Month: November 2017

Enlarge / This Nilometer at Cairo is an ancient device that Egyptians used to measure Nile flooding, to predict the harvest and set tax levels. Scientists used historical data from Nileometers to see how volcanic eruptions affected Nile floods (and by extension, the health of the harvest). (credit: Berthold Werner)

From 305-30 BCE, ancient Egypt was ruled by the Ptolemaic Dynasty, a Greek family put in place after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. Though Egypt's wealth and importance were legendary during this time, it was also a period of great civil unrest. Perhaps because they were being ruled by foreigners, the Egyptian people revolted against their leadership several times during the 200s, sparking civil wars. But now scientists believe these revolts may have broken out in part because of a chain reaction started by volcanoes halfway across the world.

There's no doubt that the Egyptians were chafing under the yoke of their foreign monarchs. The days of the great pharaohs were over, and leaders from the north were replacing Egyptian culture with Greek gods and architecture. But why did the Egyptians' resentment boil over into open revolt sometimes and remain at a steady simmer otherwise? Historian Francis Ludlow of Trinity College, Ireland, and his colleagues believe that ash, dust, and other particles released by volcanoes during the 200s BCE caused temperatures to cool around the globe. Cooling resulted in less water evaporation, which meant less rain for northern Africa and, therefore, less flooding of the life-giving Nile River.

Because the ancient Egyptians were a farming culture that lived and died by the harvest, the annual Nile flood was key to survival. Floods meant nutrient-rich waters fed the fields and everyone could eat. Nile levels were so important to the Egyptian economy that the government based tax amounts on readings from "Nilometers," stone wells fed by the river where they could measure its height in cubits. If the levels were trending too high (destructive flooding) or too low (drought), taxes were scaled back to account for people's diminished fortunes.

(credit: Respawn Entertainment / EA)

EA confirmed via a press release on Thursday that it had acquired the video game studio Respawn Entertainment. The studio, co-founded by former Infinity Ward chiefs and Call of Duty co-creators in the wake of their departure from Activision, has been bought out in a deal whose total value could reach $455 million.

The news by itself may seem odd, considering that EA shut down one of its other wholly owned studios, Visceral Games, only three weeks ago. A report from Kotaku sheds light on why EA made the move: as a response to another game publisher, Korea's Nexon, making a formal bid to buy Respawn outright. Nexon currently publishes a mobile spinoff of Respawn's Titanfall shooter series. Kotaku, citing sources close to the matter, claims that Nexon had bid over $400 million to buy the company outright. EA exercised its contractual right to match the offer, Kotaku says, and it ultimately outbid Nexon.

Among other things, the buyout preserves Respawn's continued work on an upcoming EA game set in the Star Wars universe; EA currently enjoys an exclusive license to making Star Wars-related video games, and any takeover by another company would have to resolve whether or how such a project would continue in production. Respawn's Star Wars project still does not have a title, a release date, or revealed gameplay footage. Respawn announced its work on an additional, unnamed VR game at Oculus Connect 4 last month; the EA statement says that project will continue apace, as well.

We're as stunned as you are, Rey. (credit: Lucasfilm)

During a Disney earnings call today, CEO Bob Iger announced plans for a live-action Star Wars TV series and a new trilogy likely coming after 2020.

The series will apparently be part of the previously announced Disney streaming service. In August, Disney unveiled those plans after it acquired a video-streaming company called BAM Tech. Currently, Disney has an exclusive deal with Netflix for streaming its films and TV series; that deal began in 2012 and expanded last year.

Iger shared a handful of original projects in-progress for Disney's streaming service, however. The first Star Wars live-action TV series rightfully garners headlines, but the CEO also noted series based on Monsters Inc., High School Musical, and a new Marvel property would be coming, too.  Further details like creative teams or time frames were not shared regarding those projects.

Enlarge / US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein delivers remarks at the 65th Annual Attorney General's Awards Ceremony at the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall October 25, 2017 in Washington, DC. (credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Just two days after the FBI said it could not get into the Sutherland Springs shooter's seized iPhone, Politico Pro published a lengthy interview with a top Department of Justice official who has become the "government’s unexpected encryption warrior."

According to the interview, which was summarized and published in transcript form on Thursday for subscribers of the website, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein indicated that the showdown between the DOJ and Silicon Valley is quietly intensifying.

"We have an ongoing dialogue with a lot of tech companies in a variety of different areas," he told Politico Pro. "There's some areas where they are cooperative with us. But on this particular issue of encryption, the tech companies are moving in the opposite direction. They're moving in favor of more and more warrant-proof encryption."

Enlarge / Room-sized lasers should always glow green. (credit: Lawrence Berkeley Lab)

In the dark and distant past, I called myself a laser physicist. I would speak with pride of lasers that produced incredible power: the thought of a petawatt laser system would bring a tear to my remaining eye.

But I have to admit that our best hardware is relatively wimpy when compared to natural sources of energy that output far more power. Of course, it is really hard to convince a neutron star to sit in the lab and not destroy the planet. But now, out of the minds of theorists and into a lab hopefully not-too-near you, we may have the chance to match astronomical radiation sources at the press of a button.

Our petawatt laser systems involve collecting a lot of photons (about 10¹⁸ of them) and then releasing them all at once (in about 10^-15 s) to make one. For comparison, a simple nuclear decay can release a photon pretty damn close to the same power. If you could convince all the nuclei in a nanogram of material to decay simultaneously, you'd hit the same power flow.

Enlarge (credit: Missouri Department of Conservation)

As is the case with most titles that end in “-est,” the competition for The World’s Largest Organism is fierce. The Great Barrier Reef certainly has its proponents, most of them Australian. There's a stand of quaking aspens growing in Utah that's a single clonal organism, rather than genetic individuals. If it does not merit the title of largest organism, it can at least claim to be the most Borg-like.

The real winner does not capture the popular imagination as much as a besieged coral or a forest of yellow-leafed trees: it is somewhat less scenic and probably won’t appear as the backdrop of an inspirational poster any time soon. It kills plants and lives underground, in Oregon. It is the humongous fungus, and we now have its genome.

Armillaria species—honey mushrooms—kill all kinds of plants. Conifers, ginkgos, grasses, and shrubs, in National Forests and in your backyard; all are susceptible. The fungus attacks its prey by sending out rhizomorphs, underground structures that leach onto the plant’s roots and kill them. Then it eats the dead woody tissue of its decomposing host.