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Even black holes can lose a little glitter. Scientists studying a galaxy containing two black holes have found that one of them seems to be missing the usual crowd of stars surrounding it — a hint that it may be an elusive astrophysical object: an intermediate-mass black hole.

The findings, presented at the 227th American Astronomical Society meeting held in Kissimmee, Florida, and recently published in the Astrophysical Journal, could shed light on the evolution of the supermassive black holes that are thought to anchor virtually every large galaxy in the universe.

Finding a galaxy like SDSS J1126+2944, which contains a pair of such sizeable black holes, is quite rare. It’s thought to be the result of two galaxies crashing into each other, merging into a new whole with two holes.

“I’ve spent a career working on how to find these things, and there aren’t very many of them known — there’s only 12 of them known,” said lead author Julie Comerford, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

It wasn’t long before Comerford and her colleagues noticed something quite strange about this pair of singularities. One of them was surrounded by the thick entourage of stars that typically surrounds a supermassive black hole, but the other one looked oddly bare, almost stripped, with 500 times fewer stars than its more popular peer.

There are two possibilities for this imbalance, Comerford said. It could be that because of the particular dynamics of the violent merging of two galaxies, one of the supermassive black holes was stripped of its stars. But that would have to be an extreme event for a supermassive black hole to lose that many stellar companions.

But there’s another possibility: The “naked” black hole could actually be a smaller, rarely seen object called an intermediate-mass black hole. While this more modest object would probably still have had some of its stars ripped away, the loss would have been far less extreme because the black hole would have started out with a smaller stellar entourage to begin with.

Black holes are the corpses of collapsed stars that warp the surrounding space-time, capturing anything, including light, that dares cross its event horizon. These objects seem to be divided into two camps: stellar black holes, which are thought to result from the death of smaller stars and which can weigh up to 30 suns or so; and supermassive black holes, which can hold the mass of many millions or even billions of suns.

There doesn’t seem to be much lying in the vast gap between these lightweights and heavyweights — which perplexes scientists, who are trying to understand the evolution of supermassive black holes, which lie at the heart of large galaxies (including our own Milky Way). How did these gargantuan objects come to be?

Intermediate-mass black holes, with masses in the range of 100 to a million suns, could offer an answer, Comerford said. It’s possible they were the seeds of the supermassive objects we see throughout the cosmos today.

“That’s why intermediate mass black holes are interesting to find, because they’re sort of a missing evolutionary link in the chain building up to supermassive black holes,” Comerford said.

In recent years, astronomers scanning the heavens have discovered a few (very few) so-called intermediate-mass black holes, which might offer some of the missing links in that chain. But they’re devilishly difficult to detect and confirm.

If the stripped black hole is in fact one of the intermediate-mass variety, studying it could give scientists fresh insight into the evolution of these strange phenomena. Comerford says she’ll have to observe it with a radio telescope and an X-ray telescope at the exact same time to determine whether it’s the real deal.

NEW YORK — Life on the streets of New York may be miserable for the thousands of homeless who sleep rough, but many are disillusioned by stepped-up efforts to eradicate a modern-day crisis.

America’s biggest and wealthiest city is a beacon across the world for financial success and entertainment — one of the biggest tourist draws on the planet, welcoming 56 million visitors last year. It has more billionaires than any other city in the world, says Forbes.

And yet 75,000 people are homeless, according to US government figures — the mentally ill, those who lost jobs in the 2008 global financial crash, employees who cannot afford skyrocketing rents, families and children.

Dozing on benches in Penn Station, begging on the street or curled up at the bottom of subway stairwells, the plight of the city’s homeless is clear for all to see.

The Coalition for the Homeless non-profit says nearly 60,000 people are in shelters each night and that in recent years homelessness in the city has hit highs not seen since the 1930s Great Depression.

The statistics are an embarrassment for Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive Democrat two years on the job who campaigned to redress the city’s colossal inequality after two decades under Republican mayor Rudolph Giuliani and billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

His office marked the New Year by announcing a slew of initiatives, upping the number of personnel taking people off the streets when temperatures drop, increasing the number of beds for homeless youth and promising to double the number of city-funded drop-in centres.

“I am taking the gloves off on this issue, we are going at this with everything we’ve got. We will turn the tide,” de Blasio promised.

‘Like prison’

But it’s not a problem going away overnight. Outreach teams took 97 people to shelters during one particularly cold night last week, out of an estimated 3,000-4,000 believed to sleep rough.

