Twitter, recently rebranded as X, now sorts account posts based on their like counts, straying away from the platform’s historic approach to display them in the chronological order in which they were posted. This new change affects how logged-out users see other profiles and comes as the latest in the string of alterations made to the platform since Tesla titan Elon Musk took over the company last year. Before the platform was rebranded as X, Twitter blocked users without an account from accessing the site in any form, directing them instead to the login page – a move that was quickly ended. Now for logged-out users, X shows posts on other profiles sorted by their like counts. This new sorting method seems to be done based on likes, and not by the number of views garnered by individual posts as it can be seen that tweets with more views, but fewer like counts are showing up lower in the feed. For instance, if a logged-out user – or one who hasn’t signed up on the platform – now visits Elon Musk’s account, they would see on top his cheeky April 2022 tweet about “buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in” and not his most recent post. Some posts by users on the platform suggest this change was likely made towards the last week of July. It remains unclear why this change has been made as it could frustrate users who may want to see the most recent posts made by other profiles. Earlier this week, X also placed Tweetdeck into a paid service and placed it behind a paywall, and also slowed down access to rivals, and news organisations via the platform. The change makes accessing Tweetdeck, rebranded recently to “X Pro”, to require a subscription to the company’s premium service Blue. Those visiting Tweetdeck’s website without a Blue subscription are now being redirected to a page promoting signup to the premium service. X also seemed to have added a delay of about five seconds when people clicked on links to go elsewhere on the web. The delay was found to be applied to a range of rival social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. Websites of news organisations that have been critical of Mr Musk such as Reuters and the New York Times also seemed to be slow to load. Read More Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites Twitter is turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rival sites Mark Zuckerberg says he’s ‘out of town’ as Elon Musk drives to his house to fight Snapchat experiences ‘temporary outage’ as My AI chatbot posts own Story Musk’s Twitter takeover sparks mass exodus of climate experts Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites

SpaceX has launched a new type of zero-fuel propulsion system into orbit, which its creators claim will revolutionise the space industry. The Quantum Drive engine, built by US startup IVO Ltd, was fitted on a microsatellite that entered orbit aboard SpaceX’s Transporter 9 mission, which lifted off from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. IVO claims that its technology is the world’s first commercially viable pure electric propulsion technology that works in space, drawing “limitless power for propulsion from the Sun”. It relies on a controversial theory called Quantized Inertia (QI) that challenges Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion, with some physicists dismissing the technology as impossible. The QI theory was first proposed in 2007 by physicist Mike McCulloch, who drew on the mysterious properties of quantum mechanics to account for a new understanding of inertia as defined by Newton’s First Law of Motion. IVO chief executive Richard Mansell said his company performed 100 hours of vacuum chamber testing before the launch, during which the quantum drive produced a small amount of thrust. “Deploying Quantum Drive into orbit in a Rogue satellite on SpaceX Transporter 9 is a milestone for the future of space propulsion,” Mansell said. “Quantum Drive’s capability allows Rogue to produce new satellite vehicles with unlimited Delta V.” A pair of Quantum Drives are fitted to the BARRY-1 cubesat, which will take around one month to settle into its orbit before the next-generation propulsion system is activated in an effort to raise the satellites orbit by 100 kilometres. If successful, its creators say it will not only rewrite the critical principles of physics, but also form the foundation for a new era of space travel and exploration. “There are many things that have held back space exploration, one of them of course is power and propulsion,” said Mansell. “IVO’s quantum drive eliminates this propulsion problem by eliminating the fuel. By taking away the fuel, then you have essentially unlimited thrust.” Read More ‘It’s becoming like an airport’: How SpaceX normalised rocket launches

