent reduction in annual energy use and an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Those are good stats considering power grids around the US are already struggling to keep up with energy demand as consumers battle soaring temperatures.

Summer peak demand is not just a problem because it causes brown-outs," CEO Daniel Betts told CNBC. "It increases the cost of electricity, and produces more greenhouse gas emissions."

Let's hope Gates' investment pays off and that Blue Frontier delivers on their eco-friendly promise when their units hit the market, which CNBC says should be in 2026 or 2027.

More on resource allocation: Paleontologists Furious As Dinosaur Skeleton Sells at Auction

Read more:
Bill Gates Invests in Exciting Air Conditioning Startup - Futurism

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972) is a multimedia artist based in Hudson. Gibsons dynamic art practice explores a diverse cross-section of influences, including Native American indigenous craft traditions, cultural narratives, symbols of power, history, personal identity, and contemporary social issues relevant to BIPOC and queer communities.

His singular creative style embraces a range of mediums for expression, such as textiles, embroidery, weaving, hand-sewn fringe, beadwork, and other materials that are the basis for his vibrant assemblage-based paintings, sculptures, garments, and large-scale installations. Gibsons work often recontextualizes and thus reconsiders traditional Native American craft within a contemporary cultural framework, resulting in a body of work that is both conscious and celebratory. He regularly exhibits his art at major institutions worldwide and his work is represented in numerous museum and private collections. I spoke with Gibson over Zoom earlier this year. This is an edited version of that conversation.

Taliesin Thomas

Taliesin Thomas: Please share any comments about your Native American roots and the Hudson Valley as your home and place of artistic creation. What brought you to the Hudson Valley?

Jeffrey Gibson: Well, you know, my ancestry is not from this area originally. My families are located in Mississippi and Oklahoma. My mother is Cherokee and my father is Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and so I have grown up being aware of both of those, but I am a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

I originally came to Columbia County in 2007 for a residency at Art Omi. We moved up here in the summer [of 2012]. And then the studio started growing and then I bought this building that I am in now, which is a turn-of-the-century schoolhouse in Claverack.

At that time of my life I was 40, so the goal was to put down some roots and do a little life editing and to secure the things that we knew we wanted to do: my art career, [my husband] Runeys art practice, and a family.

TT: Your celebration of indigenous Native American culture through your art articulates a vibrant spectrum. How is that spectrum changing?

JG:I think my shift of considering a Native American indigenous contemporary art and culture audience is something that I know is always in the forefront of my brain now and I can feel where its been developing. I think when you are Native, you are kind of held accountable by your family, by your community, by other people, whether they are part of your tribal nation or not.

No one is speaking to indigenous audiences from that contemporary art world, and so that to me became something that I was interested in. Maybe even not as a curiosity, just sort of What does that mean to speak to other indigenous artists? So, I have to assume that to some degree we are people who, regardless of what our relationship is to our communitymeaning how traditional or not traditionalwe have all chosen to make art and put it out into the global world.

Thats increased the spectrum a lot [and] rather than extending my own self, I find the people who I am inspired by and I ask then to come together and for me to be able to do the best of what I do, and set it up as a platform for them to do the best that they can do.

TT: You have said that you almost gave up doing your art. Please share any thoughts about this soul-searching as an artist.

JG:That really goes back, really from the period we moved to New York. Runey and I moved together from London in 1999.

I was exhibiting, and I think for me commercial success has really been important because it was sort of a barrier to break. I was pretty determined to also be a part of that part of the art world and not just remain in nonprofit spaces that were speaking to larger issues. I have been trying to juggle a lot of that all of these years.

I guess it was somewhere around 2008, thats sort of the point for me. A couple of times, I thought about just walking away from it. I think I also expected, growing up, that the art world was a meritocracy. I thought that it was totally inclusive, I thought it was completely queer friendly. So, to get there and run into kind of heteronormative, kind of machismo, and class issues, and race issues, was really disheartening. I couldnt find the reason big enough to want to put up with it.

And, at the same time, I am having these conversations with academics, scholars focused on indigenous making, historical indigenous making. That conversation, to me, is so important and so largeso to come into the art world, where no one was aware of it, just feels like you are walking off a cliff.

It was deciding: Am I worried about it being stereotypical, me identifying as Native American. Am I pigeonholing myself? is the question that came up numerous times.

I had to turn all those voices off long enough to make the work to see, what does this feel like to do this, to learn bead work? I had learned some beadwork in my teens and 20s, but actually applying it in any kind of substantial way did not happen until around 2008 to 2011.

