# gst: triggering earthquakes, even the slightest stress can set off a tremor

<< A new study reveals the inner workings of tidally triggered earthquakes, and finds that even the slightest stress can set off a tremor. >>

Solved: How tides can trigger earthquakes. Earth Institute At  Columbia University. Jun 7, 2019.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-06/eiac-sht060519.php

<< The strong tidal triggering of mid-ocean ridge earthquakes has remained unexplained because the earthquakes occur preferentially during low tide, when normal faulting earthquakes should be inhibited. >>

AA << show that the axial magma chamber inflates/deflates in response to tidal stresses, producing Coulomb stresses on the faults that are opposite in sign to those produced by the tides. When the magma chamber’s bulk modulus is sufficiently low, the phase of tidal triggering is inverted. >>

Christopher H. Scholz, Yen Joe Tan, Fabien Albino. The mechanism of tidal triggering of earthquakes at mid-ocean ridges. Nature Communications 10, Article number: 2526 June 7, 2019.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10605-2

# life: repositioning to align to continue to hire aggressively; AI will change 100% of jobs.

<< We are continuing to reposition our team to align with our focus on the high-value segments of the IT market, and we also continue to hire aggressively in critical new areas that deliver value for our clients and IBM, >>

<< IBM has more than 340,000 employees, according to its last proxy statement, which means the cuts would affect around 1,700 employees. >>

Jordan Novet. IBM is laying off more than 1,000 employees. Jun 6, 2019.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/06/ibm-layoffs-affect-more-than-1000-employees.html  

<< IBM CEO Ginni Rometty sits down with CNBC's Jon Fortt to discuss her push to reshape the company's jobs, and how A.I. will affect the workforce in the future. >>

IBM's Ginni Rometty: AI will change 100 percent of jobs. 12:00 PM ET  Apr 3, 2019.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/04/03/ibms-ginni-rometty-ai-will-change-100-percent-of-jobs.html

# aibot: apropos of "Buddha Bots" ...

an << interesting insight into how people perceive blessing robots compared to other robots for more conventional purposes. >>

<< Robots are continuing to enter all sorts of social spaces and we wanted to critically investigate fringe uses, such as in religious contexts, >> Diana Loffler

Ingrid Fadelli. Investigating the implications of social robots in religious contexts. Jun 5, 2019.

https://m.techxplore.com/news/2019-06-implications-social-robots-religious-contexts.html

Diana Loffler, Jorn Hurtienne, Ilona Nord. Blessing Robot BlessU2: A Discursive Design Study to Understand the Implications of Social Robots in Religious Contexts. Int J of Soc Robotics. doi: 10.1007/s12369-019-00558-3. May 22, 2019.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12369-019-00558-3

Also

onda di blues. Nov 29, 2004.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2004/11/1664-onda-di-blues.html

# gst: polymeric complex coacervation; when a disordered strand is able to self-assemble into a very precise structure

<< to read patterns on long chains of molecules to understand and predict behavior of disordered strands of proteins and polymers. >>

<< The thing that I think is exciting about this work is that we're taking inspiration from a biological system, (..) The typical picture of a protein shows that it folds into a very precise structure. This system, however, is based around intrinsically disordered proteins. >> Charles Sing.

Researchers can now predict properties of disordered polymers. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Jun 3, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-06-properties-disordered-polymers.html

<< Charged polymers are ubiquitous in biological systems because electrostatic interactions can drive complicated structure formation and respond to environmental parameters such as ionic strength and pH.  In these systems, function emerges from sophisticated molecular design; for example, intrinsically disordered proteins leverage specific sequences of monomeric charges to control the formation and function of intracellular compartments known as membraneless organelles. >>

Tyler K. Lytle, Li-Wei Chang, et al. Designing Electrostatic Interactions via Polyelectrolyte Monomer Sequence. ACS Cent. Sci.201954709-718. doi: 10.1021/acscentsci.9b00087 Apr 5, 2019.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.9b00087#

# astro: well, NGC1052-DF2 is not ab.normal, too

<< In 2018, a study published in Nature announced the discovery of a galaxy that apparently lacked dark matter. >>

<< The original article published in Nature stated that the galaxy (NGC1052-DF2) is at a distance of some 64 million light years from the Earth. However, this new research has revealed that the real distance is much less, around 42 million light years. (..) Thanks to these new results, the parameters of the galaxy inferred from its distance have become "normal," and fit the observed trends traced by galaxies with similar characteristics. >>

<< This implies that a significant part of the total mass must be made up of dark matter. >>

Ignacio Trujillo. Researchers solve mystery of the galaxy with no dark matter. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias. Jun 3, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-06-mystery-galaxy-dark.html

Ignacio Trujillo, Michael A Beasley, et al.  A distance of 13 Mpc resolves the claimed anomalies of the galaxy lacking dark matter.  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 486, Issue 1, June 2019, Pages 1192–1219. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz771.

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/486/1/1192/5380810

# gst: apropos of "Anomalous Diffusion"

<< Consider a chaotic dynamical system generating diffusionlike Brownian motion. Consider a second, nonchaotic system in which all particles localize. Let a particle experience a random combination of both systems by sampling between them in time. What type of diffusion is exhibited by this random dynamical system?  >>

Yuzuru Sato and Rainer Klages. Anomalous Diffusion in Random Dynamical Systems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 174101 doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.174101 Apr 29, 2019.

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.174101  

# phys: a plasma soup "cooked" in laboratory

<< a team of scientists (..) has for the first time created a particular form of coherent and magnetized plasma jet that could deepen the understanding of the workings of much larger jets that stream from newborn stars and possibly black holes-stellar objects so massive that they trap light and warp both space and time. >>

<< We are now creating stable, supersonic, and strongly magnetized plasma jets in a laboratory that might allow us to study astrophysical objects light years away, >>  Edison Liang.

Raphael Rosen. Physicists create stable, strongly magnetized plasma jet in laboratory. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.  May 31, 2019.

https://m.phys.org/news/2019-05-physicists-stable-strongly-magnetized-plasma.html

L. Gao, E. Liang, et al. Mega-Gauss Plasma Jet Creation Using a Ring of Laser Beams. ApJL 873 L11. March 8, 2019.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ab07bd/meta