Why calcium carbonate takes on different forms

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

For nearly a century, scientists have wondered why seashells’ minerals sometimes take two chemically identical but slightly different forms in seawater, but new research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science reveals the answer.

The material in question, calcium carbonate, sometimes takes the form of calcite and sometimes takes the form of aragonite, a virtually identical form of the mineral that is more soluble and thus more vulnerable to ocean acidification. Scientists previously identified variations in magnesium concentration in the water as a key factor, but were never able to fully explain why.

In the new study, however, experts from MIT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have completed a detailed, atomic-level analysis of the process, and they claim that their findings could ultimately lead to on-demand synthesis of new materials in the laboratory.

[STORY: Seashells fight to save the planet]

“The big-picture problem is about materials formation,” MIT graduate student Wenhao Sun, one of the authors of the PNAS study, explained Tuesday in a statement. “When solids crystallize in solution, you expect them to make the lowest-energy, [most] stable crystal structure.”

One mineral, two forms

As the study authors explain, many types of materials perform better when they are metastable (stable under ordinary conditions, but subject to transformation into an even more stable state over a period of time). They investigated metastability using calcium carbonate because of the availability of several decades worth of quality experimental data, making it a good case study for why some chemical reactions produce one of several different forms of a compound.

In the case of calcium carbonate, it can take the form of two different minerals. Calcite is the stable form, while aragonite is the metastable form, meaning that as time passes, or it becomes heated, it can ultimately transform into calcite. Sun compared it to diamond and graphite, the material found in pencil lead – both substance have the same basic pure-carbon composition. However, diamond is metastable, and over time it will eventually become graphite.

[STORY: Crocodile bites off zookeeper’s thumb]

Typically, when calcium carbonate crystallizes, it forms calcite. In seawater, however, it forms aragonite. This outcome, the study authors said, impacts many different natural processes, such as the global carbon cycle, the neutralization of atmospheric CO2 into a stable mineral, and the formation of shells and corals, whose aragonite shells are vulnerable to ocean acidification.

While scientists have long known that changes in magnesium concentrations in the surrounding waters impacts which form calcium carbonate takes, they could not explain why. The new study, however, shows that the ratio of calcium to magnesium in the water affects the surface energy of the nucleating crystals, and when the ratio passes specific thresholds, it determines whether calcite or aragonite is formed.

Surface energy: solving mysteries since 2015

“The surface energy is the barrier to nucleation. We were able to calculate the effect of magnesium on the surface energy,” explained Sun. While the surface energy is difficult to measure through experiments, the MIT/Berkeley Lab team was able to figure it out through atomic-level calculations.

[STORY: Calcium carbonate from earthworm poop provides measurements of past climates]

As it turns out, this process served as the mechanism through which magnesium halts the formation of calcium carbonate’s stable phase. If a solution contains no magnesium, stable calcite forms quickly, but as you increase the magnesium concentration, the surface energy of the calcite increases, causing its nucleation rate to plummet drastically.

Eventually, the calcite nucleation process gives way to the metastable aragonite phase. The results calculated by the researchers closely matched the proportions of the two forms seen in experiments when the magnesium ratios were varied, Sun explained.

The research could be adapted to serve as a tool to predict how other compounds will form from a solution. Ultimately, the scientists’ goal is to be able to predict and even control which types of materials form under various chemical solutions, thus making it possible to control the formation of new materials whose different traits can be useful for various technological applications.

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First-ever image of world’s smallest microbes captured

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Scientists have captured an image of what is apparently the world’s smallest known life form: a type of bacteria so small you could fit 150 of them into a single E. coli cell and 150,000 of them on the tip of a human hair.

The image was captured by scientists from the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, and according to Gizmodo, the ultra-small bacteria it depicts is believed to be fairly common, but hard to photograph.

Their size isn’t the only reason for this, the website explains. The bacteria itself are exceptionally fragile and can easily die. The samples used for the new image were collected from groundwater and then flash frozen to -272 degrees Celsius before they were transported to the lab.

[STORY: Newly discovered microbe is key player in climate change]

Once they arrived, the frozen samples underwent 2D and 3D cryogenic transmission electron microscopy to characterize the size and internal structure of their cells. The images also showed that the cells were dividing, indicating that they were healthy microbes.

Next, the scientists took the bacteria to the DOE’s Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California and sequenced the genomes of the microbes. In addition, metagenomic and other DNA-based analyses of the samples were conducted at UC Berkeley, and a diverse range of bacteria from WWE3, OP11, and OD1 phyla were discovered.

According to the researchers, that these microbes are the smallest that a cell can be while still accommodating enough material to sustain life. The bacterial cells contain dense spirals that are most likely DNA, a handful of ribosomes, hair-like appendages, and a stripped-down metabolism that probably requires them to rely on other bacteria for many of life’s necessities.

Nobody understands these little guys

Furthermore, the bacteria are part of three microbial phyla that are poorly understood. Finding out more about organisms from these phyla could lead to new insights on the role of microbes in the planet’s climate, our food and water supply, and other key processes, the authors said. Their findings were published last month in the journal Nature Communications.

“These newly described ultra-small bacteria are an example of a subset of the microbial life on earth that we know almost nothing about,” co-corresponding author Jill Banfield, a professor in the UC Berkeley departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Environmental Science, Policy and Management, as well as a member of the Berkeley Lab, explained in a statement.

[STORY: Researchers detect smallest force ever measured]

She added that the bacteria are “enigmatic,” and that while they have been “detected in many environments and they probably play important roles in microbial communities and ecosystems,” she and her colleagues “don’t yet fully understand what these ultra-small bacteria do.”

“There isn’t a consensus over how small a free-living organism can be, and what the space optimization strategies may be for a cell at the lower size limit for life,” noted co-corresponding author Birgit Luef, a former postdoctoral researcher in Banfield’s group who is now affiliated with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “Our research is a significant step in characterizing the size, shape, and internal structure of ultra-small cells.”

[VIDEO: First-ever footage of Ecotype D Orcas]

As a result of their work, the researchers were able to create the most complete description of ultra-small bacteria to date. They also discovered that some of the bacteria had pili, or thread-like appendages that found function as “life support” connections to other microbes. The genomic data revealed that the bacteria lack many basic functions, meaning that they apparently rely upon on a community of microbes for critical resources.

However, Banfield noted that there is still much to learn about these microbes. “We don’t know the function of half the genes we found in the organisms from these three phyla,” she said.

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Salty skin may ward off infection

Written By: Brett Smith
Christopher Pilny

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – @ParkstBrett

We normally have a small amount of salt on our skin and a new study suggests that this salt layer may be there as a protective agent against infection.

Published online Tuesday by the journal Cell Metabolism, the new study found that salt stores in mice and humans may be a barrier that acts to prevent microbial invasion and boost immune defenses.

“This is a totally different view on the role of salt in health and disease,” said study author Dr. Jens Titze, an associate professor of medicine and of molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt University.

An as-salt on infections

The new study started when researcher noticed that salt levels in mice with infected skin were unusually high. The team then theorized that skin might use salt build up to fight off infections.

[STORY: Excessive salt may ‘reprogram’ your brain]

Confirming Jantsch’s theory, the researchers found that salt did boost the activity of infection-fighting white blood cells. Using MRI technology, the team also saw salt build-up at the site of bacterial skin infections in six human patients.

“(I)nfected legs showed massive salt accumulation, while the uninfected legs were totally normal,” Titze said.

After patients were treated with antibiotics, the salt levels in their legs fell, the study reported.

But don’t start eating Doritos for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, yet (sigh)

The scientists also tested the consequence of a very high-salt diet in mice with chronic footpad infections. The team watched as salt supplies at the location of the infection jumped after intake of the high-salt diet, and the bacterial infections disappeared.

[STORY: Challenging convention: Visual cortex not solely responsible for processing images]

Despite the positive results, researchers warned that a high-salt diet should not be seen as a healthy regular routine.

“I think that the most important finding here is that tissues can accumulate massive amounts of sodium locally to boost immune responses where ever needed,” Titze said. “This mostly happens totally independent of the diet.”

“This novel biology of salt homeostasis goes beyond the idea that dietary salt is the major component that influences the salt levels in our body,” he added.

[STORY: Introverts prefer mountainous regions]

In fact, the team said, the advent of antibiotics and other effective treatment methods means that we no longer need high levels of salt in our tissues.

“Chronic accumulation of salt in the tissue thus may have become rather a problem than an advantage,” Titze said.

Another problem with aging

The same group of researchers had previously reported before that salt build-up by the skin rises with age and is linked with the introduction of hypertension, which also becomes standard as people age.

“It was a mystery to us why our human subjects accumulated that much salt in their body as they aged, because high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease is clearly a disadvantage,” Titze said.

[STORY: Cancer treatment from the vet]

The new study implied that age-related salt accumulation by the skin may be a response to falling cellular barriers and rising microbe accessibility. It also may reflect persistent, low-level inflammation connected with age-related diseases, including heart disease and some cancers.

In this case, it may be helpful to combat age-related increase in salt stores, the researchers suggested.

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How to begin preparing for daylight saving time

Written By: Christopher Pilny
Christopher Pilny

Provided by Leslie Hill, Vanderbilt University

When daylight saving time takes effect on Sunday, March 8, it doesn’t have to mean a miserably groggy Monday morning. Start planning now to ease your body into the time transition.

Clocks jump ahead one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 8, erasing an hour of sleep. That results in a population with fatigue, cognitive slowing, mood problems and slower reaction times. Studies have shown an increase in heart attacks, traffic accidents and workplace injuries in the days following the shift to daylight saving time.

Vanderbilt Sleep Disorders Center specialist Kelly Brown, M.D., says her No. 1 tip is to stick to your normal weekday sleep schedule on the weekend.

[STORY: Sleep position affects personality]

“We often shift our sleep schedules on the weekend anyway, going to bed later and getting up later. When you add daylight savings to the mix, it makes it even harder to wake up Monday morning,” Brown said.

“Set your alarm on Saturday and Sunday just like you would through the week, and that lost hour of sleep won’t have a big impact.”

You can prepare even more in the days leading up to the time change. Beginning Wednesday, March 4, go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night and wake up 15 minutes earlier each morning. When Sunday arrives, you will already be adjusted.

[STORY: Your brain can classify words and more while you’re sleeping]

“This is especially good for young children who may have difficulty with a change in routine,” Brown said.

It usually takes just a day or two to feel normal again, but some people can require up to two weeks to make the transition. If the post-time change grogginess continues for more than two weeks, Brown says a sleep specialist may be able to help.

“It’s very important to note that if you are feeling sleepy during the day or having difficulty falling or staying asleep, you should talk to your primary care provider and consider an evaluation by a sleep physician. Sleep disorders are highly treatable and their treatment can make a dramatic change in your health and daytime functioning.”

Tips to ease the daylight saving time transition:

  • Stick to your normal sleep schedule on the weekends.
  • Go to bed 15 minutes earlier each night, starting on the Wednesday before the change (March 4). This eases your body into the time change and makes the transition less abrupt.
  • Dim the lights earlier on nights leading up to the time change. Avoid bright light in the evening, especially from computer and TV screens.
  • Avoid alcohol and caffeine in the evening.
  • Have a calming bedtime routine, such as reading or taking a bath.
  • Keep the bedroom cool and dark.
  • Get morning exercise in the sunlight on the weekend of the time change.
  • Eat an early breakfast and dinner on the weekend before, and eat a good breakfast the Monday morning after the time change.

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D’oh! Did Homer Simpson predict the mass of the Higgs boson?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Fourteen years before researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) first observed the elementary particle known as the Higgs boson, another individual developed an equation that correctly predicted the mass of the so-called “God particle.”

That individual, believe it or not, was Homer Simpson.

According to The Huffington Post, a 1998 episode of the popular animated television program ‘The Simpsons’ shows the titular clan’s typically thick-headed patriarch standing in front of a chalkboard containing a complex mathematical formula prefiguring CERN’s discovery.

The discovery was made by Dr. Simon Singh, a physicist and the author of the 2013 book The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets. Dr. Singh spotted the equation in the episode entitled “The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace,” in which Homer attempts to become an inventor.

[STORY: ‘Simpsons’ to help improve British diets]

“That equation predicts the mass of the Higgs boson. If you work it out, you get the mass of a Higgs boson that’s only a bit larger than the nano-mass of a Higgs boson actually is,” the author told The Independent. “It’s kind of amazing… My PhD is in particle physics, so I was similarly shocked by Homer’s equation predicting the mass of the Higgs boson.”

What the crap is Higgs boson?

Dr. Singh is well versed in the Higgs boson, a particle whose existence was first predicted back in the 1960s but was not detected experimentally until 2012. Not only is he the author of multiple books on various scientific topics, but the doctoral thesis he prepared while studying at Oxford University focused on CERN, the Swiss thinktank that confirmed the particle’s existence.

The existence of the particle was first predicted by Professor Peter Higgs, a theoretical physicist at the University of Edinburgh. His theory suggested that all subatomic particles interact within an energy field known as the Higgs field, giving them mass, according to the Daily Mail.

Just as how electromagnetic radiation can exist as both an energetic wave and a particle at the same time, the Higgs field has a corresponding particle known as the Higgs boson, the UK media outlet added. The proof did not come until recently, however, when scientists using the massive Large Hadron Collider announced they had found a particle that matched Higgs’ predictions.

Should Homer win the Nobel Prize?