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 3, 2023--

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Scientists have found that one of the key pillars of theory around how life works – that it depends on carbon – may not be the case on other planets. Here on Earth, life depends on organic compounds which are composed of carbon, and often involve other elements such as sulphur, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and phosphorus. With organic compounds, life is partly sustained by chemical interactions called autocatalysis, which are self-sustaining. That means they produce molecules which then enable the reaction to happen again, and do not need any outside influence to keep going on. In the new study, scientists looked for autocatalysis in non-organic compounds. The theory is that if autocatalysis helps drive a process called abiogenesis – the origin process for life – then this origin process could also come from non-organic matter. Betül Kaçar, an astrobiologist, bacteriologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told news outlet Space.com: “It's important to explore these possibilities so that we have an idea of what all forms of life can look like, not just Earth life.” "One of the major reasons that origin-of-life researchers care about autocatalysis is because reproduction — a key feature of life — is an example of autocatalysis. “Life catalyses the formation of more life. One cell produces two cells, which can become four and so on. “As the number of cells multiply, the number and diversity of possible interactions multiplies accordingly.” The scientists searched in a huge trove of existing scientific documents for examples of autocatalysis, and found 270 different cycles of the reactions. Most of the 270 examples did not feature organic compounds, but rather elements which are rare in life forms such as mercury, or the radioactive metal thorium. “It was thought that these sorts of reactions are very rare,” Kaçar said in a statement. “We are showing that it's actually far from rare. You just need to look in the right place.” Now, it means scientists can test these cycles to get a better understanding of how autocatalysis can work. “The cycles presented here are an array of basic recipes that can be mixed and matched in ways that haven't been tried before on our planet,” said study author Zhen Peng, also an evolutionary biologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “They might lead to the discovery of completely new examples of complex chemistry that work in conditions where carbon- or even silicon-based cycles are too either combusted or frozen out.” The scientists published their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A new planet has been discovered and apparently it is pretty fluffy - like candy floss. The exoplanet, WASP-193b, was discovered 1,232 light-years away and while it's nearly 50 percent bigger than Jupiter, it's light and fluffy making it as dense as the sweet treat. According to a team led by astronomer Khalid Barkaoui of the University of Liège in Belgium, the planet orbits a Sun-like star named WASP-193. This star is around 1.1 times the mass and 1.2 times the radius of the Sun and is very close to the Sun in temperature and age. The planet orbits the star around once every 6.25 days. Barkaoui and his colleagues also found its radius is around 1.46 times the radius of Jupiter. But its mass is incredibly small by comparison: just 0.139 times Jupiter's. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter From these properties, the researchers derived the exoplanet's density: 0.059 grams per cubic centimeter. This is a lot less dense than other planets like Jupiter and Earth. And as a point of comparison, cotton candy has a density of 0.05 grams per cubic centimeter which is why they made the link. There are few other examples of a planet like this existing but its close proximity to a star may give an indication as to how it came to exist as its heat is likely to have warmed up the planet's puffy atmosphere, which is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. This state of the planet is only set to last for around a few ten million years as the temperatures and winds emitted from the star are only likely to strip back the atmosphere further. Due to this scientists cannot fully recreate or determine what is causing WASP-193b's unique atmosphere but is it likely to be a continued source of study to try and determine the cause of this phenomenon. You probably won't find this planet sold at fairgrounds any time soon though. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Japan’s crypto exchanges are pushing for a relaxation of curbs on margin trading, unbowed by last year’s global

TikTok prankster Mizzy has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice, a court has heard. The star, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, appeared at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in east London on Thursday morning after he was accused of posting videos on social media without the consent of the people featured in them. He was due to stand trial on four counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order but his defence lawyer Paul Lennon applied to adjourn the hearing after telling the court that O’Garro had been arrested on October 16 on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. O’Garro’s main witness in the case, who was due to give evidence on Thursday, was also arrested and both were released on bail under the condition that they do not contact each other “directly or indirectly”, Mr Lennon explained. Without his evidence, Mr Lennon said, O’Garro would not be able to have a “fair trial”. He told the court: “It was hoped that the sole witness in his (O’Garro) favour would be able to attend court to provide evidence in support of the defence. “That is no longer possible. “Last week Mr O’Garro and his first and only witness were arrest on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. “Both were released on bail with the condition not to contact each other directly or indirectly. “Had he (the witness) not been arrested on a very serious allegation he would have been here to give evidence on behalf of Mr O’Garro. “It was hoped as of yesterday that the matter would not be proceeded with. “Instead, he (O’Garro) was bailed until January 2024.” Judge Matthew Bone rejected the defence’s submission and chose to proceed with the trial, telling the court: “The witness’s unavailability was known on or before October 16. “I am not prepared to adjourn this case. “The trial will proceed today.” O’Garro’s case was previously adjourned at the same court as he was accused of engaging in further “criminal activities”, according to a joint submission by prosecution and defence lawyers at a hearing in September. The trial will proceed later on Thursday.

Scientists have created what they say is the biggest simulation of our cosmos ever. The virtual universe has the mass of 300 billion galaxies, packed into a space with edges ten billion light years across. Scientists hope that it will help tell us how the real universe that surrounds us first evolved. They could also help address problems in our understanding of physics that currently suggest we might have made deep mistakes about the cosmos. But the first results from the simulation suggest that it might not work: the findings do not get rid of the tensions between different observations about the universe that have proven so difficult to scientists. Researchers created the simulation, named FLAMINGO, by taking the vast amount of data that has been gathered by telescopes such as Nasa’s JWST and other projects. Those projects give information about galaxies, stars and the other arrangement of matter in our cosmos, which can then be fed into the computer. Researchers then hope that the computer can use that data to simulate the evolution and nature of our universe. That can then help resolve those fundamental difficulties we currently face in physics. One of those issues come from the current theory that the properties of our universe are decided by only a few “cosmological parameters”. We can measure those parameters very precisely. But scientists have run into issues because those parameters do not always match. For instance, there are multiple ways of measuring the Hubble constant, or the speed at which the universe is expanding – but those multiple ways show different results, and scientists have not been able to explain them. Scientists hope that the simulation can help explain or resolve that tension. But it is yet to do so. That is just one of the many ways that the creators of the FLAMINGO simulations hope that they can be used to better understand the universe and the observations that we have of it. It might also allow us to make new kinds of discoveries: the vast amount of data means that it can construct random, virtual universes and see how theories work in there, for instance. The work is described in three papers, all of which are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society today. Read More Scientists see huge explosion in space – and it could explain life Massive space explosion observed creating elements needed for life Tim Peake: Possibility of all-UK space mission a ‘very exciting development’

Months after Apple unveiled a privacy change that threatened Facebook's core advertising business, the social networking company rebranded as Meta and shifted its focus to virtual reality.