“Woah, there’s a lot of people don’t like shelters,” Eddie, 61, told AFP as he shuffled down Ninth Avenue with a walking stick.

“When you go in, they’re gonna screen you like you’re in prison, they’re gonna pat you down.” 

Last month, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer issued a stinging report about “nightmare conditions” endured by children in family shelters run by the department of homeless services.

“What they gotta do is, instead of building all these goddam hotels for the tourists, all these abandoned buildings should get the homeless,” said Eddie, gesturing at nearby skyscrapers.

Some of those most hardened to life on the streets say they loathe shelters, claiming they are dirty and violent.

Troy, a 48-year-old grandfather and military veteran, says he hasn’t slept in a shelter for nearly a year.

Sitting on a crate on top of a piping-hot air vent on a bitterly cold afternoon in Manhattan, he compares shelters to “being in jail” and prefers life on the streets.

“Oh, it depends where you at! You see where I’m at, I’ve got many locations like that,” he said, warming his hands over the hot air.

“The time I go and see my buddy is when I can take a shower or I go to the community centre and take me a shower.”

Asked what the solution is, he waved towards a vacant-looking building — prime real estate — saying the city should renovate it and turn it over to the homeless.

Reforms announced

On Monday, de Blasio announced $8.5 million a year to finance drop-in centres, which offer food, showers, medical care and advice, acknowledging that many street homeless dislike traditional shelters.

It is the latest in a series of reforms following a 90-day review, including 15,000 new supportive housing units. 

“I got into an argument with somebody and they swung at me, and I got beat up,” said Dashaun Brown, 38, from Georgia, sheltering in Penn Station for warmth and remembering his worst shelter experience.

Tall and lanky, and self-conscious about his heavily decayed front teeth, he says he last had a job as a teenager, flipping burgers.

Rugged, utilitarian and capable yet economical, manoeuvrable and comfortable, the light double cab pickup truck is a versatile and accessible multi-purpose vehicle. Designed for work and private use, the light truck segment is as effective at play as a recreational off-roader as at war, where it is a favourite of guerrilla forces and some conventional armies.

Renowned, robust and reliable, the Isuzu D-Max is among the leaders in its light pickups milieu, where being fit for purpose is the defining principle. If ultimately not as refined as more car-like SUVs, the D-Max’s attainable and rugged sensibility and cargo and off-road capabilities lend it a greater utilitarian appeal and authenticity than less capable, more precious SUVs or soft roaders.

Urgent and utilitarian

Redesigned in 2012 and offered with different cab, trim, cargo bed and drive-line configurations and specifications offered across the model range, the D-Max GT is a conveniently equipped,  more lifestyle-oriented regional edition. Introduced in 2014, the D-Max GT features racy twin-stripe bonnet and tailgate stripes, gunmetal grey 17-inch alloy wheels, a red grille emblem and an automatic gearbox. 

More dynamic looking than its predecessor, the GT aesthetic treatment emphasises the current D-Max’s urgent posture, created by a centre grille slat extending across the top of swept back headlights and along the ridges of a more defined bonnet. Better defined wheel-arches and a swept back windshield angle further lend the D-Max a sense of athletic momentum.

With two-tone red and black cloth upholstery and robust hard-wearing plastic surfaces, the D-Max GT’s cabin is spacious and utilitarian, with wide doors and side step for easy access and generous head, leg and shoulder room for five passengers. Meanwhile, a generous bed measuring 1550mm long, 1530mm wide and 465mm deep features tough plastic lining and numerous latching points. 

Confident and reliable

Powered by a 2.5-litre turbo-diesel engine with direct common-rail injection, the D-Max GT features a robust steel timing chain — unlike some competitor’s belt designs — for thorough reliability. Developing 134BHP at 3400rpm, the D-Max spins with comparative ease towards its redline. But in a machine like this, it’s generous and readily available 236lb/ft torque output at 1800-2800rpm is more relevant.

Idling with a typical but subdued diesel clatter, the D-Max’s turbo swiftly spools up with little discernable lag, and pulls hard throughout a robust mid-range sweet spot. Muscular in mid-range, on-the-move acceleration and incline climbs are dispatched muscularly at low and moderate speeds. Overtaking at higher speeds requires one more planning and use of gears, given power-to-weight and a diesel engine’s low-revving nature.

Driven through a 5-speed automatic gearbox for daily use convenience, the D-max GT’s economic shift points well suit its robust low-end output. Responsive to throttle input and smooth and timely, the GT’s gearbox also features gear-lever actuated sequential manual shifts, which can hold gears to the rev limit for added driver control. 

