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WD launches enormous 4TB SD card for creative pros — smashes world record for largest removable memory card to smithereens at twice the capacity of biggest microSD cards

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As higher resolutions and more frames per second become standard in photography and video creation, the demand for larger, more adaptable storage solutions is growing. In response, manufacturers are developing faster, more user-friendly storage options to meet the rigorous project timelines and extensive data requirements of creative professionals. 

Western Digital has unveiled a new SD card for that market, and the SanDisk Extreme PRO SDUC UHS-I memory card packs a staggering 4TB of storage into the popular form factor. Yes, 4TB.

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A 30,000TB tower powered by a 70-year-old technology — Spectra Logic proves that data tape still has a place in an AI world with storage system that can handle thousands of LTO-9 tapes

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Spectra Logic has introduced the Spectra Cube tape library, a cloud-optimized system for on-premise, hybrid cloud, and IaaS environments that is designed to be quickly deployed, dynamically scaled, and easily serviced without tools or downtime. 

The Spectra Cube library is managed by the company’s recently announced LumOS library management software, which provides secure local and remote management and monitoring. 

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how are social skills shaped in an ever-changing world?

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The Ecology of Collective Behavior Deborah M. Gordon Princeton Univ. Press(2023)

Collective behaviours are present throughout nature — from groups of genes being activated simultaneously to shoals of fish swimming in unison for protection against predators and mounds of insects working together to build nests. But biologist Deborah Gordon worries that the evolutionary biologists who study how these phenomena evolved are missing a trick, because they often don’t consider that the ever-changing environments in which animals live are fundamental to shaping such behaviours. In The Ecology of Collective Behavior, she tries to set the record straight.

Gordon has spent decades studying the natural history of two ant species that live in very different environments, paying acute attention to how the insects’ stirring, dynamic habitats shape their behaviour. These observations form the bedrock of her book.

First, she describes the red harvester ant Pogonomyrmex barbatus, which lives in the harsh, parched deserts of New Mexico. Affectionately known as pogos, these ants are deep red and around 10 millimetres long — an impressive size for an ant. They live in colonies, which contain more than 10,000 female workers, and rely on seeds scattered on the desert floor for both food and water. Seed sources change slowly throughout the year as plants wax and wane; there is mostly a plentiful and constant supply of food. But collecting seeds is hazardous. Deserts are dry, so pogos live in a catch-22 world: they must risk desiccation to gather the water they need.

Gordon shows that this delicate trade-off is achieved by a slow but robust mechanism through which foragers recruit nestmates in the search for food. When a female returns to the nest with her bounty, she releases hydrocarbons from her outer cuticle to indicate to her sisters that there’s food out in the desert.

A fleeting touch from a forager’s antennae sends others scuttling out of the nest. They head out in random directions, but that’s OK, because the seeds are spread out on the desert floor, not clustered in patches. Plentiful food and favourable environmental conditions — days that are not too hot, for instance — mean that many foragers return to the colony and recruit many others. Conversely, under bleaker circumstances, fewer ants return to muster recruits. In this way, simple positive feedback regulates the steady collective behaviour of thousands of ants.

Next, Gordon turns to the arboreal turtle ant, Cephalotes goniodontus, which forages in the canopies of Mexico’s dry tropical forests. Unlike the desert harvesters, turtle ants spread their brood across many nests perched in the canopy, connected by a complex net of tangling vines, shifting leaves and moving stems. Their food sources are ephemeral — foragers must exploit bursts of nectar from transient floral blooms.

Each foraging turtle ant lays a trail of pheromones wherever she goes — independent of whether she has discovered a food source or not — while following the trails laid by others. These trails constantly bifurcate, and paths can change on an hourly basis. Which route should each forager follow?

The answer is simple, Gordon reveals. The ants follow the smelliest path — the one with the strongest pheromone signal — and keep reinforcing profitable trails until something tells them to stop, such as the presence of a predator or a broken branch. This ensures that the ants can find the most lucrative foraging spot and rapidly adjust the information flow if needed, changing their behaviour in a constantly changing environment.