They were able to prove the existence of a new particle with a mass of 125Gev/c2 thanks to a series of experiments that cost $13.25 billion (£8.6 billion). For their efforts, the CERN experts, as well as Higgs and his colleagues, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. No word yet if the Nobel committee will be adding Homer Simpson’s name to the list of honorees.

In reality, Dr. Singh revealed that one of the script writers for the episode in question, David X. Cohen, was responsible for sneaking in the mathematical equations onto the blackboard. Cohen, a gifted mathematician who studied physics at Harvard University, and high-school friend David Schiminovich, an astronomer at Columbia University, developed the formula together.

[VIDEO: Is the Higgs boson really the Higgs boson?]

“The equation is a playful combination of various fundamental parameters, namely the Planck constant, the gravitational constant, and the speed of light,” Dr. Singh said. “If you look up these numbers and plug them into the equation, it predicts a mass of 775 giga-electron-volts (GeV), which is not unreasonably higher than the 125 GeV estimate that emerged when the Higgs boson was discovered in 2012.”

“Indeed, 775 GeV was not a bad guess bearing in mind that Homer is an amateur inventor and he performed this calculation fourteen years before the physicists at CERN… tracked down the elusive particle,” he added.

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Scientists solve the mystery of Indian food’s unique appeal

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck
Ever wonder just what it is that makes Indian food so darn tasty? A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur have, and their curiosity inspired them to scientifically analyze more than 2,000 different recipes to shed some light on the subject.
Study authors Anupam Jaina, Rakhi N K, and Ganesh Bagler investigated the frequency with which overlapping compounds factored into a dish’s ingredients, Time.com reported in a story published Wednesday. The trio of researchers used recipes posted on the website TarlaDalal.com and looked at the “subtle molecular-level differences that distinguish the cuisine.”
A plethora of flavors
They found that the average flavor sharing in Indian cuisine was “significantly” lower than they had expected. Unlike in Western cooking, where ingredients are usually paired together for their similar flavors, the average Indian dish includes a minimum of seven different ingredients, most of which do not contain overlapping flavors, according to the study authors.
While cayenne, green bell pepper, coriander, and garam masala tend to be paired with ingredients with no chemical overlap, each one brings a unique component that winds up being incorporated into the finished meal, the website added. The result is a menu filled with flavorful dishes for a cuisine that uses more than half of the estimated 381 known cooking ingredients on Earth.
[STORY: Indian air pollution greatly endangers population]
Essentially, as the Washington Post explains, Indian food does something radically different than US or other Western cuisine, and it does so at the molecular level. Most Western chefs prefer to make dishes using ingredients with overlapping flavors, while some Asian foods use ingredients that do not overlap in flavor. Indian food takes the latter concept and turns it up a notch.
If you overlap your flavors, you’re gonna have a bad time
The Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur team broke down the ingredients used in different dishes and compared how frequently and heavily those ingredients shared flavor compounds. Even when foods seem dissimilar, such as an onion and a coconut, the in-depth analysis showed that there was some overlap in their flavor make-up, the study authors explained.
They broke down the nearly 2,500 recipes and looked for overlapping flavor compounds in the more than 200 total ingredients used in those dishes. Their work revealed that, unlike meals that were prepared by Western chefs, Indian cuisine tended to mix ingredients whose flavors do not overlap at all. The closer two ingredients are in flavor, the less likely they are to be used in the same Indian dish, according to the Washington Post.
So while many Indian recipes contain spices such as cayenne (the basis of curry powder), it is unlikely to contain two spices or ingredients that share similar flavors, and items such as bread, milk, rice, and butter, all of which are frequently used in the West, were found to be associated with flavor parings that matched.
“The takeaway is that part of what makes Indian food so appealing is the way flavors rub up against each other,” the website said. “The cuisine is complicated, no doubt: the average Indian dish, after all, contains at least 7 ingredients… but all those ingredients – and the spices especially – are all uniquely important because in any single dish, each one brings a unique flavor.”
[STORY: Spicy Indian food could help your brain heal itself]
“But the upshot should also be a thought that we might be approaching food from the wrong angle,” it added. “Combining ingredients with like flavors is a useful (and often delicious) strategy, but it might be a somewhat misleading rule of thumb. Indian cuisine, after all, is cherished globally, and yet hinges on a decidedly different ingredient pairing logic.”
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Yahoo! turns 20; we look back through the years

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Making it two decades in the “here today, gone tomorrow” world of the internet, and surviving more than its fair share of corporate turmoil along the way, is no small feat; so it makes sense that the folks at Yahoo! would want to do something special for the web portal’s 20th anniversary.

So, as reported earlier this week by CNET, CEO Marissa Mayer and more than 3,400 Yahoo! employees gathered outside the company’s Sunnyvale, California headquarters to perform the sound byte that has become synonymous with the website – the yodel. In the process, they set a new world record for the most people simultaneously yodeling.

[STORY: What does Title II actually mean for the future of the internet?]

“The act capped off a day of Yahoo! celebrations,” the website added. “When the Nasdaq opened on Monday, the bell yodeled instead of rang – the first modification of the bell in the stock exchange’s history. The company is one of the most iconic in Silicon Valley history, but it has been in turnaround mode after several years of flagging revenue.”

Let’s go back to 1994

The web portal now known as Yahoo! was the brainchild of David Filo and Jerry Yang, a pair of Ph.D. candidates in Stanford University’s electrical engineering department. Looking for a way to keep track of interesting sites on the internet, Filo and Yang first launched “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” in February 1994.

When the lists became too long, Filo and Yang decided to divide them into categories; and when those became too long, subcategories were added.

[STORY: Using physics to prevent human stampedes]

By April, the changed the name of the website Yahoo!, which is officially an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”. The name, however, was apparently selected because the Stanford students liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo (“rude, unsophisticated, uncouth”).

Not to be confused with barbecue, knives, or human-propelled watercraft

Word spread and the website started to gain popularity, as it became evident that people were looking for a single repository for useful Web sites. By the end of the 1994, Yahoo! had its first ever one-million-hit day, which translated to nearly 100,000 unique visitors. Thirteen months after creating the website, Filo and Yang incorporated the business, and secured $2 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, the same firm that funded Apple, Oracle, and Cisco.

Interestingly enough, though most of us simply refer to the website as Yahoo, its full name includes the exclamation mark (“Yahoo!”). The reason for this, according to a 2004 report from internet marketing and search-engine optimization blog BPWrap, is that when Filo and Yang went to trademark their company’s name, they found that Yahoo had previously been claimed for barbecue sauce, knives, and human-propelled watercraft. Thus, in order to assume control of the trademark, they had to add the exclamation mark, making it an official part of the name.

Like so many other companies, Yahoo! enjoyed the fruits of the dot-com boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, with its stock peaking well over $100 per share, and when the bubble burst, it struggled along with many of its rivals. Yahoo! survived, but it has yet to come close to its peak popularity, and has seen CEOs and business plans come and go over the last decade or so.

A guide to the web

Despite its struggles in recent years, Yahoo! remains one of the most frequently visited sites on the Web. In 2012, data tracking firm Alexa named it the fourth most popular website in both the US and the world. In 2013, it surpassed Google in terms of US web traffic for the first time since May 2011, with the a 21 percent increase in visitors over a span of just one year.

On Tuesday, Filo wrote a Tumblr post reflecting on the past 20 years.

“In 1995, Jerry and I started Yahoo to help people more easily navigate the web. We wanted to build a guide,” he said. “When we came up with the idea, it wasn’t designed to be a business, it was simply something we found useful. When we realized other people found it useful, we were motivated to work on it even more.”

“Twenty years later, the core of Yahoo is still the same. We are driven by the same purpose – to be your guide around the web,” he added “You may not know how much you motivate us every day by using our products and sharing your ideas, but you do. Thank you… for coming to Yahoo every day and inspiring us for the last two decades. I can’t wait to see what the next 20 years brings.”

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ISS experiment: Why does space change vision?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A new experiment, scheduled to launch to the International Space Station in the spring, plans to take a long look at vision changes often experienced by astronauts during extended spaceflights, NASA officials announced on Tuesday.

The cause of these vision issues is called visual impairment and intracranial pressure syndrome (VIIP), and according to the US space agency, it involves changes not only in the sense of sight but the structure of the eyes and indirect signs of increases pressure on the brain.

A shift in fluids

The human body is roughly 60 percent fluids, and in space, these fluids shift to the upper part of the body, moving across blood vessels and cell membranes in a different way than they do on Earth. The upcoming Fluid Shifts study will test the relationship between this phenomenon and VIIP, which reportedly affects over half of all US astronauts during extended spaceflights.

Learning more about how blood pressure in the brain affects vision and eye shape could also help those on Earth dealing with conditions that increase swelling and pressure in the eye, as well as though who have been placed on extended periods of bed rest.

[STORY: ISS adding more spaceship parking]

“Our first aim is to assess the shift in fluids, to see where fluids go and how the shift varies in different individuals,” explained Dr. Michael B. Stenger of the Wyle Science Technology and Engineering Group, one of the principal investigators of the Fluid Shifts project.

The second goal, Stenger added, is to “correlate fluid movement with changes in vision, the structure of the eye, and other elements of VIIP syndrome.” A third objective is to evaluate the application of negative pressure to the lower body, with the intention of preventing or reversing fluid shifts and determining if this can prevent vision changes from occurring.

Working with the Russians

Recently published ground-based data suggests that applying negative pressure to the lower body is able to shift fluids away from the head during simulated spaceflight, said Brandon Macias, a co-investigator on the study and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego.

Chibis suit

Expedition 36/37 Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano in the Chibis lower body negative pressure device aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

NASA scientists are collaborating with colleagues from the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) on the third part of the project, as the Russians have a lower body negative pressure device known as the Chibis suit already on board the ISS. The Chibis suit cannot be moved from the Russian Service Module of the space station, meaning that medical equipment required for the experiments will be transported from the US side of the ISS to the Russian end.

[STORY: How astronauts exercise on the ISS]

As Dr. Douglas Ebert explained, moving equipment in the microgravity environment of space is far more complicated than it would be on the Earth. In this instance, it will require four hours of crew time to move and set up the equipment, another one or two to conduct the experiment, then another four hours to move everything back. However, he and his colleagues are confident that it will be worth the effort, and that they will find the answers they’re looking for.

“It’s important to know what is happening because we may have to tailor preventive measures to each individual,” Stenger said. “We also may find that an exercise that is good for bone or muscle is bad for elevated intracranial pressure. Exercise is great for preserving work capacity and the musculoskeletal system but may be a contributor to increased pressure in the head.”

Curretly, the Chibis suits are only used by cosmonauts to prepare for re-entry, but if the Fluid Shifts study reveals that lower body negative pressure can help reverse fluid shifts towards the head and prevent the symptoms of VIIP, they may be uses more frequently on long missions.

[STORY: NASA emails wrench to space, astronaut prints it out]

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, space station veterans who have been selected for a one-year mission to the ISS, will have measurements recorded for the investigation soon after their arrival, at the halfway point, and again 45 days before their departure. That data should help provide a comprehensive look at what is happening with fluid shifts and VIIP.

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Half of HIV strains originated in gorillas, study says

Written By: Chuck Bednar
John

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Two of the four known groups of HIV strains that affect humans originated in western lowland gorillas in Africa, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania report in the March 2 edition of the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Beatrice Hahn, a professor of medicine and microbiology at Penn, and an international team of colleagues screened fecal samples from eastern lowland gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and mountain gorillas in Cameroon, Gabon, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo for signs of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) infection.

Alphabet game

According to HealthyDay News, HIV (HIV-1) has four known groups: M, N, O and P. Previous studies found that groups M and N originated in chimpanzees in southern Cameroon, but the origins of groups O and P remained uncertain. Now, however, the scientists have found that the remaining two groups also originated in Cameroon, but in western lowland gorillas.

[STORY: Llama antibodies capable of neutralizing HIV]

While all four subtypes of HIV can infect humans, only Group M was responsible for the AIDS epidemic that has killed millions of people worldwide, the researchers said. However, Group O has also infected a relatively large number of people (approximately 100,000) in Africa, while N and P have thus far only been identified in a handful of individuals in Cameroon.

In a statement, Dr. Hahn said that viral sequencing “revealed a high degree of genetic diversity among the different gorilla samples” and that two lineages of SIV were especially close to HIV groups O and P, indicating that those groups “originated in western lowland gorillas.”

“Understanding emerging disease origins is critical to gauge future human infection risks,” lead author Martine Peeters, a virologist from the Research and Development Institute (IRD) and the University of Montpellier in France, added.

[STORY: HIV vaccines increase infection rates in primate study]

She explained that “this study and others that our team has conducted in the past” had made it “clear that both chimpanzees and gorillas harbor viruses that are capable of crossing the species barrier to humans and have the potential to cause major disease outbreaks.”

Inactivating HIV

Approximately 78 million people have been infected by HIV, a pathogen that can destroy a person’s immune cells and leave that individual’s body vulnerable to opportunistic diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, since 1981, according to Discovery News. Based on UN statistics, nearly 40 million men and women have died as a result of the virus, the website added.

The study was funded by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, IRD, the University of Montpellier, the University of Edinburgh, and other institutions were involved in the research.

[STORY: Protein inactivates virtually all strains of HIV]

Last month, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in Florida and colleagues from the US and France discovered a genetically-engineered protein that inactivates all known strains of HIV. The protein, they explained, mimics a pair of receptors on the surface of the immune cells that are ordinarily infected by the AIDS-causing pathogen.

When HIV encounters the protein, it starts behaving like it does when it infects a cell, which causes changes to occur in the virus that prevents it from any future attempts at infection. The protein was reportedly found to be effective against HIV-1, HIV-2 and a form of SIV.