Rugged and manoeuvrable

Built on a rugged ladder-frame chassis with improved cross bracing and 42 per cent more rigidity, the D-Max delivers improved durability, ride, handling and stability when hauling or towing. With improved ride, the D-Max’s rugged rear live axle and leaf spring set-up is less bouncy over low speed bumps, and with 255/65R17 tyres proved surprisingly refined, supple and unruffled over sizeable medium speed lumps, bumps and cracks. 

Tough and unfazed by rough roads, the D-Max feels stable at highway speeds and with more sophisticated independent double wishbone suspension feels agile and nuanced turning into corners. 

Manoeuvrable through narrow winding roads, the D-Max features a tight 12.2-metre turning circle, and while tall gearing requires 3.84 turns lock-to-lock, steering feels accurate and with power assistance well-weighted. Dual piston front disc and rear drum brakes proved responsively effective.

With either rear-drive mode for fuel efficiency or four-wheel drive for sure-footed traction and grip over low traction surfaces and through brisk cornering, the D-Max benefits from balances weighting. Manoeuvrable and easy to drive, the D-Max also offers good front and side visibility from its spacious and airy cabin and big side mirrors to accurately place it easily on the road.

Versatile and frugal

Versatile, rugged and manoeuvrable, the D-Max is a thoroughly capable work and off-road vehicle well able to cope with a hard knock life. It features a low-ratio four-wheel drive gearbox transfer for towing, climbing or crawling across treacherous terrain and generous 235mm ground clearance and 49° tilt, 30° approach, 22.4° break over and 22.7° departure angles for traversing rough terrain.

Practical, capable and hard-wearing, the D-Max is also economic and sensible, especially in light of low JD0.36 per litre diesel prices at time of writing. Stated to consume 7.57l/100km at an unspecified cycle, the D-Max also anecdotally proved to be a particularly frugal oil burner during test drive, as observed over almost 600km of various conditions. A huge 76-litre fuel tank also allows for long driving range.

Equipped with numerous convenience features, the GT tested is fitted with remote central locking, electric windows, A/C, centre armrest, child lock rear doors, tilt-adjustable power steering – but not reach adjustability and a CD/MP3 audio system with Bluetooth and mini-USB connectivity. Optionally available are driver and passenger airbags and ABS brakes with electronic brakeforce distribution, while a reversing camera would be a welcome addition.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 2.5-litre, turbo-diesel, in-line 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 95.4 x 87.4mm

Compression ratio: 18.1:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, common-rail injection

Gearbox: 5-speed automatic, four-wheel drive, low gear transfer case

Gear ratios: 1st 3.52:1; 2nd 2.042:1; 3rd 1.4:1; 4th 1:1; 5th 0.716:1

High/low gear range: 1:1/2.482:1

Reverse/final drive: 3.224:1/3.909:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 134 (136) [100] @3400rpm

Specific power: 53.6BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 69.6BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 236 (320) @1800-2800rpm

Specific torque: 128Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 166.2Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: approximately 13 seconds (estimate)

Fuel consumption: 7.57l/100km

Fuel capacity: 76 litres

Wheelbase: 3095mm

Track: 1570mm

Overhang, F/R: 905/1295mm

Legroom, F/R: 1070/915mm

Ground clearance: 235mm

Water fording: 600mm

Approach angle: 30°

Break over angle: 22.4°

Departure angle: 22.7°

Tilt angle: 49°

Kerb weight: 1,925kg

Gross vehicle weight: 2,800kg

Suspension: Double wishbones, coilovers/leaf springs, live axle

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Lock-to-lock: 3.84 turns

Turning circle: 12.2 metres

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 2-piston callipers/drums

Tyres: 255/65R17

LAS VEGAS — The battle to be at the centre of your digital life has taken on a new dimension amid a proliferation of connected devices.

After smartphone wars, browser wars and platform wars, a fight is on to be the “hub” which connects the millions of connected objects from light bulbs to wearables to washing machines.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) which concluded Saturday, the contenders included robots, televisions, speaker hubs and even wearable trackers powered by artificial intelligence. And the connected car raced into the mix. 

Exhibitors ranging from start-ups to big consumer electronics giants are vying to be the control centre for the vast array of Internet of things in your home, car and elsewhere.

South Korea’s LG unveiled its Smart ThinQ home hub, a speaker that lets a user communicate with and get alerts from connected appliances, security systems and even talk to cars.