That was the first time I felt the city that I always wanted to be an artist in, New York City, finally noticed me and paid attention. That was the big shift.

TT: Your art is powerful, empowered, and empowering all at once, it does all of that. How do you define power in art?

JG:Oh, thats a big question. Power in art: I think there are lots of different kinds of power, right?

And so, I think the garments that I make, the power that comes from themI think when somebody puts them on, which is a huge part of them, somebody has to put them on, whether its me or somebody elsethose individuals that I put in the garments, their personal narratives become intertwined by my personal narrative and it leaves an archive that is powerful, that is present tense, that will describe me, of course, but also what was happening in the spaces that I moved through.

I think there are other kinds of power, of course, but I think that for me there is a genuine belief in the animation of materials and of putting together a space.

TT: Your exhibitions are a collaboration of ritual objects, costumes, paintings, installation, dance, music, and performances. How does this come together for you?

JG:I remember the days when I was doing everything, right?

In order to make enough to do a show, to fill a museum space, thats where the team happened. I think so many of the artisans I have spoken with and people who are really invested in craft, it is therapeutic. That kind of repetitiveness, I think it does heal you. It occupies a certain place and also has the ability to heal you. And I feel like all of the beading that I have done, all the sewing that I have done, it did.

This is not something we do in our lives. We are the most minuscule parts of a bazillion transactions that happen every day, and I think it leaves us feeling fragmented. It echoes every symptom of schizophrenia. Craft and the kind of long process of making something is for me very healing, and now that process includes other people, it includes communication, it includes experimentation. My moment of realization, at this point, really happens when I see the work installed and I see how people engage with it, thats when I get the rush.

TT: The idea of Futurism seems to be an expanding idea in the art world. Do you have any ideas about Futurism with respect to your work?

JG: I started talking about Futurism a long time ago. I think I started talking about it, about the need to be present. We cant begin to think about a future unless we can feel really grounded in the present tense, so that is where a lot of my thinking about materials and the kind of extraordinary-ness that you can do in quite simple ways, you know, in colorthese sorts of things, things that can bring you back to being in one place.

Then, to look at a future is actually quite scary because if you have clarity in the present, you see these seemingly insurmountable kinds of challenges ahead of us, mainly ecological. People who know me, I talk a lot about fear and anger. Of course, people are afraid, and of course they are angry. But we cant solve these problems from fear and anger.

There is a power in positivity, there is a power in love, there is a power in not being afraid, there is a power in releasing anger. You are actually more powerful when you can release these things rather than holding on to them.

TT: What advice do you have for this younger generation of artists rising up and grappling with all these same issues?

JG: I worked with a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago named Maureen Sherlock, [and] the takeaway that I got from her that I still hold on to is: Your opportunity to have freedom exists between well mapped marked spaces. Its before things form, and the boundaries are set, and the rules are set, and the perceptions are set, that things start getting a little more tight and narrow and stifling. If you can find a space in between, you can define it, you can be whatever you want to be.

See the rest here:
Jeffrey Gibson: Art in the Intersection - Chronogram

Get ready to meet George Jetson because hes about to be born.

The button-pushing, flying-car-riding, iconic future man entered the galaxy on July 31, 2022, according to The Jetsons canon. While George is having his first birthday, the show itself is about to celebrate its 60th: it debuted on Sept. 23, 1962, a century before its set.

That means were supposed to be only 40 years away from the Jetsons world of Rosie the Robot, toothbrushing machines and apartment buildings high above the clouds.

So why are we still stuck on the ground waiting for our jetpacks? And why, all these years later, do we still hold a slightly corny, old-school animated sitcom up as a beacon of what could be?

We still speak about the future in Jetsons terms, said Jared Bahir Browsh, author of the 2021 book Hanna-Barbera: A History. A show that originally ran for one season had such an impact on the way we see our culture and our lives. (The Jetsons actually came out in two chunks: its original 60s run was only 24 episodes, and then a reboot in 1985 gave it another 50.)

Read on to see what The Jetsons got right about the future and what it got hilariously wrong.

Despite its sci-fi setting, the show was a typical 60s patriarchal sitcom, showing how George, his wife Jane, teenage daughter Judy and young son Elroy have their needs endlessly met by automated gadgets and ubiquitous treadmills, yet still squabble over typical work and family drama.

And yet, The Jetsons stands as the single most important piece of 20th century futurism, according toSmithsonian magazine.

One of the things that separates The Jetsons so clearly from other sci-fi, according to Danny Graydon, author of The Jetsons: The Official Guide to the Cartoon Classic, is that its neither dystopian nor utopian definitely not Mad Max but not the peaceful Federation of Star Trek either.