Red Harvester Ant workers clear particles of sand from the entrance to their nest.

Red harvester ants clean their nest together.Credit: Clarence Holmes Wildlife/Alamy

Unpredictable environments

Pogos and turtle ants solve similar problems in distinct ways. How they do it is dictated by their environment. Gordon borrows concepts from network science to describe how turtle ants function in modules — units in which most information flow occurs — to keep communication local, enabling them to respond rapidly to the ever-changing availability of resources. By contrast, the centralized regulation of pogos is the epitome of low modularity: the nest is the sole source of communication.

Gordon argues that the nature of the environment and the resources it provides determine the types of collective-foraging mechanism that evolve — not just for ants, but for all social organisms. The extent to which ecology drives the evolution of social behaviour in this way has been overlooked, she suggests.

I agree that researchers need to better recognize that organisms exist, and have evolved, in a dynamic, often unpredictably messy world, and to acknowledge that this influences their behaviour. I admire how the author takes inspiration not only from careful field experiments — removing ants or changing the amount of available resources and observing how the insects respond — but also from the classical science of natural history. Many evolutionary biologists could learn a lot by rediscovering this way of working.

But I am less convinced by Gordon’s suggestion that her ideas are at odds with the ‘prevailing theory’ for social behaviour. Inclusive fitness theory — an idea put forward by UK evolutionary biologist William Hamilton in 1964, and accepted widely in the field — suggests that social behaviours evolve when the benefits of cooperating with relatives exceed the costs (W. D. Hamilton J. Theor. Biol. 7, 1–16; 1964). Hamilton’s ideas stemmed from his observations of wasps, ants, bees and birds in their natural habitats, and are supported by strong experimental and theoretical evidence.

Hamilton’s theory suggests that cooperation will prevail in unpredictable environments, with some animals choosing to help raise their relatives’ young rather than having their own (P. Kennedy et al. Nature 555, 359–362; 2018). This phenomenon is seen often in the natural world, from slime moulds to termites. Thus, the idea that dynamic environments help to shape social behaviour is already part of the accepted theory of social evolution.

I think the confusion arises because Gordon conflates proximate (mechanistic) and ultimate (evolutionary) processes. Her book offers useful insights into the proximate processes that regulate collective behaviour on a day-to-day basis, and the role of the environment in shaping and maintaining such behaviours. I agree that the interactions between organisms and their environments have become increasingly overlooked because fewer researchers are studying animals in their natural environments. But these insights are not at odds with the prevailing theory of how collective behaviours evolve.

In her final chapter, Gordon remarks: “The whole appears to be more than the sum of the parts, because the parts do not sum — they intertwine, jostle, and respond.” This heartening statement is a great description of the ecological and evolutionary complexities that shape our world. It’s these complexities that all biologists should keep in mind.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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How to watch the total solar eclipse 2024 from anywhere in the world

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On Monday, April 8, the shadow of a total solar eclipse will pass over North America: stand in the right spot, and for a few minutes the moon will completely block out the sun, thanks to a rare alignment of celestial objects.

If you’re not able to get into a spot along the ‘path of totality’ yourself, you don’t have to miss out – there are plenty of ways to watch this spectacular natural show on the web, wherever you happen to be in the world. We’ve picked out some options below.

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Looking back at the chip that changed how we accessed the World Wide Web, 30 years on

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Readers of a certain age will for the rest of their lives be haunted by a specific string of bleeps, boops, fuzzes, and machine noises. It’s a far cry from the buttery smooth connections we have grown used to today – but indeed our our first interfacing with the World Wide Web was through a dial-up connection that boasted blistering speeds of 56.6 kilobits per second if you used a specific modem. 

Eventually, thanks to a rather special chip – known as the Amati Communications Overture ADSL Chip Set – we transcended. Gone was the age of torrid speeds and images that took an age to load up, and we ushered in a new age in which maximum speeds were almost 2,000 times faster to up to 100 megabits per second. This paved the way for a new kind of internet full of multimedia.