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Coffee drinkers have ‘cleaner’ arteries

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Enjoying a few cups of coffee each day could reduce your risk of heart disease by keeping your arteries from becoming clogged, according to a new Korean-led study published online Tuesday in the international peer-reviewed journal Heart.

According to BBC News, researchers from the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital and Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul and colleagues from the US and Malaysia studied more than 25,000 men and women who underwent routine health screenings at their places of employment.

[STORY: The science behind a great cup of coffee part i]

They found that those who consumed a moderate amount of coffee (three to five cups per day) were less likely to have early signs of heart disease. As the researchers told CBS News, drinking the caffeinated beverage was linked to reduced calcium build-up in the arteries, which is one early sign of hardening of the blood vessels and the risk for cardiovascular disease.

Perhaps related to type 2 diabetes

Dr. Eliseo Guallar, a professor from the department of epidemiology and medicine at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore and one of the authors of the study, emphasized that while it’s impossible to establish a direct, causal relationship between coffee and reduced calcium in the arteries, the link between the factors was strong.

The reasons for this association are not known, but Dr. Guallar told CBS that it could be because coffee reduces a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which in turn is a risk factor for hardening of the arteries. While the doctor did not advise people to start drinking coffee just to prevent heart disease, but noted that people “should not be concerned about coffee intake.”

Scanning away

Dr. Guallar and his colleagues used medical scan to assess heart health in their study, according to BBC News. Specifically, they were searching for any disease of the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. In coronary heart disease, a gradual build-up of fatty materials on the walls of these arteries cause them to become clogged.

The specific type of scan used by the study authors looks for small calcium deposits on the walls of those coronary arteries, which can provide an early warning that the processes responsible for this disease are underway. None of the employees had external signs of cardiovascular disease, but visible calcium deposits were found on more than 10 percent of their scans.

[STORY: Mold toxins: The science behind a great cup of coffee part ii]

The scan results were then compared to the employees’ self-reported daily coffee consumption habits, the British news outlet added. After accounting for other factors, including genetics and exercise habits, they found that those who consumed three to five cups of coffee per day were less likely to have calcium deposits than those who drank more or less.

“While this study does highlight a potential link between coffee consumption and lower risk of developing clogged arteries, more research is needed to confirm these findings and understand what the reason is for the association,” Victoria Taylor of the British Heart Foundation told the BBC. “We need to take care when generalizing these results because it is based on the South Korean population, who have different diet and lifestyle habits to people in the UK.”

[STORY: Put some butter in it: The science behind a great cup of coffee part iii]

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Plenoptic capture technology improves VR broadcasts

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A Laguna Beach, California-based company is looking to bridge the gap between VR headsets and sci-fi style holodecks by combining live 3D virtual reality broadcasts with plenoptic capture technology to allow viewers full freedom of movement in a VR broadcast.

Yes, it’s tough to see exactly what that means. Imagine this: You’re watching a VR broadcast of a basketball game. The ref steps in front of you and you lean to the side to see around him. This wasn’t previously possible with VR video capture technology, but now it’s happening.

Moving towards the holodeck

According to Engadget, NextVR wants to add plenoptic, or light-field capture, technology to its existing equipment in order to allow viewers to look around with a full six degrees of freedom.

The website said that the technology is comparable to that used by Lytro cameras which allow users to change the focus on a picture, even if it has already been taken.

[STORY: NBA All-star game filmed in virtual reality]

Officials at NextVR told the website that it will use a patented method to create a 3D geometric model of a scene that can be used for VR headsets and augmented reality units. David Cole, the co-founder of the company, called it the “next step towards creating a holodeck.”

Existing tech demos and live broadcasts produced thus far by Next VR “already include depth information used to create the 3D effect that really brought ‘you-are-there’ feeling, as shown in recent tests with the NBA and NHL,” Engadget said, adding that while watching sporting events in 3D “had always been a neat trick… but the restrictions of 3D killed the immersion.”

With its new light field technology, NextVR is promising to deliver an experience that would allow the viewer to look around a referee that is standing in front of a camera, or to watch a play happening at the other end of the court or rink from a better angle, the website added. In short, the company is trying to bring the experience of “being there” into the home.

Technical nitty-gritty

So how does it work? As the company explained in a recent press release, light field technology captures the direction from which light enters the camera, as well as its color and intensity. Then NextVR will apply this information to create geometric models of the entire scene. This information is then combined with existing stereoscopic video data.

[STORY: Florida pastor: VR technology can make church more immersive]

The result, NextVR said, is “a completely photo-realistic, ultra-high-resolution video environment in which viewers are free to look around like never before possible.” Users can change their view when using devices that support positional tracking, like Oculus’s “Crescent Bay” prototype or Valve’s new “Vive” headset.

NextVR was launched in 2009, and the company said that it currently has an IP portfolio that contains more than 21 granted and pending patents for the capture, compression, transmission, and display of virtual reality content. It has been researching and developing plenoptic capture and display technology for the past three years.

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Study: How long is the average penis?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Since the dawn of time, the question has been in the back of every male member of the species’ mind: how does the size of my penis compare to everyone else? Now science has finally given us the answer, in the form of a new study published Tuesday in the journal BJU International.

In the study, Dr. David Veale, of King’s College London and his colleagues analyzed 17 studies that looked at size measurements of the reproductive organs of over 15,000 men, and compiled a handy size chart that lets guys precisely know how close their penises are to normal-sized.

The results are in…

According to CBC News, the average measurements were:

  • Flaccid length: 3.61 inches (9.16 centimeters)
  • Flaccid stretched length: 5.21 inches (13.24 centimeters)
  • Erect length: 5.17 inches (13.12 centimeters)
  • Flaccid girth or circumference: 3.67 inches (9.31 centimeters)
  • Erect circumference: 4.59 inches (11.66 centimeters)

Furthermore, as Science reports, “a graph of the size distribution shows that outliers are rare. A 16-cm (6.3-inch) erect penis falls into the 95th percentile: Out of 100 men, only five would have a penis larger than 16 cm. Conversely, an erect penis measuring 10 cm (3.94 inches) falls into the 5th percentile: Only five out of 100 men would have a penis smaller than 10 cm.”

penile length averages

Credit: BJU International

And the graph for girth:

penile girth averages

Credit: BJU International

For the benefit of all mankind

Unlike previous research in the field, the new study was not reliant upon self-reporting. As Dr. Veale explained, guys have a bad tendency to “overestimate themselves.” Instead, he and his co-authors looked solely at data compiled by doctors and other medical personnel, all of whom used a standardized measuring procedures.

[STORY: Humans have one penis; lizards have two; why?]

Dr. Veale believed that the findings will help doctors reassure most guys that the size of their penis is in the normal range. For those with small penis anxiety, which the doctor calls “a hidden problem,” education and counseling may be useful. Similarly, guys who are preoccupied with or severely distressed by the size or shape of their member may have body dysmorphic disorder.

A quick guide on how to measure

Before you break out the ruler to see how you measure up, the researchers emphasize that it is important to follow the same measurement procedures used in the study. All measurements need to begin from the public bone and end at the tip of the glans (the sensitive bulbous structure at the end of the penis).

Any fat covering the pubic bone was compressed before the measurements were made, and any additional length resulting from the foreskin was not included. The circumference was measured at the base of the penis or around the middle of the shaft, as both areas were declared to be equal to one another, the study authors said.

[STORY: Archaeologists: King Tut’s penis is missing]

According to Science, the researchers found “no strong evidence to link penis size to other physical features such as height, body mass index, or even shoe size… Likewise, the study found no significant correlation between genital dimensions and race or ethnicity, although Veale points out that their study was not designed to probe such associations, because much of the data used were from studies of Caucasian men.”

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Can tossed cigarettes blow up your car?

Written By: Christopher Pilny
Christopher Pilny

Shayne Jacopian for redOrbit.com – @ShayneJacopian

According to Mythbusters, the answer is mostly no.

While a cigarette butt has the potential to ignite gasoline, it doesn’t have enough sustained heat. Gasoline ignites at 500-550°F, and cigarettes don’t even get close to that unless they’re actually being smoked, in which case, a cigarette can almost reach 500°.

So if your car starts hemorrhaging gasoline and you decide to jump ship just as you take a drag, then maybe your car (and you) will explode. But a cigarette butt tossed out of a moving vehicle sending the whole thing up in smoke? Not a chance.

But you know what kind of cigarettes can explode?

The electronic ones. It’s a rare occurrence, with only 25 incidents in the US in the last five years, according to the USFA, but even so, it’s more likely than a cigarette igniting a moving vehicle.

[STORY: E-cigarettes may be safer, but they’re still harmful]

However, of all incidents reported, only 8% of them occurred while the e-cig was in use, with 80% of explosions occurring while a device’s battery was being charged, and few of them resulting in bodily harm.

Still, those few instances where injury did occur were pretty brutal. In Florida, a man got all of his teeth and part of his tongue blown out when an electronic cigarette exploded in his mouth. Outside of the US, and elderly Englishman died when his charging e-cigarette ignited, which in turn caused his oxygen concentrator to explode, with another suffering severe injuries to his legs as the result of a vape pen explosion.

So while you can’t blow up your car by tossing out a spent cigarette, it’s plausible that you could blow it up by charging (or smoking) an electronic one inside.

[STORY: US reportedly had plans to blow up the moon]

Whether or not other cigarette alternatives like Nicorette can explode remains to be seen.

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3D print your own (virtual) spaceship

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

If you’re one of the lucky few who have managed to master the Kerbal Space Program design simulator, a 3D printing company is now making it possible for you to create a lasting monument to your success with a plastic replica of the vessel that you created.

Eucl3d, which makes custom collectables for video game enthusiasts, is now allowing players of Kerbal Space Program to upload their ‘.craft’ files and order scale PVC models of their creations for as little as $99 each, according to reports published Monday by Engadget.

[STORY: Child given 3D-printed Storm Trooper prosthetic arm]

However, the website warns that you “may not get the epic grandeur you expect” as the company will have to scale the models down in size, and that some smaller details (such as struts) could be automatically deleted by the system as they are too small to print. Still, those are “minor details,” and the majority of the finished creations “look fantastic,” it added.

Three sizes

Those who have managed to actually build a cool-looking, functional ship in the physics-based spaceflight simulator can upload their information through Eucl3d’s website, and Polygon noted that each of the models will be “roughly the same size as [the spaceship’s] longest axis.”

Ships are available in three sizes, according to Technabob: 8 inches, 10 inches and 12 inches. While the smaller prints are available for the aforementioned $99 price tag, the website pointed out that the medium and larger prints will cost a little more ($140 and $200, respectively).

Getting NASA’s attention

Kerbal Space Program is a simulation game in which players are tasked with creating and managing their own space program, including building and flying spacecraft with the ultimate goal of helping the Kerbals fulfill their mission of conquering space. Developed by Squad, the game is currently in public beta development for release on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

[STORY: NASA emails wrench to space, astronaut prints it out]

KSP has even caught the attention of NASA, which according Engadget has embraced it as “a means to get the public interested in leaving our planet once again – much like the televised Apollo launches were for generations prior.” The US space agency has even started collaborating with teachers and school administrators to develop a classroom-focused version of the game.

“The development team’s efforts as a whole have been a success, and there’s proof that the player-base is much more than a handful of space-geeks and Lockheed Martin employees too,” the website said. “The team said that in a recent survey a staggering number of their players (some 92 percent) weren’t involved in the space industry at all, and an even higher amount (97 percent) became more interested in science and space as a direct result of playing.”

KSP is currently in the beta stage of development, and a date for the final official release has not yet been determined. The first, alpha version of the game was released on June 24, 2011, and it is regularly being updated with new features. The most recent version of KSP (0.90) was released in December, and a NASA-supported Asteroid Mission Pack is also available.

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Was this the childhood home of Jesus?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Archaeologists have discovered what may have been the childhood home of Jesus – a house in Nazareth that dates back to the first century and is located underneath an Israeli convent.

According to Gizmodo, the house was excavated by University of Reading archaeologist Dr. Ken Dark and his colleagues and was built into the limestone face of a hillside, beneath a convent that itself was built atop a Byzantine church believed to be approximately 1,500 years old.

Sparse, yet intriguing evidence

Nazareth was controlled by the Byzantines until the seventh century, the website explained, and the civilization likely placed a church atop the house because local Christians have long believed that it was where Jesus had spend his infancy. While it is impossible to verify that Jesus himself had ever lived there, the researchers state that it reveals much about life during that era.

[STORY: Controversial book claims to have evidence Jesus was married]

“What was Nazareth like when Jesus lived there? The evidence is sparse but intriguing,” Dark wrote in a recent edition of the Biblical Archaeology Review. “Surprising as it may seem, very little archaeological work has been done in Nazareth itself. However, a site within the Sisters of Nazareth Convent, across the street from the Church of the Annunciation, may contain some of the best evidence of the small town that existed here in Jesus’ time.”

Sisters of Nazareth tomb

Tomb within the house. (Credit: K.R.Dark copyright 2010)

The house itself had stone walls and a courtyard, as well as several rooms with chalk floors. In addition, Dark and his colleagues found the remains of a stairway, and limestone dishware was found among the other regular household items. Dark said that the presence of this dishware is evidence that the home belonged to a Jewish family, as Jews of that era believed that limestone could not become impure and was ideal for holding food, Gizmodo explained.

