Thursday Things: Eleventh Issue
24 October 2019. Vol 1 No 11. By Dan McGirt. #11
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Photo by Javier Santos Guzmán on Unsplash
Quantum Supremacy sounds like the title of a Robert Ludlum novel, but Google claims to have achieved it. What does that mean? Google researchers have built a quantum computer capable of performing certain calculations faster than any conventional supercomputer can. It is a milestone that quantum computing boffins (I love that British word for braniac scientists) have been chasing for decades. Google says their 54-qubit quantum processor “needed just 200 seconds to solve a problem that they claim would take the world’s fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to complete.” And what does all this really mean? It means we’re one step closer to the Matrix and/or our Terminator future. That’s what it means.
Assuming the blob doesn’t get us first: “It is bright yellow, can creep along at a speed of up to 4 centimeters per hour, can solve problems even though it doesn't have a brain and can heal itself if it is cut in two. Meet the "blob," an unusual organism which will go on display to the public on Saturday at the Paris Zoological Park, as part of a first-of-its-kind exhibition intended to showcase its rare abilities.” The billion-year-old slime mold is neither plant, nor animal, nor fungus. It has 720 sexes (Don’t ask me! That’s what the article says!) and can split into different organisms, then fuse back together. Any old school Dungeons & Dragons player knows how tough these things are! Add the Yellow Slime to your list of ways the world could end.
As a follow up to last week’s issue devoted to looming menace of feral giant Chinese death pigs rampaging across America, let me note that America ultimately knows how to deal with pigs gone wild. On a related note, the country’s strategic bacon reserve is at levels not seen since the 1970s. In fact, America’s pile of uneaten bacon is the biggest in 48 years.
U.S. drug company Biogen announced this week that it will seek FDA approval for its Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab, which is potentially the first treatment to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients. If this proves to be the case, it is good news indeed for millions of patients and their families.
The head of NASA says humans can land on Mars as early as 2035. That’s great. But what I really want to know is when might Martians land on Earth?
The loudest known bird in the world is the male white bellbird of the Amazon rainforest, found in Brazil. Its call can reach 125 decibels, comparable to a pile driver. Why are they so loud? The same reason males of any species make loud noises — to attract the attention of females: “A blaring call could help summon female bellbirds over long distances, and females seem to find loud songs attractive, given how the males behaved when a prospective mate joined them on their perches.” Here is a video:
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