This allows the smart home and connected car to communicate with each other. And it can connect with older appliances with attachable sensors.

LG calls this “the future of the smart home” and uses an open platform that can connect with devices using Google Nest, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and more.

Samsung announced its TVs will act as command centres in smart homes by incorporating technology from Silicon Valley start-up SmartThings, which Samsung bought in 2014, allowing them to control devices synched to the platform.

“You can have a smart home basically for free as a starting point; it is pretty amazing,” SmartThings founder and chief Alexander Hawkinson told AFP. 

Chinese electronics giant Haier unveiled its Ubot personal assistant robot — a near-humanoid gadget which can control home appliances.

“He’s like a personal assistant who can turn on your TV and all your appliances, and when you’re not home he helps with surveillance,” said Haier’s Kristen Smith.

“The ultimate goal is to simplify your life, to take care of the things you worry about.”

Respond and entertain

Segway, which is owned by China’s Ninebot, unveiled a personal transporter which morphs into a cute robotic personal assistant.

The robot, made in collaboration with Intel and China’s Xiaomi, is open to developers which could add on applications for security, entertainment or other activities.

After riding it, the device sprouts arms and can navigate and interact with users with its sensors and artificial intelligence. It is expected to be commercialised later this year.

More whimsical, Chinese start-up UBTech Robotics unveiled Alpha 2, a prototype personal assistant humanoid which can respond and entertain.

“You can talk to him and he will answer. He can give you the weather,” said UBTech’s Jessica Pan.

“And he is very lifelike. He has 20 joints and can move like humans, he can dance and show you a yoga pose.”

These new contenders face a tough battle against entrenched companies like Google and Apple — not part of the floor exhibitors at CES — which each have their own artificial intelligence assistants as well as ecosystems for connected homes and wearables.

And Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg said ahead of the show that he wants to build a robot butler “like Jarvis in ‘Iron Man’” which can manage household tasks.

While Zuckerberg and Facebook were not exhibiting at CES, his comments and the innovations at the show underscore the progress being made in computing and artificial intelligence, which can unleash new innovations.

Wearable Siri

Start-up OrCam, for example, unveiled a wearable artificial intelligence clip-on camera which “acts like a personal assistant like Siri or Cortana, but with eyes and ears”, says OrCam marketing chief Eliav Rodman.

The device “can provide a real-time profile of people as they walk up to you during a conference, displaying their details on your smartphone or watch; it can track your eating habits”, says OrCam co-founder Amnon Shashua.

“It can even monitor the facial expressions of people you meet and topics of discussion and let you know in hindsight the quality of interaction you have with friends and family.”

Carmakers don’t want to be left out either.

Ford, for example, unveiled an alliance at CES with US online giant Amazon aimed at allowing people to connect their cars into “smart home” networks. 

The tie-up will enable drivers to communicate with the hub and, for example, ask if their garage door is open, or request an appointment with their mechanic.

Other carmakers including BMW and Volkswagen showed systems which connect not only to a smartphone but to home networks, enabling users to tap smart appliances or garage door openers, for example.

Wild West

These new systems offer new connecting options but could create confusion because of multiple technical standards.

“It almost forces you to get things within the same brand in order to match up,” said Ron Montoya at the auto research firm Edmunds.com.

Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, agreed, saying that there is no grand architecture, so everyone is making a land grab. Everyone wants to be the hub. 

Kay said that until players such as Apple, Google and Microsoft agree on open standards, “it going to be difficult for this market to move forward”.

The Valley of Amazement
Amy Tan
New York: HarperCollins, 2013
Pp. 589

In this intricately plotted novel, Amy Tan ushers the reader into a unique world “full of temporary promises and guile”, as she tells a tale of great loves and betrayals, of courage and cowardice, tradition and transition, kindness and cruelty. (p. 148)

Although there are interludes in San Francisco, New York, and an isolated Chinese village, the pivotal setting is Shanghai at the turn of the 20th century, specifically its high-class courtesan houses where pleasure and business comingle. 

The events that transpire in the novel could only have unfolded as they did in this unique environment, which Tan recreates with stunning descriptions of the décor, costumes, jewellery, banquets and entertainment made available there to men of means. Even more engrossing is her character portrayal — the madams, courtesans, attendants, servants and last, but not least, the clients who range from handsome and generous to downright scummy, though strictly enforced protocol usually eliminates the latter. 