Abandoned but still used

The archaeologists believe that the home was abandoned at some point during the first century, according to LiveScience. It was later used as a burial ground, and two now-empty tombs were build beside the abandoned structure, with the forecourt of one cutting through the home itself. The Byzantine Church of the Nutrition would have been built centuries later, and after it was no longer used, it was rebuilt by Crusaders in the 12th century and burned down in the 13th.

[STORY: Newly discovered Gospel used for divination, fortune-telling]

“Great efforts had been made to encompass the remains of this building within the vaulted cellars of both the Byzantine and Crusader churches, so that it was thereafter protected,” Dark wrote, according to LiveScience. “Both the tombs and the house were decorated with mosaics in the Byzantine period, suggesting that they were of special importance, and possibly venerated.”

“The tomb cutting through the house is today commonly called ‘the Tomb of St. Joseph,’ and it was certainly venerated in the Crusader period, so perhaps they thought it was the tomb of St. Joseph,” he told the website. “However, it is unlikely to be the actual tomb of St. Joseph, given that it dates to after the disuse of the house and localized quarrying in the first century.”

A great insight into life during Jesus’ time

Whether or not it was the actual home of Jesus, the house reveals much about what life would have been like during his lifetime, the archaeologists explained. Despite the growing influence of Rome during the first century BC, Dark’s team reportedly found evidence suggesting that people living in and around Nazareth rejected that empire’s culture.

[STORY: Scientists may have discovered oldest section of Gospels ever]

A survey conducted at the nearby valley of Nahal Zippori found that people who lived on the northern end of that valley (closer to the Roman town of Sepphoris) were more likely to embrace Roman culture than those living to the south (closer to Nazareth), Dark said. The “strength” of the “anti-Roman sentiment” and the “Jewish identity” in Nazareth was “unusual,” he added.

“We will never know if this is the home where a Jewish rebel named Jesus grew up, before challenging the Roman government and founding one of the most popular religions in the west. But we can be certain that the home dates to the time when Jesus is said to have been born,” Gizmodo said. “It offers us a window on the past, and a glimpse of what Jewish villages were like under the Roman Empire.”

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New glasses make you invisible to facial recognition technology

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Best known as a freeware Internet security and personal protection software developer, Czech Republic-based AVG has announced a new product designed to help prevent facial recognition technology from determining a person’s identity.

The company is calling them “invisibility glasses,” and according to Gizmodo, the new eyewear utilizes a set of infrared LEDs located around the eyes and nose that can only be seen by a digital camera to keep facial recognition software from getting a lock on your facial features.

[STORY: New invisibility cloak could help surgeons, drivers]

The LED lights on the device, which is currently in the concept stage, obscures those regions of the face when a person or computer attempts to take his or her picture.

facebook facial recognition

Credit: AVG

Furthermore, the glasses are covered in a retro-reflective material that directs the light given off by a camera flash back at the camera itself, causing the photograph to be overexposed, the website added.

retro relfective

Credit: 3M

Protecting your identity in the digital age

AVG unveiled the new identity-protecting specs at the Pepcom event in Barcelona, Spain prior to the Mobile World Congress. The glasses were developed by AVG Innovation Labs in order to help “protect your visual identity in the digital age,” the company said in a statement.

The glasses, they explained, could help prevent smartphone users from snapping and uploading unwanted and potentially embarrassing photos of you. They can also prevent your likeness from being captured and featured in Google StreetView or other big-data projects.

[VIDEO: Damn the torpedoes: US Navy approves invisible laser weapon for USS Ponce]

The invisibility glasses could also keep organizations from using technology such as Facebook’s DeepFace to identify your face, then use other databases to cross-reference it in order to find out more about you without your permission.

Their kryptonite

AVG admits that the system is not perfect. It could be foiled if a cellphone’s camera sensors have a strong enough infrared filter to eliminate wavelengths beyond the visible spectrum, and the retro-reflective material only works with flash photography. Otherwise, not enough light will be sent back to distort the camera sensors.

Also, a camera with higher dynamic range can be used to minimize the darkening of the subject, the company added. Finally, as Gizmodo pointed out, the eyeglasses do nothing to hide the body of the person wearing them, nor does it obscure what is going on in the rest of the image. In other words, there may be other ways in which you could still be identified.

[STORY: Language can help our eyes see invisible things]

“At this stage, invisibility glasses, including those we will be displaying at Pepcom are just a proof of concept,” AVG said. “Rather than designing a product for market release, tech experts are investigating how technology can adapt to combat the daily erosion of our privacy in the digital age. Don’t expect to see them for sale any time soon!”

“There’s no word on if or when AVG plans to put these glasses into production, but hopefully if the company plans to go ahead with the design it will find a way to make those LEDs a little smaller and a little more subtle,” added Gizmodo. “And here’s to hoping the glasses won’t need a software update every other day like the company’s antivirus software.”

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Nanodevice can eliminate drug resistance in cancer cells

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Researchers at MIT have developed a new device which uses nanoparticles to block the genes that confers drug resistance, offering a new way to prevent chemotherapy and other treatments from losing their effectiveness in treating cancer over time.

The nanodevice consists of gold particles embedded in a hydrogel, and it can be injected or implanted at a tumor site. After it prevents cancer cells from becoming drug resistant, it launches a new chemotherapy attack against the now-vulnerable tumor, the researchers explained.

[STORY: Cancer treatment from the vet]

In addition, Natalie Artzi, a research scientist at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and the senior author of a paper describing the device in this week’s edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said that the gold nanoparticles could also be used more broadly to disrupt any type of gene involved in cancer.

“You can target any genetic marker and deliver a drug, including those that don’t necessarily involve drug-resistance pathways. It’s a universal platform for dual therapy,” Artzi, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a statement Tuesday.

Small devices in small patients

In order to demonstrate that the device was effective, Artzi and her colleagues tested it in mice that had been implanted with a type of human breast cancer known as a triple negative tumor – tumors that lack any of the three common breast cancer markers (estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor and Her2) and are typically extremely difficult for doctors to treat.

[VIDEO: Tiny treasure: The future of nano-gold]

The new device was used to treat the mice for two weeks, first by blocking the gene for MRP1 (multidrug resistant protein 1) and then by delivering the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil. In those two weeks, the researchers were able to shrink the tumors by a reported 90 percent.

MRP1, the study authors explained, is one of several genes that can help tumor cells gain a resistance to chemotherapy. It codes for a protein that eliminates cancer drugs from tumor cells, pumping them out and rendering them ineffective. Not only does it interfere with 5-fluorouracil, but with several other commonly used drugs as well, including doxorubicin.

“Drug resistance is a huge hurdle in cancer therapy and the reason why chemotherapy, in many cases, is not very effective,” said IMES postdoc and lead author João Conde.

DNA-plated gold

To overcome this issue, she and her colleagues created gold nanoparticles coated with strands of DNA that complemented the sequence of MRP1’s instruction-transmitting messenger RNA.

[VIDEO: Using robots to remove the esophagus]

These DNA strands, which Conde and her colleagues refer to as “nanobeacons,” typically fold back on themselves to form a closed-hairpin structure. However, when they encounter the right type of messenger RNA sequence in a cancer cell, it unfolds and binds to the mRNA, keeping it from producing additional molecules of the MRP1 protein, the researchers explained,

While it unfolds, the DNA also releases molecules of 5-fluorouracil that had been embedded in the strand, allowing the drug to attack the DNA of the tumor cell since the MRP1 can no longer force it out of the cell. In short, Conde explains, silencing the gene eliminates the cancer cell’s resistance to the drug, allowing said drug to once again become effective.

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IKEA releasing wireless charging enabled furniture

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

How would you like to have wireless charging built right into your computer desk or nightstand? IKEA announced on Sunday that it is joining forces with the Wireless Power Consortium to make such household products a reality.

Shocking revelations

According to The Verge, the new line of products will include lamps and other small pieces of furniture that have built-in Qi wireless chargers. They will go on sale in Europe and North America this spring.

[STORY: IKEA set to be self-sufficient by 2020]

In addition, the company will be offering a small IKEA-designed pad that can add Qi charging to any existing surface. The charging spots, Gizmodo explains, could eliminate the need for microUSB power cords or other unwieldy cables.

“It’s a rare move forward in technology for IKEA, known best for its massive showroom stores, affordable assemble-it-yourself furniture and its Swedish meatballs,” said CNET. For those users who have “compatible smartphones and cases,” however, “it’s an added convenience.”

Taking sides

It is also a boost to the Wireless Power Consortium in its ongoing battle with the rival Power Matters Alliance. While the WPC’s Qi wireless charging technology is available in more mobile devices, PMA’s technology is available in places such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, and is also supported by AT&T. The two formats are incompatible with one another.

[STORY: Wireless charging market to be worth $13.78 billion by 2020]

The WPC vs PMA battle feels like a Monty Python skit. Should we support the People’s Front of Judea or the Judean People’s Front?

In the statement, IKEA pointed out that Qi is “the most widely deployed wireless power standard, available in 3,000 hotels, restaurants, airports and public locations worldwide.” In addition, the WPC’s method is supported by over 80 smartphones (including those offered by LG, Lumia and Samsung), as well as 15 models of cars and “countless” mobile accessories.

That, according to CNET, is what convinced IKEA to commit to WPC.

Commitment to the future

“IKEA is delivering on its vision of making life at home better with this innovative, stylish and useful new collection that show consumers the beauty and simplicity of wireless charging,” said WPC chairman Menno Treffers. “We applaud IKEA for its unmatched insight and their unique passion for making wireless charging affordable and simple for consumers.”

[STORY: Qi wireless charging expands to airports]

“Our belief is that mobile phones are vital parts to people’s lives at home and their desire to stay connected, and Qi addresses an unmet need to keep devices powered,” added Bjorn Block, Range Manager for Lighting and Wireless Charging, at IKEA. “As a member of WPC, we value the access to the leading and most advanced global standard for wireless charging.”

As for the forthcoming line of IKEA products, the website said that they’ll initially offer one or two collections per year including tables, desks and lamps. The company plans to release up to 10 collections in the long-term, and will also offer a kit that allows customers to customize their existing furniture with a wireless Qi charging spot, they added.

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Rare white elephant discovered in Myanmar

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Officials in Myanmar reported on Sunday that they have located and captured a rare white elephant in the jungles of the western Ayeyarwaddy region, making it just the ninth member of its species to have been discovered in the country also known as Burma.

Forestry official Tun Tun Oo told the Associated Press that the elephant is a seven-year-old female that was captured by his department on Friday, six weeks after it was first spotted living in a reserve in Pathein township.

[STORY: Rare stegosaurus skeleton digitized by London museum]

Oo added that they “had to be careful” in capturing the “wild” creature because they didn’t want either it or the forestry officials to get hurt in the process. The elephant is about six foot, three inches (190 centimeters) tall and has “pearl color eyes,” according to the AFP.

Symbols of royal power

The AP explained that white elephants, which are actually albinos, have long been revered in Myanmar, Laos and other Asian countries. They are typically pinkish in color and previously were kept and cared for by monarchs as “a symbol of royal power and prosperity.” Even today, many people continue to believe that they are symbols of good luck, the wire service said.

“Previous white elephants transported from Myanmar’s jungles have been heralded in lavish ceremonies in which military leaders sprinkle them with scented water laced with gold, silver and precious gems,” the Daily Mail said. “And in the 16th century Thailand… and Burma even went to war over the disputed ownership of four white elephants.”

Chang samkhan

Myanmar now has a total of nine white elephants in captivity, including five in the capital’s zoo and three in Rangoon. It was not immediately clear where the new elephant will be housed.

[STORY: Rare footage captured of elusive Saharan cheetah]

According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are between 25,600 to 32,750 Asian elephants remaining in the wild. Only males carry tusks and are thus targeted by poachers for their ivory, which continues to be a threat to the population on these pachyderms. Burma, India and Vietnam have banned the capture of wild elephants for domestic use to protect wild populations.

In Thailand, white elephants are officially known as ‘chang samkhan’ or ‘auspicious elephants,’ and only experts in the royal palace can determine what qualifies as an auspicious elephant and then assign it a rank, according to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. White elephants are placed into one of four families using “ancient and arcane rules,” and are then given heirarchical ranks using seven different basic criteria, the organization added.

Myanmar, which the AFP says has been “ruled by a quasi-civilian government” over the past four years, is currently preparing for a new general election. Prior to the last set of elections, held in 2010, the discovery of a white elephant was hailed by state media outlets as an indication of a successful “democratic transition,” despite allegations of fraud and criticism of the polls.

[STORY: Rare ancient Atlantis metal found on shipwreck]

“The country’s long-feared army is also currently enjoying a rare public relations boost as it battles ethnic Chinese rebels in the northeastern borderlands,” the news organization added. “The fighting has been framed by state media as a defense of sovereignty, but it has also intensified doubts over government efforts to reach a nationwide ceasefire deal.”

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Lost city discovered in Honduras

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A team of archaeologists has reportedly discovered a lost city deep within the remote jungles of Honduras – a lost city that had never been explored founded by a culture we know little about.

As first reported by National Geographic on Monday, Christopher Fisher, an archaeologist from Colorado State University, and his colleagues traveled to the site based on long-standing rumors that it was the location of a city referred to in legend as the “City of the Monkey God.”

Cult of the Were-Jaguar?

The city, which belonged to a culture so mysterious that experts have not even found a name for it, was extensively mapped by Fisher’s team, who found plazas, earthworks, mounds and even an earthen pyramid at the site, according to the website. The expedition, which lasted through last Wednesday, also  uncovered a collection of stone sculptures and dozens of artifacts.

[STORY: Has the lost city of Atlantis been found?]

