Freezers are important inventions. Whether they are in a domestic environment or a professional scientific laboratory, freezers play a vital role in helping preserve objects and substances that would otherwise perish beyond use. It is no surprise that a faulty freezer can cause catastrophic loss if not caught quickly.As with any technology, freezer failures and equipment malfunctions are inevitable – but sometimes, you can be incredibly unlucky. As one study found in 2015, when a facility in America saw 16 percent of its biorepositories fail in a year. As such, no one has yet designed an indestructible freezer, and every machine will eventually break down in one way or another. With that said, sample loss is entirely preventable and does not have to be a common occurrence in laboratory settings.Why could a freezer fail?There is a long list of reasons why a freezer may fail, such as:Facility-wide power outages General wear and tear Compressor breakdownsTemperature stabilization due to door openings Frost accumulation Varying environmental factorsEquipment quality When freezers fail in a scientific institute it can often make headlines due to the expensive sample loss.Chilling freezer failures   One terrifying freezer failure involved the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center. This centralized resource collects and distributes human brain samples for research. At any given time, they have thousands of brain samples stored in multiple freezers.It was May 31, 2012, when a staff member noticed that the displayed temperature monitor did not match the actual internal temperature within a freezer. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that one of the institute's freezers (one of 24) had lost power. Unfortunately, the failure was not recent and had occurred three days prior. This meant it was too late to prevent the thawing of the tissue samples.This all happened despite the center completing their standard operating procedures – laboratory staff checking the freezers twice a day. However, in this case, no one had noticed the power issue. It did not help that the digital display on the front of the freezer indicated that the freezer itself was −79°C (−110°F) – the expected temperature.  Along with this, two separate alarms had also failed.As it turns out, the facility had no internal freezer sensors or an independent system. If it did, this catastrophe may have been avoided.In the end, this fault cost the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center 147 brain samples. Fifty-four of the total samples were from autistic people, which was a devastating loss as it accounted for a quarter of the global autism brain samples and took over 14 years to accrue. This single error may have delayed autism research by several decades.A more recent freezer disaster happened at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The facility stores irreplaceable research samples, biomaterials, and cell lines that cover research areas like cardiology, endocrinology, and hematology in tanks that are cooled with liquid nitrogen, which keeps them at a chilly −190°C (−310°F). To maintain the cold temperature, there is an automatic system to refill the liquid nitrogen.Over the 2023 winter holiday period, there was a malfunction in the nitrogen flow, which caused 16 out of 19 tanks to rise in temperature. This malfunction remained unnoticed for 120 hours and caused the samples to defrost and become ruined.This catastrophe will have far-reaching consequences for the different department’s research. The incident has been reported to the police, although it is not suspected that malicious forces were at play for this event.  In this scenario, there were multiple points of failure. The first was the nitrogen flow itself. The second was the automatic alert system. For the latter, when a failure occurs, emails and SMS messages are sent out to registered owners of the material – but this never happened, as the texts got stuck in the server.   Despite these notable freezer failures, sample loss is simply unacceptable. Thankfully, it can often be prevented with the right system in place.What can people do to prevent freezer failures?One way to avoid sample loss is to invest in a robust and independent environmental monitoring system, which will allow the user to be alerted when there is any sign of failure. These systems will work and notify the emergency contacts through email, text message, or even a phone call.Another advantage is live support before, during, and after your facility experiences an equipment malfunction or failure. XiltriX keeps a pulse on your facility and offers 24/7 real-time monitoring and live agent support.Freezer failures have been a big problem in the past. If you want to discuss your freezer failure issues or learn more about monitoring systems, be sure to complete our survey here. This article includes sponsored material. Read our transparency policy for more information.

Nightmares and “daymares” could be an early warning sign of an autoimmune disease according to a new study. Troubling dreams and daytime hallucinations could provide advance warning of the arrival of diseases like lupus, and a greater awareness of them both from patients and doctors could lead to improved management of a person’s autoimmune conditions.The study looked at 676 people with lupus, spoke to 400 clinicians, and interviewed 69 people about their experiences living with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases, which lupus falls under. Lupus is a chronic autoimmune condition that can cause joint pain, rashes, and fatigue. There’s currently no cure, but the symptoms can be managed with medication.The numerous discussions turned up a common symptom experienced by three in five patients in the lead-up to the onset of lupus: disrupted dream sleep. Hallucinations were also reported by just under one in four patients, often with vivid distressing nightmares as a precursor.The nightmares often involved being attacked, trapped, getting crushed, or falling. Terming the hallucinations “daymares” proved to be a positive step in getting patients to register their symptoms in a way that felt less stigmatized.“[When] you said that word daymare and as soon as you said that it just made sense, it’s like not necessarily scary, it’s just like you’ve had a dream and yet you’re sitting awake in the garden,” said a patient from England. “I see different things, it’s like I come out of it and it’s like when you wake up and you can’t remember your dream and you’re there but you’re not there… it’s like feeling really disorientated, the nearest thing I can think of is that I feel like I’m Alice in Wonderland.”The clinicians involved in the study agreed that nightmares and daymares could be a useful “early warning system” of an oncoming flare for autoimmune disease. Making patients better informed about what these symptoms can mean, could enable them to work together to manage flares before they become severe."We have long been aware that alterations in dreaming may signify changes in physical, neurological and mental health, and can sometimes be early indicators of disease,” said Professor Guy Leschziner, a study author and neurologist at Guys’ and St Thomas’ Hospital, and author of The Secret World of Sleep, in a statement.“However, this is the first evidence that nightmares may also help us monitor such a serious autoimmune condition like lupus, and is an important prompt to patients and clinicians alike that sleep symptoms may tell us about impending relapse."The study is published in the journal EClinicalMedicine.