There is also a bit of humour packed in, based on Chinese-English wordplay and cultural misunderstandings. Less amusing are the stories of how the “flowers” arrived at the houses, whether escaping abusive marriages or sold by desperately poor parents. Tan deftly moves her characters about as they interact, then pull apart, only to have their paths cross again years later. 

Though the courtesan houses were a world unto themselves, Tan’s rendition explains them in the context of Chinese society at the time, revealing much about values, customs, superstitions and class hierarchies. Fate plays a big role in people’s thinking and actions, and the plot can be interpreted as the individual’s battle with fate. 

Tan’s rendition also makes it clear that the courtesans are not to be confused with ordinary prostitutes. Like Japan’s geishas, they are painstakingly trained in the art of courtship and seduction, including singing, dancing, storytelling, etiquette and poise, in addition to sexual favours, in order to provide their clientele with total relaxation, satisfaction and escape from the pressures of daily life and loveless, arranged marriages. 

This is a world of precarious opportunity: A beautiful, talented 13-year-old can make her fortune in a single night, but before the age of 25, she is finished, relegated to being a trainer for the new flock of “flowers” or a common prostitute. While there is abundant evidence that men hold the reins of power and wealth in this world, Tan’s story shows that women can gain a great deal of leverage if they are daring enough to defy fate or wise enough to adapt to it — and if they stick together. It is significant that the two main characters, Lucia Minturn, and her daughter, Violet, each have a clever, loyal, Chinese female friend who sticks with her through thick and thin. 

Violet is the predominant voice in the novel, narrating her childhood in Hidden Jade Path, the prestigious courtesan house owned by her American mother. Though spoiled by the staff, Violet is lonely and insecure: she doubts the love of her mother who always seems to have other priorities, and is haunted by not knowing who her father is. She finds comfort only in her cat, and in knowing that she is “a thoroughly American girl in race, manners, and speech…” (p. 1) Rigid separation between locals and foreigners is the rule, but at Hidden Jade Path, Chinese and Western businessmen meet and strike lucrative deals in the Grand Salon. Nonetheless, Violet is influenced by racist notions that Americans are superior to Chinese, but her subsequent discovery of her father’s identity changes all that. Soon everything changes, and race and identity are shown to be malleable factors.

As China transforms from dynastic rule to republic, there are growing protests against the colonial treaties that give foreigners privileges in the International Settlement. Sensing potential danger, Lucia sets sail for San Francisco, but her old lover, who is supposed to arrange Violet’s passport, sells the girl to another courtesan house instead of bringing her to the boat. Thus begins Violet’s new life, the first of four reinventions of herself during which she experiences infatuation, real love, marriage, motherhood, death, separation from her daughter and abuse. Meanwhile, the rage she harbours towards her mother for abandoning her continues to simmer, at times fuelling her fierce independence and survival instincts, at other times, motivating bad choices. 

Tan adeptly holds the reader in suspense until the end of the novel when Lucia finally tells her side of the story, filling in the many blanks which have plagued her relationship with her daughter. At this point, the stories of mother and daughter merge, appearing to have followed the same pattern. Violet’s daughter, Flora, seems poised for the same. There is a strong psychological element in this story of three generations of women. All three grow up doubting their mother’s love; all tread a torturous path to discover who they are; all are engaged in a search for love and a wrestling match with fate.

LAS VEGAS — It’s enough to make you want to drop everything and race for the nearest power outlet: Your workday isn’t even done, and your smartphone or laptop battery is already in the red zone.

If you’re hoping that techno-progress will dispel that depleted feeling, you may be in for a long wait. Battery life is constrained by limitations in chemistry, and improvements aren’t keeping pace with demands from modern gadgets.

We’re still dependent on the venerable lithium-ion cell, first commercialised by Sony in 1991; it’s light, safe and holds a lot of charge relative to most alternatives, but it isn’t getting better fast enough to keep up with our growing electronic demands.

So instead, manufacturers are doing their best to “cheat” their way around lithium-ion’s limitations. The CES gadget show in Las Vegas this week featured plenty of workarounds that aim to keep your screen lit longer.

Proceed with caution, though: Manufacturer claims of battery life improvement can fall short of real-world experience.

New chips

Not that long ago, computer-chip makers competed to make their chips ever faster and more capable, with power consumption a secondary consideration. But the boom in energy hungry smartphones and laptops means that companies like Intel need to put much more emphasis on power efficiency these days.

Intel says its sixth-generation Core chips, known as Skylake, add a little more than an hour to battery life to laptops compared with the previous generation, according to spokesman Scott Massey. The chips utilise a more compact design, hard-wired functions that used to be run via software and fine-tuning how they ramp power use up and down.