In the article, Fisher called the find “incredibly rare,” especially since it was in perfect condition and had not been targeted by looters. He went on to speculate that the statues, which were found at the base of the pyramid, were “a powerful ritual display” and most likely an offering.

Among the more than 50 artifacts found there included ceremonial seats known as metates and carved vessels that had been decorated with snakes, vultures and other figures. One of the finds was the head of what the archaeologists believe was a “were-jaguar” sticking out of the ground. It is believed to be depicting a shaman in a transformed-spirit like shape, National Geographic said.

[STORY: 90-year-old ‘ghost ship’ discovered off Hawaii]

The research team believes that many more artifacts have been buried underground at potential burial sites, and many of the objects discovered were catalogued but not excavated. The lost city was first identified during an aerial survey of the La Mosquitia region in 2012, the report noted, and in order to protect the ruins from looters, their exact location is not being disclosed.

Tales of the White City

However, the story of this place, which is also known as Ciudad Blanca or the White City, dates back several hundred years. As Nat Geo explains, explorers and prospectors often told tales of a lost city with white ramparts visible above the jungle canopy, and local stories have mentioned a mystical paradise or “white house” where Indians went to escape Spanish conquistadors.

Several expeditions have sought out the location of this White City, some dating as far back as the 1920s, according to the website – including a 1940 expedition in which Theodore Morde of the Museum of the American Indian claimed to have found it and brought back artifacts from the city. He refused to reveal its location, however, and died without his claims being verified.

Fast forward to 2012

In 2012, a pair of documentary filmmakers named Steve Elkins and Bill Benenson launched a search for the lost city, and used a lidar (light detection and ranging) scanned from the Center for Airborne Laser Mapping at the University of Houston to aid their search.

Once Fisher analyzed the processed lidar images, he reportedly discovered “evidence of public and ceremonial architecture, giant earthworks and house mounds, possible irrigation canals and reservoirs” indicative of the presence of a pre-Columbian city, Nat Geo explained.

[STORY: Divers find treasure trove of gold coins off coast of Israel]

Fisher later confirmed the discovery as part of an expedition that also involved an anthropologist, an ethnobotanist, documentary filmmakers, a lidar engineer, a writer and photographer from the National Geographic Society and a security detail made up of Honduran Special Forces soldiers, but instead of one lost city, they believe they may have stumbled upon an entire lost civilization.

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First tree species seeds arrive at Norwegian ‘doomsday vault’

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

The so-called “doomsday vault” located on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard has received its first delivery of forest tree species seeds – a Norway spruce and a Scots pine.

The depository, which first opened in 2008, is attempting to preserve all global food crop seeds in the event of catastrophic natural or man-made disasters, according to the Beacon Review. The scientists there are hoping to monitor long-term genetic changes in natural forests.

[STORY: Where to hide during a zombie apocalypse]

“The possibility to have seed samples stored in the vault is a great opportunity to complement our forest tree gene conservation, which is based on in situ gene reserve forests,” Dr. Mari Rusanen, a researcher for Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), one of the organizations involved in the seed collection, told BBC News on Sunday.

“The beauty of in situ conservation is in its dynamic nature – we aim to converse natural genetic diversity per se, rather than specific genes or genotypes,” she added. “However, in the seed vault we will have long-term, ex situ, conservation/preservation of the existing genetic composition of the selected gene reserve forests.”

Dr. Rusanen went on to explain that the vault offered peace-of-mind in the unlikely event of a devastating event, such as all-out nuclear war or an apocalyptic weather event. On a more personal level, though, she said that she felt it was more important to collect the samples in order to monitor how these ecosystems change over the long-term.

They’ve been pining for a spruce

The Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) is a species of pine that is native to Europe and Asia and can be identified by its combination of fairly short, blue-green leaves and orange-red bark. The Norway spruce (Picea abies) is a species of spruce native to Central and Eastern Europe that can grow to up to 180 feet tall and is used as the primary Christmas tree in many parts of the world.

[STORY: Killer robots, climate change have doomsday clock at 11:55PM]

The two tree species seeds, which were Finland and Norway, are the first consignment of seeds from a consortium of scientific groups from throughout the Nordic nations, BBC News noted. They were selected because of the key economic, ecological and social role that they play, and the global seed vault is expected to add several other types of trees in the near future.

Brian Lainoff of the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT), the group that operates the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, told BBC News that there were several reasons why they decided to collect forest tree seeds in the frozen outpost, located on the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.

“The genetic diversity of forest tree species worldwide is influenced by a number of factors, of which climate change and forest management activities are most important for the major forest tree species,” he said. “Fragmentation of populations, browsing, pests and diseases are other factors of varying importance.”

Future entries

Lainoff added that while the Nordic consortium’s seeds were the first to enter the vault, future entries will be contributed from other countries. Among other new arrivals at the Svalbard vault were soy bean, barley, lentil, sorghum and wheat samples contributed by officials at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as nearly 2,500 rice samples from AfricaRice.

[STORY: A mysterious hole at the end of the world]

“Africa is bearing the brunt of all of the global challenges that threaten food security, such as political instability, climate change and population increase,” said Dr. Marie-Noelle Ndjiondjop, head of AfricaRice’s Genetic Resources Unit. “We must not lose the ability to develop the crops that will help us meet and overcome these challenges.”

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Using physics to prevent human stampedes

Written By: Brett Smith
Christopher Pilny

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Walking through Mid-town Manhattan can feel a bit like the mosh pit at Foo Fighters concert, with less of the violent body-to-body contact. Researchers have long been fascinated by the dynamics of this kind of crowd movement, and science has struggled to produce a model that can reliably replicate crowd dynamics.

Now, for the first time, scientists have developed a simulation that can reliably model crowd dynamics, according to research being presented on Friday at the American Physical Society’s March Meeting.

To create the model, the researchers started by considering individual people in a crowd as a bunch of charged particles. If humans do behave like charged particles, the model could be based on a simple “repulsive force” that acted across a certain distance. However, this model doesn’t reliably reproduce crowd dynamics.

[STORY: Most people would rather do anything at all than sit in silence]

The team needed to develop a more complex model and to do so – they analyzed video footage of crowds in both an outside campus setting and an indoor setting involving a bottleneck. The researchers learned that people engage in a reliable and universal way if their “time until a possible collision” is known. The study team found that humans do not act like charged particles since they can foresee collisions, and this is crucial to outlining crowd interactions.

Time Until Collision would be a cool band name

Based on their investigation, the scientists discovered a simple mathematical law for the interactions force between two pedestrians that relies only on the “time until collision” factor. They used this rule to emulate realistic crowds in an array of urban settings.

When they ran their simulation, the team saw familiar crowd motions emerge: people strolling towards an on-coming collision veered well ahead of time, and individuals traveling in exactly the same direction usually walked near each other. These real-life patterns had been tough to reproduce with previous pedestrian models.

“Remarkably, this simple law is able to describe human interactions across a wide variety of situations, speeds, and densities,” the study team wrote about their work in an abstract published by the APS.

The researchers noted that their research united the fields of statistical physics and sociology.

“It is very exciting to me to think about how psychology affects our motion and how people are different from the systems physicists normally model,” said study team member Stephen Guy, a 3D modeling and animation expert at the University of Minnesota.

The study team said they want their crowd simulation to be used to anticipate possible dangers in sporting events and music festivals – possibly preventing congestion and stampedes. Their models could also be used to test the crowd safety of new structures prior to any construction occurring.

[STORY: ER visits on the rise due to distracted walking]

“The universality of our law is really surprising, and understanding this can lead to safer building designs and shed some light into the anticipatory nature of human interactions,” said study author Ioannis Karamouzas, a post-doctoral engineering researcher at the University of Minnesota.

Karamouzas specializes in computing for virtual characters and the new research he is scheduled to present could also be applied to more realistic crowds in video games and other kinds of digital entertainment.

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Cluster of stars found forming at edge of Milky Way

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A cluster of stars forming at the edge of our very own Milky Way galaxy has been discovered by a team of Brazilian astronomers using data collected from the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the US space agency announced on Friday.

These stars live on the edge

“A stellar nursery in what seems to be the middle of nowhere is quite surprising,” said Peter Eisenhardt, the project scientist for the WISE mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. “But surprises turn up when you look everywhere, as the WISE survey did.”

[STORY: Dark matter-rich Coma Cluster may house failed galaxies]

The team of astronomers responsible for the discovery, led by Denilso Camargo of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, have published their findings in a recent issue of the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The Milky Way has a barred spiral shape, with arms of stars, dust and gas emerging from a central bar, the researchers explained. When it is viewed from the side, the galaxy appears to be relatively flat, with the majority of the material in a disk and in the central area.

Stars form within dense clumps of gas in what are known as giant molecular clouds (GMCs). These GMCs are primarily located in the inner part of the galactic disk, and with many clumps within each of these clouds, the majority of stars are born together in clusters.

Carmargo’s team analyzed infrared survey images provided from WISE and found GMCs located thousands of light years above and below the galactic disk. They also found that one of them contained two clusters of stars, marking the first time that researchers had ever discovered stars forming in such a remote location of the galaxy.

[STORY: Is the Milky Way a wormhole?]

The new clusters are located in the molecular cloud HRK 81.4-77.8, which is believed to be approximately two million years old and roughly 16,000 light years beneath the galactic disk – a tremendous distance from the traditional regions of star formation, according to the researchers. The clusters have been given the names Camargo 438 and 439.

Cluster explanation

According to Carmago, there are two possible explanations for the phenomenon. In the first, supernova explosions and other violent events eject dusk and gas out of the galactic disk. That material then falls back, merges, and forms GMCs. In the second, the GMCs formed from gas that was disturbed by interaction with the galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds.

The first explanation, also known as the “chimney model,” would need several hundred massive stars to have exploded as supernovae over the course of several generations, creating a so-called “superwind” that forced HRK 81.4-77.8 into its present position, the authors explained.

The bubbles created by these explosions would, over millions of years, themselves compress materials, forming an increasing number of stars and fuelling the ejection of material in a type of “galactic fountain,” they added. Eventually, the gas and dust would fall back down onto the disk.

“Our work shows that the space around the Galaxy is a lot less empty that we thought,” Carmago said in a statement. “The new clusters of stars are truly exotic. In a few million years, any inhabitants of planets around the stars will have a grand view of the outside of the Milky Way, something no human being will probably ever experience.”

[VIDEO: 360 degree view of Milky Way]

“Now we want to understand how the ingredients for making stars made it to such a distant spot. We need more data and some serious work on computer models to try to answer this question,” the astronomer added.

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Casket at Richard III’s grave contained elderly woman

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A coffin-within-a-coffin discovered close to the remains of King Richard III contained an elderly woman who may have been an early church benefactor, archaeologists have announced.

The lead coffin was found within a stone sarcophagus at the site of the former Grey Friars church in Leicester, England, and according to BBC News, it was initially believed to have belonged to a knight or the head of the religious order. However, researchers have now revealed that the body was a female who might have died as much as a century before Richard III.

Feet sticking out the bottom

As Discovery News reported on Sunday, the coffin featured an inlaid crucifix which had been carefully soldered on all sides but had feet sticking out of the bottom. It was discovered inside of a larger, limestone sarcophagus in August 2013 – one year after the battle-scarred remains of the last member of the Plantagenet line of kinds were unearthed in a Leicester parking lot.

Radiocarbon dating suggests that the woman entombed in the lead casket could have died as late as 1400, although experts believe it is more likely that she was buried in the last half of the 13th century, the website said. Her sarcophagus was the first medieval stone coffin found intact under the former Franciscan friary, and was one of nine other burial sites located there.

Girls, girls, girls

In addition to Richard III’s grave, three other grave sites were excavated, and all of them turned out to belong to women, BBC News added. The woman’s stone casket was found in a prominent position within the church, possibly near the high altar and typically reserved for wealthy donors. The other two coffins were both wooden and found in the same area as the king, the choir.

The friary was built around 1250 and demolished in 1538 during King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, Discovery News said, and while it King Richard was the only male identified at the burial site, the archaeologists point out that there may be hundreds of other graves located elsewhere inside the church, in other nearby buildings and outside in the cemetery.

“Richard III would certainly not have been the only male buried here during the friary’s 300-year history and historic records list at least three other men buried in the church,” dig leader Matthew Morris told BBC News.

“What stands out more is the contrast between the care and attention taken with these burials – large, neatly dug graves with coffins – and the crudeness of Richard III’s grave,” he added. “The more we examine it, the clearer it becomes how atypical Richard III’s burial really was.”

They’re so working class

He and his colleagues also revealed that the diets of the women, which included a variety of expensive foods such as sea fish, meat, and game, indicate that they were relatively wealthy. However, they also showed signs of having participated in hard physical labor, suggesting that they were most likely middle-class Leicester residents.

“It is interesting then that she is buried in an area of the church which would have typically been reserved for wealthy benefactors and people of elevated social status,” Morris said. “[This] might suggest that the friary’s main source of donations came from the town’s middle classes, merchants and tradespeople, who were probably of more modest means and worked for a living.”

[VIDEO: Discovering Richard III’s death blow]

Prior to the discovery of the woman, the archaeologists predicted that the grave may have belonged to one of two former leaders of the English Grey Friars order: either Peter Swynsfeld, who died in 1272, and William of Nottingham, who died in 1330.

“We speculated that this grave might be for one of them,” Morris told Discovery News. “To find that it contained a woman was intriguing and to some extent frustrating for we know much less about the women associated with the friary than the men.”