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Want to break the geekiest world record of them all? Here’s how engineers spent 75 days to calculate Pi to 105 trillion digits — just in time for Pi day

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Engineers at StorageReview decided to do something incredibly geeky for this year’s Pi day (March 14 – 3/14) – beat their own record for calculating Pi. Considering that the previous record, achieved last year, was 100 trillion digits, the challenge was no mean feat. While – spoiler alert – they smashed the record, it did take them 75 days to accomplish it.

The task was achieved using a dual processor 128-core AMD EPYC 9754 Bergamo system, equipped with 1.5TB of DRAM and nearly a petabyte of Solidigm QLC SSDs.

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This security flaw could let hackers unlock hotel doors across the world by hijacking keycards

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Security researchers have found a relatively easy and cheap way to clone the keycards used on three million Saflok electronic RFID locks in 13,000 hotels and homes all over the world.

The keycard and lock manufacturer, Dormakaba, has been notified, and it is currently working to replace the vulnerable hardware – but it’s a long, tedious process, which is not yet done.

Although first discovered back in 2022, the researchers have disclosed more information on the flaws, dubbed “Unsaflok”, in order to raise awareness.

Cheap card cloning

The flaws were discovered at a private hacking event was set up in Las Vegas, where different research teams competed to find vulnerabilities in a hotel room and all devices inside. A team, consisting of Lennert Wouters, Ian Carroll, rqu, BusesCanFly, Sam Curry, shell, and Will Caruana, focused their attention on the Dormakaba Saflok electronic locks for hotel rooms. Soon enough, they found two flaws which, when chained together, allowed them to open the doors with a custom-built keycard.

First, they needed access to any card from the premises. That could be the card to their own room. Then, they reverse-engineered the Dormakaba front desk software and lock programming device, which allowed them to spoof a working master key which can open any room on the property. Finally, to clone the cards, they needed to break into Dormakaba’s key derivation function.

To forge the keycards, the team used a MIFARE Classic card, a commercial card-writing tool, and an Android phone with NFC capabilities. All of this costs just a few hundred dollars, it was said.

With their custom-built keycard, the team would be able to access more than three million locks, installed in 13,000 hotels and homes all over the world.

Following the publication of the findings, Dormakaba released a statement to the media, saying the vulnerability affects Saflok systems System 6000, Ambiance, and Community. It added that there is no evidence of these flaws ever being exploited in the wild.

Via BleepingComputer

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Snake steak could help feed the world

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Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here.

Close up photograph focused and centered on the head of reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) in a coiled position

Farmed reticulated pythons grow quickly when being fed trapped rodents or waste protein from other meat-producing industries (Paul Starosta/Getty).

Large pythons are better at converting their food into edible protein than many other farmed animals, including chickens, pigs, cows, salmon and crickets. Reticulated pythons (Malayopython reticulatus) and Burmese pythons (Python bivittatus) on farms could fast for months without losing much weight, which could help to ensure food security during economic or climatic disruptions, says herpetologist and study co-author Dan Natusch. “Farming pythons could be a big part of the solution for a part of the world that is already suffering from severe protein deficiency.” Python farming is well established in Asia and the meat is “pretty tasty and versatile”, Natusch adds. Detailed analyses of python farms’ environmental impact and of the meat’s nutritional content are now needed, says food systems scientist Monika Zurek.

Scientific American | 5 min read

Reference: Scientific Reports paper

A think tank is urging UK universities to share information on misconduct investigations to make it more difficult for sexual harassers to hide their past. A 2018 review of more than 300 sexual misconduct cases in US academia found that more than half of the perpetrators were serial harassers, who often relocated to different institutions and repeated the same pattern of misconduct. Supporters of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme point out that it has already proved its worth in the humanitarian sector.

Nature | 4 min read

Remnants of an ancient viral infection are essential for producing myelin, a protein that insulates nerve fibres, in most vertebrates. Certain viruses insert DNA into the genetic material of the cells they invade. Sometimes, these insertions become permanent and even aid evolutionary processes. Myelin helps nerves to send electrical signals faster, grow longer and thinner so they can be packed in more efficiently. “As a result of myelin, brains became more complex and vertebrates became more diverse,” says stem-cell biologist and study co-author Robin Franklin.