Better-designed laptops

Laptop manufacturers are smartly sipping power, too.

HP says the Spectre x360 notebook it introduced in March gains up to 72 minutes of battery life, for a total of up to 13 hours, thanks in part to Intel’s new chip. Among other tricks, the PC doesn’t refresh the screen as often if the image isn’t moving. “If we can solve a bunch of small problems, they can add up,” HP Vice President Mike Nash said.

Similarly, Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1 Yoga tablet turns off its touch screen and keyboard backlight if it senses its owner is walking and has the screen folded back like an open book. Vaio, the computer maker formerly owned by Sony, says its Z Canvas launched in the US in October benefits from shrinking components and efficiently distributing heat to make more room for a bigger battery.

And Dell says it has worked with manufacturers to squeeze more battery capacity into the same space. It says its efforts recently boosted the energy storage of its XPS 13 laptop by 7.7 per cent compared to an earlier version of the same model .

New chargers

Maybe it’s your phone that’s not keeping up. If so, you might check out new accessories designed to make it easier and faster to charge back up.

Kickstarter-funded Ampy uses your body’s kinetic energy to charge up a pager-sized device. Strap it to your arm or a belt and it can recharge a smartphone in real time; an hour of jogging or similar exercise yields about an hour of use. You could also just throw it in your bag and get the same extra hour of gadget life after a week of walking around — not an awesome trade off, maybe, but possibly better than nothing.

The wireless-charging technology Qi makes it possible to charge a phone without plugging it in. Instead, you lay it down on a special pad and let electromagnetic field coupling do the work. Wireless charging has always been much slower than wired, although Qi’s backers say it’s speeding up. But wired charging is getting faster, too, at least for phones with the latest hardware — and with Qi, you still have to line up your device just right on the sometimes fussy pads.

Gullies on Mars that appeared to have possibly been carved by water were probably dug out by great chunks of dry ice, a pair of French researchers say.

Even as certain lines of evidence mount for the very occasional occurrence of water on present-day Mars, the findings published by the journal Nature Geoscience serve as a reminder that not every familiar-looking geological feature on Mars has an analogue on Earth.

“When dealing with other worlds, we must take care to remember that unfamiliar processes are possible and even likely in alien environments,” Colin Dundas of the US Geological Survey’s Astrogeology Science Centre, who was not involved in the research, wrote in a commentary on the work.

As NASA orbiters and rovers probe the Red Planet from above and on the ground, there has been growing support for the idea that water was once plentiful on our dry, dusty neighbour. The Mars Science Laboratory rover, known affectionately as Curiosity, has found signs of a long-lasting series of lakes that rose and fell in Gale Crater over many millions of years. Analyses of pebbles in the crater have revealed hints of a sustained river as well. Other papers have posited the idea that Mars once had a large ocean that slowly disappeared over the eons.

All of this was a Mars in the distant past. But even today, researchers are beginning to think there could be some liquid water — albeit very harsh, salty water — that on very rare occasions briefly exists on the surface today. The recent discovery that dark streaks known as “recurring slope lineae” could have been left by contemporary liquid water compelled NASA officials to wax enthusiastic about the planet’s current habitability.

“It suggests that it would be possible for there to be life today on Mars,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said at a briefing announcing those results (also published in Nature Geoscience).

Not all streaks on slopes are potential signs of a wet present; far from it, in fact. A pair of French researchers has analysed different features — Martian gullies in the planet’s mid-latitudes, deep channels that on Earth would have looked like they were carved by streams or sliding wet debris. But the proposed explanations would require groundwater discharge, which would be unlikely in the spots where many of these gullies are found, on lone peaks and sand dunes.

“Martian gullies have attracted considerable attention because they resemble terrestrial debris flows formed by the action of liquid water,” lead author Cedric Pilorget, a planetary scientist at the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in France, wrote in an e-mail. “This has been puzzling because such features are geologically recent [less than a few million years old] and have thus formed during the current cold and dry Martian era. Was water involved, to what extent and what could it mean in terms of habitability?”

Instead, the researchers pointed to another possible cause: frozen carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the by far the most abundant gas in the Red Planet’s atmosphere, and much of it sticks to the surface in winter, stretching from metre-thick ice caps near the poles to surface frost in the mid-latitudes.

