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The longstanding mystery surrounding Antarctica’s Blood Falls has finally been solved. The deep red falls were first discovered in Antarctica in 1911 where scientists noticed a river had stained the surrounding cliff of ice with a dark red color. Previously, they had believed it was due to algae discoloring the water, however that hypothesis was never verified.

Now, thanks to research by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, we know the true origin of the Blood Falls flowing from the Taylor Glacier. The deep red coloring is due to oxidized iron in brine saltwater, the same process that gives iron a dark red color when it rusts. When the iron bearing saltwater comes into contact with oxygen the iron undergoes oxidation and takes on a red coloring, in effect dying the water to a deep red color.

The research team calculates that the brine water takes approximately 1.5 million years to finally reach the Blood Falls as it makes its way through fissures and channels in the glacier.

https://tinyurl.com/22vb439j%20Acesso%20em:%2016.08.2023.

TEXT I

JOBS AT HIGH RISK

It is an invisible force that goes by many names.

Computerization. Automation. Artificial intelligence.

Technology. Innovation. And, everyone's favorite,

ROBOTS.

[5]  Whatever name you prefer, some form of it has

been stimulating progress and killing jobs — from tailors

to paralegals — for centuries. But this time is different:

nearly half of American jobs today could be automated in

"a decade or two". The question is: which half?

[10]  Another way of posing the same question is:

Where do machines work better than people? Tractors

are more powerful than farmers. Robotic arms are

stronger and more tireless than assembly-line workers.

But in the past 30 years, software and robots have

[15]  succeeded replacing a particular kind of occupation: the

average-wage, middle-skill, routine-heavy worker,

especially in manufacturing and office administration.

Indeed, it's projected that the next wave of

computer progress will continue to endanger human

[20]  work where it already has: manufacturing, administrative

support, retail, and transportation. Most remaining

factory jobs are "likely to diminish over the next

decades". Cashiers, counter clerks, and telemarketers

are similarly endangered. On the other hand, health care

[25]  workers, people responsible for our safety, and

management positions are the least likely to be

automated.

The next big thing

[30]  We might be on the edge of an innovating

moment in robotics and artificial intelligence. Although

the past 30 years have reduced the middle, high- and

low-skill jobs have actually increased, as if protected

from the invading armies of robots by their own moats.

[35]  Higher-skill workers have been protected by a kind of

social-intelligence moat. Computers are historically good

at executing routines, but they're bad at finding patterns,

communicating with people, and making decisions,

which is what managers are paid to do. This is why

[40]  some people think managers are, for the moment, one of

the largest categories immune to the fast wave of AI.

Meanwhile, lower-skill workers have been

protected by the Moravec moat. Hans Moravec was a

futurist who pointed out that machine technology copied

[45] a savant infant: Machines could do long math equations

instantly and beat anybody in chess, but they can't

answer a simple question or walk up a flight of stairs. As

a result, not skilled work done by people without much

education (like home health care workers, or fast-food

[50]  attendants) have been saved, too.

The human half

In the 19th century, new manufacturing

technology replaced what was then skilled labor. In the

[55]  second half of the 20th century, however, software

technology took the place of median-salaried office work.

The first wave showed that machines are better at

assembling things. The second showed that machines

are better at organizing things. Now data analytics and

[60]  self-driving cars suggest they might be better at patternrecognition

and driving. So what are we better at?

The safest industries and jobs are dominated by

managers, health-care workers, and a super-category

that includes education, media, and community service.

[65]  One conclusion to draw from this is that humans are,

and will always be, superior at working with, and caring

for other humans. In this light, automation doesn't make

the world worse. Far from it: it creates new opportunities

for human creativity.

[70]  But robots are already creeping into diagnostics

and surgeries. Schools are already experimenting with

software that replaces teaching hours. The fact that

some industries have been safe from automation for the

last three decades doesn't guarantee that they'll be safe

[75]  for the next one.

It would be anxious enough if we knew exactly

which jobs are next in line for automation. The truth is

scarier. We don't really have a clue.

(Adapted from http://www.businessinsider.com/robots-overtakingamerican- jobs-2014-1)

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Tiny viruses live in your body: what to know about viromes and what scientists are doing to protect you

  Wildlife biologists have enlisted the help of mice and other creatures as they try to better understand how viruses infect humans and how to protect them. “Most of the emerging infectious diseases that arise come from wildlife reservoir hosts,” researcher Kurt Vandegrift said in a statement from Pennsylvania State University. The university added, “One key to fighting emerging diseases is finding out before they get into humans which pathogens we’re most likely to encounter — the ones that are carried by the wild creatures we’re most likely to touch, share space with, or be bitten by.” In the U.S., that includes mice and deer ticks, for example. 

  While studying wildlife, the scientists may find viruses that could one day evolve to infect humans. Discovering them ahead of time gives experts a leg up on observing how the viruses work, creating vaccines or taking other measures. Studying animals has another benefit: learning more about their viromes — the collections of viruses in and on them — could lead to more information about the human virome. 

  Human beings are full of viruses, Penn State says. “Some of your viruses are just visiting and will be gone in a week. Most are permanent tenants. A few may even find their way into your DNA.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the university notes that we owe our placenta and thus our reproductive process to virus genes and evolution. We can also be invaded by a virus but never see an infection, or become barely sick at all while others are debilitated. 

  “We are rarely, if ever, infected by just one germ at a time,” according to Penn State, “and since pathogens change your immune system, how sick you get from a new pathogen doesn’t depend only on the ones you’re infected with now; it’s a reflection of all the infectious diseases you’ve ever had, and even in what order you had them.” The ongoing research would not be the first time animals have taught scientists a thing or two about viruses. Smallpox is now eradicated but was once a highly contagious and often deadly virus in humans. 

(Elana Glowatz. www.medicaldaily.com, 10.02.2017. Adaptado.)