There is a problem (or not, for fans of being alive) within physics, in that the universe appears finely tuned for life – at least of the kind we find on Earth – to emerge and thrive.If gravity was substantially weaker than it is (and it's already pretty weak, just ask any magnet), stars and planets would not have formed. If it was just a little weaker, or electromagnetism slightly stronger, stars would be cooler and not explode to produce the heavier elements needed for life to exist. There are countless other examples. Mess around with the values of physics even slightly, and life as we know it in this universe would not exist."The cliché that 'life is balanced on a knife-edge' is a staggering understatement," physicist Paul Davies famously wrote of the problem. "No knife in the universe could have an edge that fine."Naturally, scientists and philosophers have attempted to tackle this problem in different ways. You could argue that the universe is not really fine-tuned for life. Perhaps if the constants had been different, a different sort of life would have emerged (by different processes) to ask why the universe appears to be so finely tuned for their existence.One idea is that asking the question "why is the universe so finely-tuned for us" is a kind of survivor bias, or the observer selection effect. "Suppose the evolution of life and intelligence requires a set of exceedingly unlikely coincidences: planets at just the right distance from an unusually stable star in the galactic life zone, with a stabilizing moon and a comet-deflecting Jovian, just the right chemical diversity, a fantastically unlikely chemical coincidence producing cells, a long list of low-probability evolutionary steps leading up to a generalist species forced by environmental conditions to become a super-generalist intelligent species. Yet every intelligent species in the universe would have these coincidences under their belt. Conversely, knowing we exist does not tell us whether intelligence is common," writes Anders Sandberg of the Future of Humanity Institute.Extending this idea – the anthropic principle – and another, far more "out there" idea about the universe, theoretical physicist Lee Smolin proposed "cosmological natural selection". Simply put, the universe that we are living in, which seems to be so finely tuned for our existence, is just one of a perhaps infinite number of universes being created constantly, each with varying laws of physics and/or amounts of matter within them.       According to the idea, these new universes are born within black holes of larger "parent" universes, while black holes within our universe would also contain child universes within them. These child universes would have slightly tweaked values, just as with regular natural selection.If you're thinking this all sounds a bit woolly, that's fairly understandable. In general, it's best to be skeptical of arguments that invoke many number of universes or the multiverse to make things make sense. However, Smolin does make predictions about what the universes (including the black hole we find ourselves in) would look like if cosmological natural selection were taking place."In this scenario these parameters are set by a process analogous to natural selection which follows naturally from the assumption that the singularities in black holes are removed by quantum effects leading to the creation of new expanding regions of the universe," Smolin wrote in a 1994 paper. "The suggestion of J. A. Wheeler that the parameters change randomly at such events, leads naturally to the conjecture that the parameters have been selected for values that extremize the production of black holes. This leads directly to a prediction, which is that small changes in any of the parameters should lead to a decrease in the number of black holes produced by the universe."And so the universe we find ourselves in (which some physicists do think is inside a black hole) happens to be the type which is hospitable for our kind of life. But for the hypothesis to be plausible, it requires that universes are predisposed towards the maximum possible production of black holes, the mechanism by which cosmological natural selection continues. "A change that would certainly lead to an increase in the number of black holes would be a decrease in the upper mass limit for neutron stars," Smolin wrote. "This would lower the mass needed to form a black hole, which would result in the formation of more black holes."So, if we find larger neutron stars (stars with larger mass that did not form black holes at the end of their lifespan) it would imply that the theory is unlikely, as maximal black hole production (by which the universe "reproduces") is not apparent in the universe. We have found neutron stars on the larger scale, implying that the idea is unlikely, unless there is another mechanism by which many universes are produced. As well as this, the idea (though Smolin rejects this) appears to rely on older ideas about black holes, which are no longer considered likely."Smolin's idea is tied to Hawking's old claim that information can fall into a black hole and get trapped behind the horizon," theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind wrote in Edge. "Smolin requires a great deal of information to be transferred from the parent universe to the infant at the bouncing singularity. But the last decade of black hole physics and string theory have told us that NO information can be transferred in this way!"There are other ways to get a multiverse, so some version of cosmological natural selection could be playing out. But don't expect confirmation of the idea any time soon, at least in this part of the multiverse, anyway.