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Introverts prefer mountainous regions

Written By: Christopher Pilny
Christopher Pilny

Provided by Jennifer Santisi, Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Psychological traits, such as personality and well-being, are spatially and regionally clustered within cities, states, countries, and the world. Four presentations showcase cutting-edge research that investigates how traits are spatially and geographically clustered, what mechanisms drive the uneven distribution of traits, and the consequences of these spatial patterns. The presentations are part of a symposium featured at the SPSP 16th Annual Convention in Long Beach, California.
Life satisfaction and location
Research published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science examines the association between overall well-being and two important behavioral indicators of regional success– migration and population growth.
Subjective well-being reflects an overall evaluation of the quality of a person’s life from his or her perspective. Using life-satisfaction data from over 2 million U.S. residents, along with population data from 2000 to 2010, lead researcher Richard Lucas has shown that U.S. counties with higher levels of life satisfaction grew at significantly faster rates than counties with low life satisfaction. Analysis shows that the association was not due to regional differences in birth or death rates, but rather due to high levels of domestic migration.
[STORY: Personality traits determine how much cereal kids want in their bowls]
“This suggests that there is something about happier places that people recognize and that attracts people to live there,” explains Lucas. “It’s not clear from our research why this association exists. It could be that people intentionally move to places that are happier, and the factors that attract people also contribute to happiness, or it may be that places that are growing feel more energetic.”
Introverts prefer mountains
In a series of three studies, researchers tested whether there is a link between personality and an aspect of physical ecology: flat terrain versus mountainous terrain. The study found that only one of the Big Five personality traits predicted terrain preference–extraversion.
Participants perceived wooded/secluded terrain to be calmer, quieter and more peaceful. In contrast, participants in the flat/open condition perceived the terrain to be more sociable, exciting and stimulating. The study found that when people want to socialize with others, they prefer the ocean far more (75%) than mountains (25%). In contrast, when they want to be alone, they choose mountains (52%) as much as the ocean (48%).
[STORY: There are two types of extroverted brains]
Results of the study also showed that introverts tend to live in mountainous regions, while extroverts live in open and flat regions. The researchers caution that there is no evidence mountains make people introverted, but rather, introverts tend to choose mountainous geography because of the secluded environment.
Lead researcher Shige Oishi says that individuals should consider their personalities more closely when choosing a place to live; “Some cities and towns have geography that is more accommodating for some people than for others…if you know you’re introverted, then you may be rejuvenated by being in a secluded place, while an extrovert may be rejuvenated more in an open space.”
This is the first study to link extraversion and introversion with the preference for mountains vs. ocean/open spaces. The study is under review for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Oishi cautions that there is more research that will be collected to determine the underlying mechanisms of the association, and to see if the results are replicated on a larger scale.
City-dweller or rural resident?
Previous research has shown that an individual’s personality is one factor that determines how much someone likes where they live. Globalization and an increasing tend toward domestic migration and mobility–especially among younger individuals–makes the question of where to live an important one.
Researchers examined whether individuals have higher self-esteem in a city where their personality matches a majority of other resident’s personalities. Preliminary results have shown a small but significant person-city interaction effect on self-esteem for openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
[STORY: Youthful extroversion has positive effects later in life]
Lead researcher Wiebke Bleidorn explains: “Individuals low on openness to experiences had significantly lower self-esteem in open cities, like New York City, but relatively higher self-esteem in cities that score relatively lower on openness to experience, for instance, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.”
The findings show that the average personality of a city is related to an individual’s well-being and self-esteem.
Personality of a space
There is a lot of research focusing on characterizing people, but little research has been done characterizing spaces. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are engaging in a series of studies designed to characterize physical spaces.
An initial study examined the desired ambiance of residential spaces. Participants were asked to specify the ambiances they would like to evoke in rooms of their homes. Their preferences were characterized in terms of six broad psychological dimensions: restoration, kinship, storage, stimulation, intimacy, and productivity.
[STORY: Extroverted men make more babies]
The second study examined the ambiances of bars and cafes, which fell into four broad groups: unique/artsy; modern/stylish; relaxing/conservative; and loud/energetic. Both studies hint at the psychological functions served by physical spaces in everyday life, providing a foundation for work on the factors that drive people to seek out different kinds of spaces and consequences of succeeding or failing to find a suitable fit.
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‘Tworlds’ app shows people doing same thing as you

Written By: Brian Galloway
Christopher Pilny

Brian Galloway for redOrbit.com – @brigallo17

Sometimes you’re in the middle of something and can’t help but think, “Is anyone else doing the exact same thing I am right now, or am I completely unique in this moment?”

Well now there’s an app for that, and it’s here to tell you that you’re not a special snowflake.

Cross-country photo sharing

Tworlds is a photo-based app that works to connect people worldwide through their smartphone. You log in, choose a “theme” based on what you’re doing, and take a picture of your surroundings. The app matches you with another user who chose the same theme and stitches the pictures together for comparison.

[STORY: Selfies are the most popular type of photo on Instagram]

The app tracks your location (on a citywide level, you’re not sharing your address) and shows the distance between the pairing. Take a picture of the rising sun with the theme “#horizon”, and you might be paired with someone in Japan watching the sun set.

Check it out:



Daydreaming a design

Dutch designer Antoine Peters came up with the idea while daydreaming in his house, according to Wired. He wanted the app to avoid the overly-curated nature of modern smartphone use. When you take a picture through Tworlds there are no filters, and there is no editing. You’re just sharing your surroundings in a very raw fashion.

[STORY: Male Pinterest users like art and photography more than cars and sports]

Currently there are only 26 different “themes” which limits the potential breadth of pictures. The app allows users to suggest a theme, so more could be added if there’s enough demand.

There are seven billion people in the world. Somewhere on Earth there is probably someone doing the exact same thing you’re doing right now. Thanks Tworlds, now people are having existential crises.

The app is currently only available on iOS.

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Russia commits to ISS until 2024; plans to build own station

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has pledged support for the International Space Station (ISS) through 2024, but will look to build its own orbiting base after that time.

According to Discovery News, the announcement came earlier this week and reverses previous claims by Russian officials that the country would withdraw from the 15-nation program when current agreements expired in 2020. Their new four-year commitment puts pressure on officials in Europe, Canada, and Japan to agree to a similar extension, the website added.

A Russian space station

Those decisions are pending, but this week’s announcement also confirms that Roscosmos has plans to set up its own space outpost in the near future. The officials plan to reposition three of its modules, none of which have actually been launched yet, to form the base of a new, Russian-owned and operated facility that will serve as the base for manned missions to the moon.

[STORY: ISS adding more spaceship parking]

“Detailed study and the final decisions are planned after the synthesis of reports of heads of rocket and space industry in subsequent meetings,” Yuri Koptev, chairman of the Roscosmos’ Scientific and Technical Council said in a statement. “There was a general coordinated point of view. [The council] approved the basic concept of the Russian manned space flight until 2025. We will take into account possible changes in funding, and the program will be updated.”

On Twitter, former ISS commander and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield called the reports “excellent news, especially when read between the rhetoric.” He added that the space station was “a key global symbol.” However, not everyone shared Hadfield’s enthusiasm about the news.

What’s next for ISS?

“The International Space Station was a focus for everybody and although its life is going to be extended, it’s still going to be limited,” Martin Barstow, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, told The Guardian. “The collaborative part of that project may go, and it would be bad if it were lost. The way to avoid fighting is to work together on international significant projects. In the next ten years things could change quite dramatically.”

“It sounds like a change from having an international collaboration to going their own way,” added Andrew Coates, head of planetary science at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory. “But international collaboration will re-emerge in the future as something very important for getting anything funded in human exploration.”

[STORY: Mysterious fireball lights up Russian sky, baffles experts]

Russia reportedly went back on their decision to drop ISS support by 2020 due to the ongoing economic crisis in that area, which is said to be due to low oil prices and sanctions from the West over ongoing turmoil in the Ukraine. Roscosmos is currently the only space agency capable of transporting crewmembers to the space station, although NASA is aiming to have commercially-owned space taxis ready for service by 2017.

The Russian-built Zarya module, which was launched in 1998, served as the building block of the ISS, and the Zvezda that launched in 2002 serves as the outpost’s control module, Discovery News said. The station’s exterior truss, power, cooling and communications systems were built by NASA. The US, Europe, and Japan own laboratory modules, and Canada owns the facility’s robotic arm.

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People with low self-esteem stay in unhappy relationships

Written By: Emily Bills
Emily Bills

Provided by Nick Manning, University of Waterloo

People with low self-esteem are more likely stay in unhappy relationships, suggests new research from the University of Waterloo.

Sufferers of low self-esteem tend not to voice relationship complaints with their partner because they fear rejection.

“There is a perception that people with low self-esteem tend to be more negative and complain a lot more,” says Megan McCarthy the study’s author and a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology. “While that may be the case in some social situations, our study suggests that in romantic relationships, the partner with low self-esteem resists addressing problems.”

The study is important for understanding how intimate partner communication can help improve the love lives of people around the world.

“If your significant other is not engaging in open and honest conversation about the relationship,” says McCarthy, “it may not be that they don’t care, but rather that they feel insecure and are afraid of being hurt.”

In her research focused on intimate partner communication, McCarthy tests the impact on a relationship when one partner suffers from low self-esteem. “We’ve found that people with a more negative self-concept often have doubts and anxieties about the extent to which other people care about them,” she says. “This can drive low self-esteem people toward defensive, self-protective behaviour, such as avoiding confrontation.”

The study was presented this week in California at The Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s 16th Annual Meeting.

The research suggests that people with low self-esteem’s resistance to address concerns may stem from a fear of negative outcomes. Sufferers may believe that they cannot speak up without risking rejection from their partner and damage to their relationship, resulting in greater overall dissatisfaction in the relationship.

“We may think that staying quiet, in a ‘forgive and forget’ kind of way, is constructive, and certainly it can be when we feel minor annoyances,” says McCarthy. “But when we have a serious issue in a relationship, failing to address those issues directly can actually be destructive.”

McCarthy, along with her research colleagues, have plans for a second study that will look at how increasing a low-self-esteem partner’s sense of power or influence in a relationship can promote more open disclosure.

“We all know that close relationships can sometimes be difficult,” says McCarthy. “The key issue, then, is how we choose to deal with it when we feel dissatisfied with a partner.”

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Researchers develop music for cats

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Are cats capable of enjoying and appreciating music? Dr. Charles Snowdon, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thinks so, and he is on a mission to develop the purr-fect song or our feline friends.

To do so, the Huffington Post explains, Dr. Snowdon attempted to mimic the natural sounds of cats by using sliding notes and high pitches. Cat calls tend to be at least an octave above human voices, he said, and the tempo was based on the sound of purring and suckling.

[STORY: Cats think we are larger, dumber cats]

He and his colleagues then tested their compositions on 47 domestic male and female felines in their own homes, and as the cats listened to the specially-designed music, they were significantly more likely to orient their heads towards it, approach it, and even rub up against a speaker.

When they played two pieces of music described as being pleasing to humans (Gabriel Fauré’s Elegie and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air on a G String), however, the cats basically ignored the sound and showed no interest in the music whatsoever, according to Discovery News.

Kitty ditties

As the website explains, cats have scent glands on their tails, between their front paws, on each side of their head and in other places. When a cat rubs against a person or thing, it means that it is claiming that individual or object. During the experiments, it appeared as though the cats were attempting to claim the special cat music, represented by the speakers playing it. They made no such gesture when the Bach and Fauré pieces were being played.

Dr. Snowden and his fellow researchers, who report their findings in a recent edition of the journal Applied Animal Behavioral Science, used primarily mixed-breed cats for their study, so they cannot tell if certain types of cats prefer music more than others. However, they did find that middle-aged cats had less of a response to feline-specific music than younger or older ones.

[STORY: Big cats ‘obsessed’ with popular cologne]

Dr. Snowden told the Huffington Post that there were two main reasons for the research.

Leaving Spotify on for your cat may be futile

“First, many pet owners told us that they play radio music for their pets while they are at work and we wondered if this had any value,” he said. “Second, we have developed a theory that suggests that species other than humans can enjoy music but that the music has to be in the frequency range that the species uses to communicate and with tempos that they would normally use.”

He also told Discovery News that the researchers believe that the “music for cats” project “could benefit shelter cats,” and particularly those that are accustomed to human companionship. “We think of cats as highly independent of their human servants, but there is some research showing that cats experience separation anxiety, which is greater in human-raised cats than in feral cats,” he added.

[STORY: Do animals appreciate music?]

The researchers have also launched a website where you (and your cat) can hear some of the tunes for yourselves. They have broken down the music into three categories: kitty ditties, which are described as playful and quick… a little like sonic catnip, cat ballads, which should be restful and pleasing for your kitty, and feline airs, which are based on the pulses of purring and are meant to draws sympathetic emotions from the listener.

We played the samples for our official redOrbit cat and he has given them a round of appaws.

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Tesla Easter egg transforms car into James Bond sub (sort of)

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

More than one-year after the release of the Tesla Model S, one eagle-eyed Instagram user has discovered the Easter egg to end all Easter eggs: how to turn the electric car into a Lotus Esprit S1 submersible, as featured in the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me.

Well, sort of. The trick won’t actually make your car able to go underwater and pull off amazing spy-gadget-type stuff, but it is pretty darn cool nonetheless. All you have to do, according to the folks at The Verge, is hold down the ‘T’ logo, enter the access code ‘007’ and return to Controls, and the display will make it appear as though your car is the Bond submersible.