Science News | 6 min read

Reference: Cell paper

Features & opinion

Researchers living with long COVID say they have been mostly left to fend for themselves or to navigate workplace accommodation policies that aren’t tailored for them. “It felt like they threw everything at me to advocate for myself,” says one social scientist. Some long-haulers have found ways to manage their symptoms, which can include cognitive impairment and fatigue, whereas others rely on compassionate supervisors. Some advocates are calling for a culture shift in which “every person would feel like they can ask for what they need and be supported in that request, even if, ultimately, they don’t get exactly what they want”, says Emily Shryock, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Disability Cultural Center.

Nature | 11 min read

Are you a diva, captain, ghost, ant or bumble bee? Clinical psychologist Olga Lehmann invented these ‘personas’ to help her reflect on a difficult collaboration. She recommends creating a team agreement that lays out general rules of behaviour among co-authors before starting work on a grant proposal or paper. Her hard-won advice: schedule regular check-in meetings, plan for conflict and show empathy to others — but have an exit strategy if things get personal.

Nature | 8 min read

“If we want to aim for precision, we need to go further than relying on proxies,” says sociologist Madeleine Pape, who is part of an interdisciplinary group of researchers advocating for more complex ways of studying sex-related variation. They say that using the category ‘women’ as a proxy for the presence of a uterus can underestimate, for example, the incidence of uterine cancer. “Women aren’t a one-size-fits-all,” Pape says. “Variation is worth understanding and worth engaging with if we want to actually address gender disparities in health.”

STAT | 6 min read

Reference: Cell perspective

Where I work

Gabriel Renato Castro stands in a lab looking at some flasks filled with green liquid

Gabriel Renato Castro is the founder and chief executive of Spiral Blue Food Spa in Chincolco, Chile.Credit: Karl Mancini/Pulitzer Centre

Marine biologist Gabriel Renato Castro is growing microorganisms such as cyanobacteria to make fertilizers, pesticides and other agricultural products that help crops survive droughts, pests and a lack of arable soil. “To understand the macrouniverse, we need to understand the microuniverse,” he says. “My ultimate goal is to share my knowledge with local community members in Chile, so they can develop more resilient and sustainable agricultural practices.” (Nature | 3 min read)

Quote of the day

In her poem Infant, Name Once Known, anthropologist Jenny Davis honours the remains of an unknown child that used to be part of her university’s teaching collection. (Sapiens | 1 min read)

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‘The fastest AI chip in the world’: Gigantic AI CPU has almost one million cores — Cerebras has Nvidia firmily in its sights as it unveils the WSE-3, a chip that can train AI models with 24 trillion parameters

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Cerebras Systems has unveiled its Wafer Scale Engine 3 (WSE-3), dubbed the “fastest AI chip in the world.” 

The WSE-3, which powers the Cerebras CS-3 AI supercomputer, reportedly offers twice the performance of its predecessor, the WSE-2, at the same power consumption and price.

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World Sleep Day mattress deals: get the best cheap mattress at its lowest ever price

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It’s World Sleep Day, and so you’d expect all of the top sleep brands to roll out the biggest discounts on the best mattresses, right? That’s definitely what I’d have expected, and I’m in a position to know about such things; I’ve been writing about mattresses for the past few years and I’m thoroughly well acquainted with all the ins and outs of mattress deals.

I have to tell you, though: I’m a little disappointed. Doing my rounds of all the main sleep brands this morning I’ve barely seen any mention of World Sleep Day, and seriously, come on guys. It’s a whole day dedicated to your stock in trade, but all I’m seeing is March sales, spring sales and a St. Patrick’s Day sale (cheers, Saatva).

Fortunately a handful of brands are making a bit of an effort this weekend; I’ve found that two of our top-rated mattresses are available right now for the lowest prices ever, another that’s almost the cheapest I’ve ever seen it, plus a deal from Purple that’s the best value I’ve seen even if it’s not the lowest price. These are the best mattress deals you’re likely to see this weekend; read on for all the details.

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