It was trying to have this forward-thinking view of where we might be a century on from when the show first aired, Graydon said.

To 1960s audiences, the Jetsons videophone a big piece of hardware whose staticky screen gives way to an image of the person trying to reach you seemed like a dream.

By 2022, we outdid that tech without even realizing it and were already sick of it. Skype came along in the early 2000s, and FaceTime followed in 2010. Thanks to the pandemic, we all have video chat trauma, even if the name Zoom does sound kinda Jetsons-y.

Its pretty amazing how accurate it was, especially in the Zoom age, Browsh said. Were starting to, more and more, live that life.

While sassy robot maids like Rosie arent hitting the market any time soon, weve had cleaning help in the form of Roombas which are actually based on landmine technology and other robotic vacuums for ages now.

We also have Jetsons flat screen TVs, cameras that can look inside your body and drones that dot the sky. In 2062, Elroy Jetson and friends watch Flintstones reruns in the back of class on a watch TV something you can now do on an Apple Watch, which came out in 2015. While the wrist-wear devices cant also make video calls like in the show, add-on accessories can accomplish the feat, and Apple is expected to add a camera to the watches very soon.

Graydon said he recently tried a workout app on his Apple Watch and it reminded him of an episode where George just watches a workout program, without actually participating.

Technology literally takes away the urge to do anything properly, he said.

Matriarch Judy Jetson had a household machine that delivered breakfast at the push of a button. That technology technically has existed since 2006 in the form of 3-D food printers, but its limited to exhibitions, labs and experimental uses. One startup, for instance, is using 3-D printers to makemeaty steaks out of plant ingredients.

While the world waits for such gadgets to become widely available, you can get a June Smart Oven, which costs round $1,000, operates over Wi-Fi and can sense what foods youre cooking. Smart fridges, meanwhile, will let you see the contents of your fridge from your phone, but you still have to cook them yourself.

And thats just the kitchen.

The Jetsons promised us a morning routine filled with automated hygiene machines that comb your hair and brush your teeth at the same time. Instead, we have some electric toothbrushes that are advertised on podcasts and still use AA batteries.

Skincare is a little more advanced we do havemasksthat shoot LED light at your face and home lasers that resurface your skin. The Jetsons definitely underestimated how much everyone would be concerned with aging in 2022.

When it comes to transportation, experimental military jetpacks also technically exist in a clunky form, but you cant use one. And self-driving cars might hit the market before 2062 if they can ever stopkilling people on the streets.

Many fans including Browsh and Graydon cite flying cars as the Jetsons invention they most long for. But theyre also realistic about the challenges.

[A flying car] also looks like a lot of fun, Browsh said, until that first accident occurs.

Capitalism still exists in the future, though George Jetson only works a three-hour, three-day workweek, pushing a button at the sprockets factory. The depiction of a work day is where reality most diverges from the world of The Jetsons, Browsh said, at least in America, which still lags way behind European countries in working hours, work-life balance and paid family leave.

In this era, I think many of us are working more than ever, he said. This idea that automation was not only going to make our lives easier has led to panic that its going to replace work.

Well never have a new show quite like The Jetsons, Graydon said, because well never be that naive about the future again.

Its more challenging to create really startling views of the future, he said. Technology is moving so fast, its actually very challenging to achieve the wow factor.

By 2022, our optimism for the future has also given way to a clear-eyed view of the roadblocks: endless energy demands, supply chains, climate change, socio-economic gaps, governmental gridlock and chimerical tech billionaires with their hands on all the buttons. Our science fiction has become decidedly glum. Apple TVs Severance envisions a world where the workday technically never ends, while Westworld is full of murderous robots.

Now, savvy audiences would demand to know what the world looks like beyond the Jetsons space-age home.

What about the people on the ground? Browsh wondered. Are they still living there?

The show heavily implies the Earth was wrecked by smog, pollution and extreme weather, which makes for a bleak reality where humanity decided to live above their problems rather than make lifestyle changes to fix them.

When you think about it, all of the shows tech advances suggest a lazier future, a possible precursor to the world of Pixars WALL-E, where clueless humans live sedentary lives, oppressed by scheming robots. In The Jetsons, moving walkways and automated chairs are everywhere; sky-based buildings make walking impossible anyway.

In the cartoon, everything is amazing, and yet no one is happy but thats how the creators planned it.

It speaks to this idea that as human beings well always have something to complain about, Graydon said. One of the problems with utopia, if you create a perfect world, that world might be quite boring.

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What The Jetsons predicted right and wrong about the future - New York Post