Telsa CEO Elon Musk, for those who are not aware, is a big fan of James Bond and purchased the original Lotus Esprit S1 submersible for $866,000 in October 2013. The vehicle was actually found, quite by accident, by a guy who had purchased a storage locker for $100. That individual found the car buried beneath a pile of blankets, and did not immediately recognize it.

[STORY: Musk: Tesla batteries will soon power homes]

In fact, he had apparently never seen a Bond movie before, but someone else let him know just what an amazing find he had on his hands. The car was sent to RM Auctions and was purchased by a ‘secret buyer.’ That individual turned out to be Musk, who as the story goes, actually based the design of the first-ever Tesla vehicle on another Lotus product, the Elise.

As CNN.com later reported, however, Musk was disappointed to find out that the Esprit did not actually transform into a submersible – so he decided to take matters into his own hands. Not content with owning just a (very expensive) movie prop, he told the website that he planned to “upgrade [the vehicle] with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real.”

The Model S Easter egg is not that effort, but automotive website Jalopnik confirmed that it is real and is part of a software update (version 5.9) that was released for the car in 2014. Entering the code as described above makes it look as though the vehicle has entered submarine mode.

[STORY: Elon Musk predicts catastrophic AI event will happen in next 10 years]

Bond isn’t the only intellectual property receiving the proverbial tip-of-the-hat in the Easter egg, however. As Business Insider pointed out, the suspension becomes ‘Depth (Leagues)’ and in a nod to Jules Verne, the maximum depth is 20,000 leagues. What else you would expect from a company that made it so that the volume of its stereos go up to 11, ala This Is Spinal Tap?

Of course, Easter eggs aren’t all that that the Tesla Model S has going for it, as it was recently named the best overall vehicle by Consumer Reports for the second consecutive year, calling it “a technological tour de force” and a “high-performance electric vehicle with usable real-world range, wrapped in a luxury package.”

“For all of the impressive new vehicles released in 2014, none was able to eclipse the innovation, magnificence, and sheer technological arrogance of the Tesla,” the publication added. “Through the course of their life cycles, cars become obsolete quickly as newer models appear with updated gizmos. But with Tesla’s over-the-air software updates, a Model S that came off the line in 2013 has many of the same new features as one built today.”

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Brain imaging as evidence: is it legal?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Recent advances in brain imaging technology is launching a debate about the use of information obtained using these methods by law enforcement officials, according to published reports.

As Inside Science News Services (ISNS) explained, brain imaging has already been successfully used by scientists to collect information from the minds of volunteers in the laboratory. Should that information be accessible to police officers, lawyers, or other investigators during a criminal investigation, and if so, will the brain be protected under the US Constitution?

[STORY: Music and sex the same to the brain]

Specifically, the debate centers around whether or not information contained within a person’s brain is protected from illegal search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment (meaning that a search warrant would be required to see brain scans), or if thoughts should be included under the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“These are issues the United States Supreme Court is going to have to resolve,” Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University who specializes in bioethical issues, told the news agency. She predicts that imaging-related data will most likely find its way into courtrooms because of a willing participant who wants to use the information to advance his or her case.

Farahany was one of several legal scholars and neuroscience experts debating the issue earlier this month at the 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference in San Jose, California. Among those joining her were Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University law professor Henry Greely.

[STORY: ‘Mini-brain’ in spinal cord aids in balance]

While ISNS said that these types of legal issues “are likely decades away” because the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) process is so sensitive that a non-cooperative individual could distort its results simply by swallowing at the wrong time, the progress being made in the field “is so intriguing” that it prompted the experts to discuss potential “what-if” scenarios.

fMRI decodes information

The human brain constantly sorts, stores and responds to various stimuli, Inside Science noted, and as scientists learn more about how and where it encodes information, fMRI can be used as a tool to decode that information. Currently, it can identify the regions of the brain that are active during different processes, based on the increased amount of highly-oxygenated found there.

During the panel, Gallant said that brain decoding is already capable of getting the old “guess what card a person is looking at” magic trick right nine times out of ten, and Greeley said that a court could be open to using the data during the sentencing part of a death-penalty trial. However, a brain exam would not be permissible in court unless it could work well enough to meet the legal standards for all types of scientific evidence.

[STORY: Patience and self-control illustrated in brain imaging]

Both Greeley and Gallant said that compelling someone to undergo an fMRI scan, similar to how a urine test or DNA swab is sometime required, is would not be an issue until much later. Even if a brain scan was deemed to be so non-invasive that some may argue it is not actually a search, Farahany believes that courts will likely deem it as such, thus granting the mind protection from “unreasonable” searches and requiring a warrant under the Fourth Amendment.

As for the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, the Duke professor pointed out that it currently can’t be used to withhold purely physical information, such as fingerprints. She believes that courts could consider brain activity in much the same way, ISNS noted.

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Stimulating the brain can bring relief from pain

Written By: Brett Smith
Emily Bills

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Head pounding from that happy hour last night that somehow lasted until 2 am? You can easily solve that problem by sticking a fiber optic wire in your brain and turning on the juice.

In a study just published by the journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington showed how the stimulation of an area the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) can bring sweet relief from pain.

Using a particular frequency of light, the study team found it could substantially lower pain in laboratory mice. Previous methods had used an electrical electrode to stimulate the ACC and caused both excitatory and inhibitory neurons to activate.

[STORY: Traditional Chinese medicine proves effective for chronic pain]

“Our results clearly demonstrate, for the first time, that optogenetic stimulation of inhibitory neurons in ACC leads to decreased neuronal activity and a dramatic reduction of pain behavior,” said study author Samarendra Mohanty, an assistant professor of physics at UT Arlington. “Moreover, we confirmed optical modulation of specific electrophysiological responses from different neuronal units in the thalamus part of the brain, in response to particular types of pain-stimuli.”

The study centered on chemical irritants and mechanical pain, such as that felt after a pinprick. Mohanty said the findings can lead to elevated understanding of pain pathways and techniques for handling chronic pain, which frequently leads to serious impairment of normal activities.

[STORY: Chronic pain is a problem few doctors can address]

“While reducing the sensation for chronic pain by optical stimulation, we still want to sense certain types of pain because they tell us to move our hands or legs away from something that is too hot or that might otherwise hurt us if we get too close,” Mohanty said.

Co-author Young-tae Kim, a UT Arlington associate professor of bioengineering, said the findings could “possibly lead to less invasive methods for treating more severe types of pain without losing important emotional, sensing, and behavioral functions.”

Another study published earlier this month found that way we react to pain is constantly changing throughout our lives and is influenced by lifestyle and environmental factors.

No pain no gain

To reach their conclusion, the scientists analyzed 25 pairs of identical twins’ tolerance levels to pain from heat. Volunteers in the study had a heat probe put on their arm and were instructed to push a button when it became painful for them, which told researchers their pain tolerance levels.

[STORY: Marijuana most popular worldwide, painkillers deadliest]

What the scientists discovered is that some of the volunteers didn’t have the same tolerance levels as their twin brother or sister. The researchers said this was surprising considering identical twins have the same genetic make-up. The variances in the way they reacted to pain must therefore come from transformations caused by their surroundings or lifestyle.

Upon inspecting the participants’ DNA, researchers saw chemical shifts in the structure of nine genes between tolerance-mismatched twins. There were substantial modifications in a particular gene that controls the generation of a membrane protein called TRPA1. The gene has earlier been linked to skin irritation, cold and pain sensitivity, and is the target of certain painkillers.

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Technology lets you know if your liquor’s been tampered with

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

New technology from printed electronics manufacturer Thinfilm and adult beverage company Diageo (makers of Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, and Guinness) will let you know if your alcoholic beverage is fresh, or if someone has gotten in to it.

This so-called smart bottle technology, CNET explains, uses thin printed sensor tags that will communicate information to your smartphone, altering the consumer if the bottle’s seal has been broken, and can also track its movement along the supply chain, into stores, and beyond.

The innovation is known as OpenSense technology, and it takes advantage of a mobile device’s Near Field Communication (NFC) capabilities to track the bottle movement from the factory to the point on consumption. The sensor tags are still readable, even after the factory seal has been broken, helping to protect the authenticity of the product, Diageo said in a statement.

[STORY: Traces of alcohol found in soda]

“Unlike conventional static QR codes that are often difficult to read, easy to copy, and do not support sensor integration, OpenSense tags can dynamically detect if a bottle is sealed or open with the simple tap of an NFC smartphone,” the company noted, adding that the tags are “permanently encoded” and “cannot be copied or electrically modified.”

Diageo officials told VentureBeat that the tag will all only tens of cents to the cost of the bottle, and that since it uses radio-frequency communication, it will not require a battery. The tag’s own radio signal provides the power that completes the connection between it and a code reader.

CNET explains that the collaboration between the two companies has led to the development of a prototype Johnnie Walker Blue Label smart bottle. The website notes that such a system could also allow customers to scan the bottle and receive promotional offers while in the store, or could provide cocktail recipes once the consumer takes it home.

“Mobile technology is changing the way we live, and as a consumer brands company we want to embrace its power to deliver amazing new consumer experiences in the future,” Helen Michels, Global Innovation Director at Diageo, explained. “Our collaboration with Thinfilm allows us to explore all the amazing new possibilities enabled by smart-bottles for consumers, retailers and our own business, and it sets the bar for technology innovation in the drinks industry.”

“Today’s conventional NFC mobile marketing solutions are not technologically advanced enough to create immersive or customizable consumer experiences,” added Thinfilm CEO Davor Sutija. “By leveraging OpenSense, Thinfilm is enabling the ‘smart bottles’ to carry digital information that can be accessed via NFC smartphones. Diageo can reap the benefits of the intelligence gleaned from our smart sensors and create engaging experiences for its customers.”

[STORY: Mixing vodka with energy drinks increases desire for alcohol]

The bottle will be officially unveiled next week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and the prototype will be on display at Thinfilm’s booth throughout the four day event, which runs from March 2 through March 5. The tags will go into production later this year.

Now you will know the answer to the question, “why is the rum gone?”

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‘Galactic dinosaurs’ found hiding in plain sight

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Astronomers have long wondered exactly what fate befell the compact massive galaxies that could be found throughout the universe during its infancy, but new research from experts at the Swinburne University of Technology may have finally discovered the answer.

According to Alister Graham, a professor of astronomy at the university and lead author of a paper scheduled for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, “When our Universe was young, there were lots of compact, elliptical-shaped galaxies containing trillions of stars.”

“Due to the time it takes for light to travel across the vastness of space, we see these distant galaxies as they were in our young Universe. However in the present-day Universe very few such spheroidal stellar systems have been observed,” he added.

[STORY: Did dark matter kill the dinosaurs?]

Most researchers believed that mergers that took place over time would have caused these compact massive galaxies to become destroyed and transformed into larger, elliptical galaxies. However, there have been too few galactic collisions to fully account for the tremendous reduction in these compact spheroids, according to Graham and his colleagues.

In their new paper, the professor and co-authors Dr. Bililign Dullo and Ph. D. student Giulia Savorgnan explain that they have eliminated the need for theories to explain the disappearance of these galaxies – because they have located them.

Don’t feel bad if you lose your keys—scientists lost whole galaxies

“They were hiding in plain sight,” Dr. Dullo, whose work was sponsored by the Australian Research Council, explained. “The spheroids are cloaked by disks of stars that were likely built from the accumulation of hydrogen gas and smaller galaxies over the intervening eons.”

Furthermore, the number of these hidden systems is roughly equal to the number of compact galaxies that would have existed during the early Universe, the researchers noted. These galaxies did not die out, Graham said. Rather, they are “embedded in large, relatively thin, disks of stars.”

Because of the massive scale of modern-day galaxy surveys, it has become common to treat all individual galaxies as single-component entities, the study authors said. By carefully separating the components of each one, and especially the outer disk and the inner spheroid, the researchers could finally discover the whereabouts of these missing ancient galaxies.

“While the inner component is compact and massive, the full galaxy sizes are not compact,” explained Savorgnan. “This explains why they had been missed; we simply needed to better dissect the galaxies rather than consider them as single objects.”

Even our own Milky Way galaxy may be subject to this phenomenon, she and her colleagues added. Its central spheroid appears to have existed, at least partially, when the universe was very young.

Some of our galaxy’s stars are 12 billion years old, which is not much younger than the age of the universe itself. The question that remains, and can only be answered through future studies, is what percentage of the Milky Way’s bulge may have been built through other processes.

[STORY: Mysterious cosmic radio bursts observed in real-time]

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Big cities lead to bigger spiders and lazier birds

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

As humans continue to build and live in bigger and better cities, they are driving evolutionary changes in creatures that could have “significant implications” for their own well-being, experts from the University of Washington report in a new study.

Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Marina Alberti from the UW College of Built Environments’ Urban Ecology Research Lab explained that those changes have been small thus far, but noticeable. They include spiders that are growing larger, salmon that are shrinking, and urban birds that are growing tamer and bolder than their rural counterparts.

[STORY: Chubby birds get there faster]

If, as the evidence suggests, that human-driven evolutionary change is having an impact on the way that ecosystems function, it “may have significant implications for ecological and human well-being,” Alberti explained. It had long been assumed that these changes would take too long to have an immediate impact on ecological processes, but new evidence suggests otherwise.

“We now have evidence that there is rapid evolution. These changes may affect the state of the environment now,” the urban design and planning professor said. “This is what’s called eco-evolutionary feedback. Cities are not simply affecting biodiversity by reducing the number and variety of species that live in urban habitats.”

Spiders and worms and birds, oh my!