And, as it just so happens, “the distribution of frost correlates with the regions where gullies are most prominent”, Dundas wrote. “Moreover, gully activity appears to be seasonal, with a marked preference for the winter and spring — when CO₂ frost is observed on mid-latitude slopes.”

Scientists have had an idea that frozen carbon dioxide (also known as dry ice) could have been the cause of such gullies for a while now, but they weren’t sure how it worked, said Alfred McEwen, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and leader of the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has taken images tracking the development of current gullies on Martian slopes.

“This activity did not involve liquid water; we’ve known that for some time,” McEwen said. “But how do you explain the gullies exactly, especially since they look so much like water-carved gullies?”

In the new paper, the scientists studied the frost on slopes at different locations and in different orientations with respect to the sun, developed models to analyse how carbon dioxide would act at different temperatures, and presented a mechanism that could explain the gullies’ creation.

Since dry ice can freeze into a thick translucent slab, sunlight can travel all the way to the ground and cause the dry ice to start to sublimate — go from a solid directly to a gas — at the slab’s base.

“This causes pressure to rise beneath the ice slab, and eventually causes the slab to lift and break apart, rapidly expelling both gas and entrained regolith material,” Dundas said.

People whose blood sugar levels are in the borderline range — higher than normal, but not yet diabetic — might still have an increased risk of kidney problems, a Norwegian study suggests.

Compared to individuals with normal blood sugar, people with slightly abnormal glucose levels are more likely to have two problems associated with kidney disease — abnormal blood filtration and more of the protein albumin in the urine, the study found.

The questions, said Dr Robert Cohen, an endocrinology researcher at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine who wasn’t involved in the study, are, “What represents abnormal “enough” blood sugar to start causing problems in the kidneys that we see with full blown diabetes, and what criteria should we be using if we want to get a head start on preventing the complications of diabetes?” 

Globally, about one in nine adults have diabetes, which is often linked to obesity and ageing and develops when the body can’t properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert sugar into energy. 

While the link between full-blown diabetes and chronic kidney disease is well known, doctors disagree about how much sugar in the blood might pose a risk to people without the disease. They also disagree on how to diagnose and treat patients with only mildly abnormal blood glucose levels and whether it’s reasonable to call this condition “prediabetes”.

For the current study, Dr Toralf Melsom of the University of North Norway and colleagues assessed blood sugar and indicators of kidney damage in 1,261 people aged 50 to 62 who didn’t have diabetes. 

Researchers looked for abnormal blood sugar by measuring blood glucose in fasting patients, and by measuring blood levels of haemoglobin A1c. This second test estimates average blood sugar over several months based on the percentage of haemoglobin — the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen — that is coated with sugar.

At the start of the study, 595 people had slightly abnormal blood sugar levels based on US guidelines for interpreting these test results, which are fairly stringent. Under guidelines favoured outside the US that require more sugar in the blood before glucose levels are considered elevated, only 169 people had abnormal results. 

After a typical follow-up period of around five years, people with slightly abnormal blood sugar under either set of guidelines were more likely to have kidneys that were working harder to filter the blood. The condition, called hyperfiltration, is thought to contribute to kidney damage in diabetes.

Participants who had slightly abnormal baseline fasting glucose test results were also more likely to have elevated levels of albumin in the urine, indicating early kidney damage. 

The subset of people with slightly abnormal blood sugar under the more restrictive guidelines used outside the US were 95 per cent more likely to have high blood filtration rates and 83 per cent more likely to have excess albumin in the urine. 

The study only included middle-aged white people, so the results might be different in other populations, the authors acknowledge in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases. There also isn’t consensus on the best way to define kidney filtration in studies of large populations because nephrons, the functional waste-processing unit in the kidney, vary by age and gender, the authors note. 

While the study findings may not change clinical practice, the results highlight the need for doctors to pay attention to people with slightly elevated blood sugar, said Dr Laura Rosella, a public health researcher at the University of Toronto who wasn’t involved in the study. 

These people should focus on lifestyle changes such as eating better, exercising more and losing weight, she said.

“If someone adopts the necessary changes that would prevent the onset of diabetes, it is likely to protect against the progression to kidney disease as well — just like it will prevent cardiovascular disease and many cancers,” Rosella added.

Two Internet subscriptions each with a different service provider, several e-mail addresses, replication of data on multiple hard disks and cloud storage, at least two computers and one mobile unit; this is the way to go and the price to pay to ensure maximum uptime using IT, and the peace of mind that goes with it all.

