Omicron to China: You've got mail!

An NFT group bought a copy of Dune for $3.04 million thinking it’s the copyright. The Earth’s core might be cooling much faster than previously thought. Jan 18, 2022 [View in browser]( Good morning. Chinese authorities suspect the Omicron variant of COVID-19 found its way to the country via mail. Bummer. Beijing residents are urged not to order packages from abroad. Elsewhere, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has collectively brought a rare adaptation of the revered sci-fi series "Dune" thinking it's the copyright. Wild, but there's more: they actually want to adapt it into NFTs, in addition to an animated series. If it seems like the world is changing, you're not alone, since it turns out the Earth is probably cooling faster than we thought. It's probably fine? This is The Blueprint. Read to live. HEALTH [China Believes That Omicron Variant Found Its Way to the Country via Mail]( [someone holding a mail package with nitrile gloves]( Authorities in Beijing are telling the city's 23 million residents to [stop ordering items from abroad]( after the city reported its first case of the Omicron variant. The woman who contracted the Omicron variant has no travel history, the authorities claimed. But with the Winter Olympics rapidly approaching in Beijing, authorities in China are deeply concerned. - China follows a "dynamic zero COVID" policy which includes mass vaccinations, constant testing, and tracking people's movements via smartphones to keep in real-time touch with the spread of new variants. In November last year, city officials in Shanghai [tested 33,000 people after one case]( of the coronavirus was reported in Disneyland. The package. After a detailed investigation, health authorities found that letters in her possession carried traces of the variant. The mail was sent from Canada and traveled through Hong Kong before being delivered to the woman. - Reports claim that none of the 69 close contacts and 810 environmental samples collected from the woman were positive, but 22 samples taken from the international mail, including unopened letters, had traces of the COVID-19. It's thought that COVID cannot survive for very long in packages. Nevertheless, city officials in Beijing have recommended that the city's residents avoid international mail, and at the very least open it outdoors with gloves and a mask. A [BBC correspondent in China]( confirmed this claim. [Read More]( SCIENCE [The Earth's Core Might Be Cooling Much Faster Than We Previously Thought]( [An illustration of Earth's core]( The Earth's molten interior [is likely cooling a lot faster than previously estimated]( and scientists think it will speed up even more dramatically in the distant future. We've known for a while that the Earth will gradually cool, but it's been hard to pinpoint when exactly this will happen. Until now. - To expand our grasp of Earth's cooling process, a team from Carnegie and ETH Zurich investigated bridgmanite, a mineral made of either magnesium silicate or calcium silicate. Both are abundant in the boundary layer between the Earth's outer core and lower mantle. The methodology. They placed bridgmanite samples in a diamond anvil cell and heated them using a laser to simulate the high-pressure and high-temperature environment found underneath the Earth's crust. Afterward, they measured the thermal conductivity of the bridgmanite using an optical absorption system. This analysis revealed that bridgmanite conducts heat 1.5 times more efficiently than previously estimated. - This means that heat can transfer from the Earth's core to the mantle far more easily than we thought. The deep take. As it cools, bridgmanite turns into a mineral called post-perovskite, which conducts heat at an even faster rate. Translation: this heat loss will only accelerate as this conversion takes its toll. But no worries! This [isn't as bad as it sounds](. Our planet will probably take billions of years to solidify at the core. So there's time to escape. [Read More]( CULTURE [An NFT Group Bought a Copy of Dune for $3.04 Million Thinking It's the Copyright]( [a rare copy of the Jodorowsky's Dune adaptation]( A group of crypto investors called Spice DAO spent millions of dollars [to buy a rare adaptation of a science fiction book, Dune]( so that they could make non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and an animated series. But the group seems unaware that they only bought a copy of the book, and not the actual rights to the sci-fi epic, as many pointed out. - What is a DAO? Short for "decentralized autonomous organization," DAOs are a new way of acquiring unique assets, enabling a group to own them, instead of letting assets fall into the hands of private collectors. In November, a DAO raised roughly $47 million [to acquire a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution]( but lost the auction. Noble, or naive? At first glance, the intention seems quite noble. There are probably less than 20 copies of this adaptation in the world today, and, even if the animated series doesn't take off, the preservation of the book is a service in itself. - However, the DAO wants to convert each page of the book into an NFT and then go ahead and burn the book, which arguably makes no sense at all, unless maybe you are doing it for the publicity or to increase the value of the NFTs that were created prior to the burning. The [DAO had told Gizmodo]( that they know they don't own the copyright. [Read More]( MAIL & MUSINGS We have seen a DAO try to buy a copy of the U.S. Constitution, and now another one got their hands on a copy of Jodorowsky's Dune. Do DAOs have a future? Be sure you check back tomorrow for the results! [Unsure, undecided.]( [They will do good, but we will have some bad apples.]( [Decentralized? Sounds unsafe!]( [Authorities will bar people from forming these in near-future.]( Yesterday’s Results Yesterday we asked if the indictments of state-sanctioned hackers make any difference at all. Many of you aren't convinced it'll do any good, and suspect offending states might simply issue these people new identities. On the other hand, some of you think that these indictments can actually be a good thing to build cases upon. Who knows, cyber warfare is still a relatively nascent reality, which means the rules aren't set in stone, yet. No, and the indicted individuals could be given a new identity anyway. 39% Yes, these could be used for building legal cases. 28% No, it matters only for the indicted individuals. 21% Yes, it's clearly a deterrent for the nations. 12% [Video]VIDEO OF THE DAY [Here’s How You Can Break Up a Bulb in Pieces and Make It Work Again]( Hint: Liquid nitrogen really helps. [Here’s How You Can Break Up a Bulb in Pieces and Make It Work Again]( QUOTE OF THE DAY “ Whatever — the soup is getting cold. ” Leonardo da Vinci, in the last sentence of a mathematical theorem in his notebook, 1518 AND ANOTHER THING... - Ukraine claims Russia that was behind the cyber attacks on its government websites. [The plot thickens](. - Looks like TikTok stars like the D’Amelio sisters and Addison Rae are earning [more than many S&P 500 CEOs](. (dot.LA) - We came one step closer to [incredibly compact, powerful quantum batteries](. The bigger they are, the faster they charge. - A mysterious brain disease is spreading in Canada. [Doctors are on it](. (BBC) - Experts warn that dimming the Sun could actually [spell doom for humanity](. Oh no. - Archaeologists have discovered [lost highways of ancient Arabia]( that link oases and tombs. (ScienceAlert) - Moon bats and Venusian dinosaurs: How some very serious scientists [had very weird ideas about alien life](. [Share to Win]SHARE TO WIN [All products]( Share The Blueprint! Give your friends deeper insights into engineering and tech, and win exclusive IE swag for free. [Read Details]( Share your link Copy & share your referral link with others. [ [Referral Program Terms and Conditions]( Prepared by Brad Bergan and Utku Kucukduner Enjoy reading? Don't forget to forward to a friend! Was this email forwarded to you? 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