Science and technology micro-summaries for July 7, 2019

Seeking understanding in a tank of water; MS kernel engineer says ReactOS is a derivative of Microsoft's Windows Research Kernel; Using machine language to translate lost languages; Scientific articles retracted over allegatoins of fake revier e-mail addresses; Michelin and GM testing puncture-proof tires

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Straight from my RSS feed:

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

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1. This Tank of Water Could Change Physics Forever - According to the standard model of partical physics, protons cannot decay because their subparticles (Two up-quarks and one-down quarks) must stay grouped together. However, many physicists are dissatisfied with the standard model, and have begun searching for unified theories that could tie together the strong, weak, and electro-magnetic forces, the weak magnetic force into a single force. These theories predict that protons do decay on large time scales. To test that idea, physicists have placed sensors around a giant tank of water that's buried below a mountain. If the sensors ever detect light coming from the tank, it will demonstrate that a proton has decayed, and the amount of time it takes until the decay is observed will suggest which candidate unifying theories are most likely to be correct. The tank has been sitting there since the 1990s, and no proton decay has been observed, and as a result, many of the candidate theories have already been ruled out.
   
   Video here:
   

h/t RealClear Science

ReactOS 'a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel' claims Microsoft kernel engineer - ReactOS is intended to be an Open Source operating system that is binary compatible with Microsoft Windows. Axel Rietschin, a Microsoft kernel engineer has blogged on several occasions that he took a look through the code, and it makes use of information that could only have been obtained by reverse-engineering Microsoft's Windows Research Kernel, in violation of the licensing agreement. Rietschin notes that he is not an attorney, but he says it is virtually impossible that ReactOS was created as a "clean room" development effort. He first made these claims in 2017, but it didn't gain traction in the media until now. h/t OSnews

Machine learning has been used to automatically translate long-lost languages - Two different languages, known as Linear A and Linear B were discovered in 1886, and resisted deciphering for many decades. The first, Linear A dates from 1800 to 1400 BC. The second, Linear B dates to 1400 BC. Linear B was finally decoded in 1953, but Linear A remains unsolved today. Now, researchers from MIT and Google have used machine learning to independently decode Linear B, and they are setting their sites on Linear A, and other lost languages.

Journal editors “flabbergasted” by responses to author’s ruse - Journal editors at the Pakistan Journal of Zoology have retracted six papers that share a single coauthor, after they say the found that the peer review process had been exploited with fake reviewers' e-mail addresses. This form of scientific fraud has been known since at least 2014, but the journal editors indicated that they were previously unaware of it.

STEEM Michelin and GM work on a tire without air - According to @dim753, Michelin and GM are teaming up to create a tire that doesn't require inflation. The goal is to improve safety and sustainability with a unique punctureproof tire system (Uptis) that will begin testing as soon as the end of this year. The puncture-proof tire will increase safety by eliminating blowouts, and it will improve sustainability by reducing the number of tires that are scrapped prematurely as a result of punctures. (@dim753 will receive 5% of the rewards from this post.)

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In order to help make Steem the go to place for timely information on diverse topics, I invite you to discuss any of these links in the comments and/or your own response post.

For example, feel free to comment on any or all of these discussion topics:

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• Do you think that physicists will be able to find a theory to supersede the standard model?
  
  
• Have you used ReactOS? What can you tell us about it?
  
  
• Do you think that machine learning tools will be successful at deciphering languages where linguists have been unable to? Why or why not?
  
  
• Would you use a puncture-proof tire on your vehicle, if one were available? Why or why not?
  
  

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