Many Christians, and even post-Christians, give up chocolate for Lent. This self-denying act now sometimes seems to be simply part of a calendar of occasions for virtuous abstention: as with ‘dry January’, we do it because it is good for us. But the original theory behind the Lenten fast is that it helps those who undertake it identify with Jesus. After all, Lent originally commemorates the 40 days Christ spent in the wilderness before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Potato farmers conquer a devastating worm with paper made from bananas
Potato cyst nematodes are a clever pest. These microscopic worms wriggle through the soil, homing in the roots of young potato plants and cutting harvests by up to 70%. They are challenging to get rid of, too: The eggs are protected inside the mother’s body, which toughens after death into a cyst that can survive in the soil for years.
Now, researchers have shown a simple pouch made of paper created from banana tree fibers disrupts the hatching of cyst nematodes and prevents them from finding the potato roots. The new technique has boosted yields fivefold in trials with small-scale farmers in Kenya, where the pest has recently invaded, and could dramatically reduce the need for pesticides. The strategy may benefit other crops as well.
Mozilla Hubs
Hubs is a virtual collaboration platform that runs in your browser. With Hubs you can create your own 3D spaces with a single click. Invite others to join using a URL. No installation or app store required.
The life of Pi: Ten years of Raspberry Pi
Designed by Cambridge engineers and computer scientists, Raspberry Pi has sold more than 40 million units, and created a market worth $1 billion.
Raspberry Pi is manufactured in the UK, and supports more than 300 jobs in Wales and Cambridge.
Nasa’s new shortcut to fusion power
PHYSICISTS FIRST SUSPECTED more than a century ago that the fusing of hydrogen into helium powers the sun. It took researchers many years to unravel the secrets by which lighter elements are smashed together into heavier ones inside stars, releasing energy in the process. And scientists and engineers have continued to study the sun’s fusion process in hopes of one day using nuclear fusion to generate heat or electricity. But the prospect of meeting our energy needs this way remains elusive.
Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination
Passive solar evaporation system could be used to clean wastewater, provide potable water, or sterilize medical tools in off-grid areas.
Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are already merging
The image above shows how the neighboring Andromeda galaxy occupies about the width of six moon-diameters on our sky’s dome. But, of course, the galaxy isn’t nearly this bright. You need a dark sky to see it, and, even then, it’s a barely visible fuzzy patch of light. In order to appear as bright as in the image above, the Andromeda galaxy would need to be closer. If it were close enough to look so bright, it would appear even bigger on our sky’s dome. And that’s going to happen someday! The Andromeda galaxy is currently racing toward our Milky Way at a speed of about 70 miles (110 km) per second. Ultimately, the two galaxies will collide and merge.
Introducing the .NET 6 runtime for AWS Lambda
You can now use the .NET 6 runtime to build AWS Lambda functions. The new managed runtime supports both x86 and Arm/Graviton2 processors. You can get started with .NET 6 and Lambda using your tool of choice, including Visual Studio 2022 with the AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio, the .NET CLI with the Amazon.Lambda.Tools global tool, and the AWS Serverless Application Model CLI (AWS SAM CLI).
Aldus PageMaker (version 4.2)
Aldus PageMaker was professional page layout software, or professional publishing program or more commonly a Desktop Publishing (DTP) software developed by Aldus Corporation for Apple Macintosh. The first version of PageMaker was released in July 1985. It was the first ever commercial desktop publishing application.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to vote against Apple management’s pay plan
Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, will vote against ratification of tech giant Apple Inc’s management remuneration plan after an advisory firm urged investors to act, the fund’s manager said on Sunday.
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