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” was the wise advice given to me when I started working in the IT business years ago. The old proverb has never been as valid as now, with life in the technology world becoming as dangerous as it may be thrilling and rewarding at the same time. If certain aspects leave you little choice, others provide room for ample duplication of tools, means and services.

The “little choice” part involves deciding whether, for example, you will go Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS as your main working environment on your computer. The vast majority of people will go one way or another. In some rare instances users adopt both. I know of a few who use MS-Windows in the workplace and Mac OS at home.

Apart from the above exception, in the overwhelming number of situations you can diversify the tools and the resources while remaining under the same main system, be it Windows or Mac OS — or Android for that matter. The idea is to protect your information from corruption or loss, and to avoid interruption of service. Who can afford to be cut and deprived of Internet or computer usage, including of smartphone, for more than a couple of hours? Maybe hermits can… if there are any still left.

Last time my main ADSL ISP provider experienced a failure in the area where I live, I was able to switch the computer Internet connection and take the Internet signal from my smartphone that I set to work as a “hot spot”, like a router that gives wireless Internet access to the devices within its range. Thanks to this setting change and to the fact that the ADSL subscription and my mobile phone are with two different providers, I was not disconnected for more than 10 minutes.

Do I trust Cloud storage? Yes I do, but to follow the advice my friend gave me years ago, I have three subscriptions, one with Google Drive, one with OneDrive (Microsoft) and a third with Dropbox. You can never be too careful.

The same goes with having and managing multiple e-mail addresses: one on a paid Web domain name that you would own, and a couple with a free e-mail service like Gmail and Hotmail. Who knows when one would be out of service or would lose your entire address book?

Being in the IT business I understandably need to have and use more than one computer. Do I stick to just one brand? Of course, I don’t. For now Dell and Lenovo are the two I like and trust, though previously HP and Fujitsu-Siemens have also been part of my setup.

Last but not least, keeping multiple copies of your data on external hard disks in various locations is the only way to have protection against fire, theft and other similar hazards. This too is about duplication and diversification. Banks and large corporations know it well, but private users tend to forget this elementary precaution.

Admitted, multiplying and diversifying technology resources requires effort, work, some organisation, plus additional expense. It is perfectly justified, in my opinion.

LAS VEGAS — Chinese electronics giant Huawei took aim Tuesday at the premium segment dominated by Apple, unveiling a new large-screen smartphone along with a tablet and luxury smartwatch.

As it unveiled its latest flagship smartphone called the Mate 8 at the Consumer Electronics Show, Huawei said it sees a path to becoming the number two global vendor in the sector — a spot now held by US-based Apple.

“Every year, every month, we are increasing our market share,” said Huawei consumer devices chief Richard Yu.

“Within a few years we believe we can be number two.”

At CES, Huawei announced the launch of its premium flagship phone claiming better performance and battery life than rivals made by Apple and Samsung.

With a six-inch display, it still has a smaller overall footprint than similar smartphones, said Kevin Ho, who heads Huawei’s handset operations.

The Mate 8 will launch in 30 countries — but not the United States — starting at 599 euros ($650), in line with flagship models from Apple and Samsung.

The first wave of markets where the Mate 8 will be launched are in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

Ho said the new device has a battery life of more than two days. It has a fingerprint identification system for payments, improved camera audio and microphone technology.

Huawei designed its own chipset for the device, ensuring it stays cool despite high performance, Ho said.

“High performance does not always mean hot,” he said.

Huawei boosted its global smartphone market share to 7.7 per cent in the third quarter behind Samsung and Apple, according to research firm Gartner.

It has taken a leading position in China ahead of Samsung, but its US offerings have been limited until its recent agreement to produce a Nexus phone for Google.

Yu said Huawei’s total consumer device revenues grew 70 per cent in 2015 to more than $20 billion as it shipped 108 million handsets.

He added that Huawei has in the past few years boosted its global brand awareness and trust from consumers. Huawei’s image was tarnished several years ago amid concerns over its ties to the Chinese government.

“We regained trust from consumers,”  Yu said.

Huawei also unveiled a 10-inch tablet which appears to be designed as a rival to the iPad. 

The MediaPad M210 will be sold in the US and more than two-dozen other markets starting at $349.

The company also unveiled two new versions of its smartwatch — called Jewel and Elegant — which appear aimed at the luxury segment occupied by Apple Watch.

Aimed at women, the two new models start at $499 and $599. The Jewel is made in collaboration with Swarovski and features the European company’s diamond-emulating glass stones known as Zirconia circling the face.