In a groundbreaking discovery, DNA evidence has confirmed the presence of a large feline predator, likely a leopard, in the serene expanses of the UK’s Lake District. The revelation comes after a detailed analysis of genetic material retrieved from a deceased sheep, marking the first instance of such evidence on British soil. The University of Warwick’s laboratory, spearheaded by the esteemed Prof Robin Allaby, has been at the forefront of this investigative journey. Prof Allaby, in an interview with BBC Wildlife, expressed his newfound conviction in the existence of non-native big cats in the UK, a stance that evolved from cautious skepticism to firm belief following the DNA results. “It makes me a convert [to the existence of non-native big cats in the UK],” Allaby said. “Until now, I have remained open-minded, I think that’s my job as a scientist.” This isn’t the first encounter Prof Allaby has had with potential evidence of big cats in the region. A mysterious claw fragment, sent anonymously from the north of England, had previously hinted at the presence of these elusive creatures. However, it was the recent discovery by Sharon Larkin-Snowden, a Cumbrian local, which provided the tangible proof that has since shifted narratives and piqued curiosity. Larkin-Snowden’s encounter with the remnants of a sheep and her subsequent sighting of a large black cat, comparable in size to a German shepherd dog, adds a personal and compelling layer to the scientific findings. Her experience, shared on Rick Minter’s Big Cat Conversations podcast, paints a vivid picture of the unexpected wildlife that may roam the UK’s countryside. “I assumed at first it was a sheepdog, but then I did a double take and realised it was a black cat,” she said. “It was big – the size of a German shepherd dog.” For now, the Lake District harbors a new narrative, one where the whispers of a big cat’s presence are no longer just local lore but a scientific reality. The post DNA confirms there is a big cat roaming the UK’s countryside appeared first on Anomalien.com.

Farming games require a lot of dedication, and it seems a new one is released every week thanks to the popularity of Stardew Valley, Satisfactory, Dreamlight Valley, and more. If you’re a fan of the genre, it might be hard to keep on top of the best upcoming farming games, but we can point you in the right direction - perhaps towards Southfield, which we're giving away 5,000 Steam beta keys for. Continue reading Grab a free Steam beta key for 2024’s most promising new farming game MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best farming games, Best building games, Best management games

Is Hellblade 2 Steam Deck comaptible? While opinions on the definition of a playable gaming frame rate may differ, it's widely agreed that the bare minimum requirement is 30fps, and Helllblade 2 barely passes this figure on Steam Deck. However, future updates could improve this situation. Having tested Hellblade 2 on the Steam Deck OLED, I recommend sticking to playing this title on a gaming PC for now. Despite being the best handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck struggles to handle Senua's latest adventure, and the compromises needed to get the game running at 30fps aren't worth making. Continue reading Is Hellblade 2 Steam Deck compatible? MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

I expect we all know this by now, but it’s worth repeating: if you’re playing a game and there’s a friendly artificial intelligence or a sentient computer program that’s helping you on your journey, it will, eventually, try to kill you. We saw it in System Shock 2. We saw it in Halo. It’s the premise of the entire Portal series. A new horror game, which also takes cues from the intensely frightening intro of Silent Hill 3, is yet another lesson in computerized companion caution. Boasting a huge 95% rating on Steam, you can also play right now completely free. Continue reading New horror game with 95% positive reviews is also completely free MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best horror games, Best indie games, Best FPS games

To celebrate the launch of Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Ninja Theory's Studio Head Dom Matthews has shared a thank you message to fans. Unfortunately, as we are in the midst of unprecedented layoffs and closures within the industry, fans are concerned that this was more of a farewell message from Ninja Theory.

The Aqara Wall Outlet H2 can trigger scenes based upon real-time power usage. | Image: Aqara Aqara just announced the €39.99 Wall Outlet H2, which offers a one-for-one smart replacement for standard 16A wall sockets used in Europe. Its party trick is the ability to monitor the real-time power usage of connected devices and appliances to initiate automations around the home. For example, if you charge your phone when going to sleep you could automatically activate a nighttime scene — arm motion detectors, lock the door, close blinds, and turn off lights — just as soon as the H2 begins pulling more than 10W of power. Or, it can detect when the laundry cycle ends to shut the machine off and send you a notification — that way you don’t have to listen to it beep incessantly until you finally walk upstairs with heavy regret for having... Continue reading…

A California college has found a multiplicity of ways to segregate students and glorify wokeness with separate graduations, including for illegal aliens and LGBTQ. Advertisement Leftists are always looking…