In fact, she said that organisms are undergoing accelerated evolutionary changes directly caused by humans living in cities, Alberti said. Those changes have had an impact on biodiversity, food production, nutrient cycling, seed dispersal, and other ecosystem functions, and that they will also eventually have an impact on the health and well-being of humans as well.

In her study, Alberti conducted a systematic review of various examples of human-caused trait changes in birds, mammals, fish and plants, and the effects of these so-called human signatures. In addition to the changes in spiders and salmon, she found earthworms that have an increased tolerance to metals, a type of city-based mouse that has become a host for ticks that carry Lyme disease, and plants that are now dispersing their seeds far less effectively than before.

She also found that songbirds have been changing their tunes to make sure that their acoustic signals do not get lost in the cacophony of urban noises, and that European blackbirds have been growing more sedentary and have altered their migratory patterns due to urbanization.

But why is this happening?

Humans dwelling in cities have caused these changes to take place in several different ways, according to Alberti. Urbanization changes and distrupts natural vegetation patterns, introduces toxic pollutants and novel disturbances such as noise and light, and causes the temperature to increase. Our presence also changes the availability of food, water, and other vital resources.

The researcher says that her work has prompted serious questions that could be used to guide future studies, including whether or not global urbanization will ultimately alter the course of the Earth’s evolution, and if urbanization is bringing our planet closer to an environmental tipping point such as the event that introduced oxygen to the atmosphere over two billion years ago.

However, Alberti emphasizes that she is not looking at the phenomenon through a “catastrophic” perspective. Rather, she wants to emphasize the challenges that we face, as well as the one-of-a-kind opportunity that we currently have in shaping the evolution of the planet Earth.

[STORY: Road runoff spurring spotted salamander evolution]

It is the “hybrid nature” of ecosystems in urban environments “that makes them unstable, but also capable of innovating,” she concluded. “We can drive urbanizing ecosystems to collapse – or we can consciously steer them toward a resilient and sustainable future. The question is whether we become aware of the role we are playing.”

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South Pole Telescope to join black hole-studying array

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Thanks to alterations made to the instrument late last year, the South Pole Telescope (SPT) has joined the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project in the search for and study of black holes.

According to Scientific American, the 10-meter diameter SPT, which is located at Antarctica’s Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, was originally designed to measure faint, diffuse emissions from the cosmic microwave background, the thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang.

[STORY: Subtle distortions may reveal clues to the early universe ]

Last December, University of Arizona-Tucson astronomer and EHT collaborator Dan Marrone and his colleagues made the long, arduous trek to the South Pole to make changes to the instrument so that it would be suitable for use in the project’s ongoing search for black holes.

Typically, the SPT’s dish funnels radiation from the CMB into a camera known as a bolometer, Marrone told the website. The bolometer measured the heat from the sky in a specific direction by sensing how much each of its detectors is heated by accumulated light. However, for it to be used in the EHT project, it required an entirely different type of camera.

The Event Horizon Telescope uses a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) that uses a single-pixel imaging instrument to record the waveform of microwaves that hit the telescope, particularly those with a frequency of 230 GHz, Marrone explained.

[STORY: Turning off the cold: neuroscientists remove chilly protein from skin]

With that lone pixel, astronomers can record footage of “the electric field that the radiation from our targets is creating on the surface of the telescope,” he added. Eventually, during a full run of the EHT, telescopes from all over the world will record this type of footage on eight-terabyte hard drives. All of those movies will then be sent to the MIT Haystack Observatory near Boston, where their data will be compiled using a special type of supercomputer called a correlator.

Studying black holes in the South Pole

Marrone’s team had shipped 13 crates worth of equipment to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station before they even departed on December 1, but only two had reached their destination arrived by the time the researchers arrived eight days later. As the remaining equipment slowly found its way to the South Pole, the EHT team did what they could when they could.

“For the first month and a half we were there, every day there was someone soldering with an acetylene torch in our ear, filling the air with weird acrid smoke,” he told Scientific American. By the time the last of the cargo arrived, they kicked it into high-gear. “They were very long days. We’d stagger out at 8 or 8:30 am, come back for lunch or dinner and work until midnight. Christmas, New Year’s, it didn’t matter.”

Marrone and his team finished their installations by mid-January and pointed the modified SPT towards the sky, receiving the first light with its VLBI received during the early morning hours on January 16, local time. This allowed them to create images by scanning the single pixel across the sky and producing maps of the pixel value recorded for each position.

The first official light image, the website said, was a map of carbon monoxide near the center of the Milky Way. A second image depicted the moon at 230 GHz, and instead of seeing reflected light, the image shows heat that is escaping from the lunar surface.

[STORY: New telescope seeks dust trails of other earths]

“Notably the crescent is wider at 1mm than in the optical, because the parts of the moon that have just lost the sunlight are still cooling,” Marrone said. “You can also see real signatures of the dark and light patches that you’re used to seeing with your eye.”

While Scientific Amercian pointed out that these are only test images, they demonstrate that the SPT’s equipment will work, allowing it to officially become part of the Event Horizon Telescope. The next step will be to pair it with another, further away telescope, the website added. The ultimate goal is to get the entire EHT array online so that it can be used to take a picture at the black hole located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

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Model shows different kind of life on Titan

Written By: Christopher Pilny
Christopher Pilny

Provided by Syl Kacapyr, Cornell University
A new type of methane-based, oxygen-free life form that can metabolize and reproduce similar to life on Earth has been modeled by a team of Cornell University researchers.
Taking a simultaneously imaginative and rigidly scientific view, chemical engineers and astronomers offer a template for life that could thrive in a harsh, cold world – specifically Titan, the giant moon of Saturn. A planetary body awash with seas not of water, but of liquid methane, Titan could harbor methane-based, oxygen-free cells.
Their theorized cell membrane, composed of small organic nitrogen compounds and capable of functioning in liquid methane temperatures of 292 degrees below zero, is published in Science Advances, Feb. 27. The work is led by chemical molecular dynamics expert Paulette Clancy and first author James Stevenson, a graduate student in chemical engineering. The paper’s co-author is Jonathan Lunine, director for Cornell’s Center for Radiophysics and Space Research.
[STORY: NASA unveils submarine concept to explore Titan’s seas]
Lunine is an expert on Saturn’s moons and an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini-Huygens mission that discovered methane-ethane seas on Titan. Intrigued by the possibilities of methane-based life on Titan, and armed with a grant from the Templeton Foundation to study non-aqueous life, Lunine sought assistance about a year ago from Cornell faculty with expertise in chemical modeling. Clancy, who had never met Lunine, offered to help.
“We’re not biologists, and we’re not astronomers, but we had the right tools,” Clancy said. “Perhaps it helped, because we didn’t come in with any preconceptions about what should be in a membrane and what shouldn’t. We just worked with the compounds that we knew were there and asked, ‘If this was your palette, what can you make out of that?'”
On Earth, life is based on the phospholipid bilayer membrane, the strong, permeable, water-based vesicle that houses the organic matter of every cell. A vesicle made from such a membrane is called a liposome. Thus, many astronomers seek extraterrestrial life in what’s called the circumstellar habitable zone, the narrow band around the sun in which liquid water can exist. But what if cells weren’t based on water, but on methane, which has a much lower freezing point?
[STORY: Aerosol ‘snow’ on Titan]
The engineers named their theorized cell membrane an “azotosome,” “azote” being the French word for nitrogen. “Liposome” comes from the Greek “lipos” and “soma” to mean “lipid body;” by analogy, “azotosome” means “nitrogen body.”
The azotosome is made from nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen molecules known to exist in the cryogenic seas of Titan, but shows the same stability and flexibility that Earth’s analogous liposome does. This came as a surprise to chemists like Clancy and Stevenson, who had never thought about the mechanics of cell stability before; they usually study semiconductors, not cells.
The engineers employed a molecular dynamics method that screened for candidate compounds from methane for self-assembly into membrane-like structures. The most promising compound they found is an acrylonitrile azotosome, which showed good stability, a strong barrier to decomposition, and a flexibility similar to that of phospholipid membranes on Earth. Acrylonitrile – a colorless, poisonous, liquid organic compound used in the manufacture of acrylic fibers, resins and thermoplastics – is present in Titan’s atmosphere.
Excited by the initial proof of concept, Clancy said the next step is to try and demonstrate how these cells would behave in the methane environment – what might be the analogue to reproduction and metabolism in oxygen-free, methane-based cells.
Lunine looks forward to the long-term prospect of testing these ideas on Titan itself, as he put it, by “someday sending a probe to float on the seas of this amazing moon and directly sampling the organics.”
Stevenson said he was in part inspired by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who wrote about the concept of non-water-based life in a 1962 essay, “Not as We Know It.”
Said Stevenson: “Ours is the first concrete blueprint of life not as we know it.”
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Secret Service to use White House as drone playground

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online – @BednarChuck

The US Secret Service has announced that it will begin conducting drone tests near the White House and throughout the nation’s capital, but the reasons for the exercises remain unclear.

According to the Washington Post, the agency announced the plans in a brief statement released on Tuesday. That statement was only 76 words long, the newspaper said, and officials at the Secret Service declined to answer even basic questions about the program.

Here, read for yourself

The full statement released by the Secret Service on Tuesday reads as follows:

“The United States Secret Service, in conjunction with other inter-agency partners, will conduct a series of exercises involving unmanned aircraft systems, in the coming days and weeks.”

“Because these exercises will be conducted within the normally flight restricted areas in the Washington D.C. area, they have been carefully planned and will be tightly controlled. In preparation for these exercises the Secret Service has coordinated with all appropriate federal, state and local agencies.”

[STORY: Proposed FAA drone regulations prohibit robotic couriers]

Secret Service spokesperson Nicole Mainar declined to inform the Post about what types of drones would be used and what the tests would entail.

Wild speculation

As Engadget points out, the announcement comes about a month after an inebriated intelligence officer crashed a DJI Phantom drone on White House grounds in the middle of the night. That incident temporarily forced DJI to issue an update preventing its products from flying near the White House, although that update was scrapped after it causes unexpected flight issues.

“Maybe secret service is finally testing technology that can detect if drones carrying explosives or anything harmful to the president are nearby – the crash certainly highlighted security risks posed by unchecked hobby UAVs flying over the head of state’s residence,” the site speculated. “Of course, the exercises could have another purpose altogether, but we can’t say for sure.”

[STORY: We now have brain-controlled drones]

The Washington Post added that commercial and recreational drones “are a growing concern for the federal government, pilots and the airline industry,” and that in addition to their potential use in transporting weapons or explosives, unmanned aircrafts are “increasingly interfering with air traffic and threatening passenger planes in the absence of oversight and clear safety standards.”

The FAA’s feelings on drones

A 2014 report from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that near-collisions involving airplanes and drones had spiked in the previous six months, with 25 incidents taking place during that time. Those events were among 175 in which pilots and air-traffic control personnel spotted drones near airports or in restricted airspace, the newspaper noted.

[STORY: Quadcopter drones used to train Arabian falcons]

Congress passed a law ordering the FAA to safely integrate unmanned aircraft into the US airspace back in 2012, but those regulations have been slow to develop. Under current federal guidelines, hobbyists to pilot small drones for recreational purposes as long as those vehicles are kept under 400 feet and five miles away from airports or other restricted areas, they added.

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California company picks up Musk’s hyperloop project

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online – @BednarChuck

One of the startup companies that previously acquired the rights to Elon Musk’s next-gen Hyperloop transportation system is planning to build a five-mile test track in California.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), one of the companies that accepted Musk’s challenge to actually build his proposed friction-free tube transportation system, signed a deal to build a facility along Interstate 5 starting next year, according to Engadget.

Building the loop

Construction on the small-scale Hyperloop should begin next year. It will reportedly cost as much as $100 million to build, and should be operational by 2019, the website added. The test track will be constructed in a five-mile section of Quay Valley, a model town that was supposed to be a 150,000-resident solar-powered city, TechCrunch reported on Thursday.

[VIDEO: Faster than the speed of sound: Hyperloop transport system unveiled]

The Quay Valley model project was placed on indefinite hold in 2008, but it has since been resurrected for this new project. The Hyperloop is expected to serve as a sort of monorail for the new version of the community, which will feature 25,000 homes, as well as businesses and commercial buildings.

The planned track will be limited to just 200 mph, far lower than the projected 760 mph of the original designs. The goal of the project is to prove that the concept is viable on a smaller scale while also building a functional transport system that goes beyond a tech demo.

Musk’s musings

After coming up with the idea for the Hyperloop, Musk released his work on an open-source basis and opened it up to anyone who wanted to try building the transport system, originally claiming that he did not have time to pursue the project himself. Since then, however, he has reversed course and promised to build a test facility of his own in Texas.

[Story: Elon Musk says artificial intelligence could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons]

“Unlike HTT’s, the Musk loop will be used by companies and students to test pod designs, and could even host a student race competition in the vein of Formula SAE,” Engadget said, adding that it we may soon be “seeing Hyperloop tunnels popping up across the country.”

“This is big step. It’s time to take the Hyperloop from concept and design and build the first one,” Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of JumpStartFund, the company that created Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, told CNBC. “This is a phased process. We’ve done feasibility studies and now we will be able test all aspects of the Hyperloop.”

Planning for the future

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies first started exploring the possibility of building the tube-based transport system shortly after the plans were first released back in 2013.

The project, which involved former SpaceX director of mission operations Marco Villa and former American Society of Civil Engineers president Patricia Galloway, started a crowdsourced fundraising campaign at the time. It initially involved between 30 and 50 engineers, and planned to complete a white paper gauging the feasibility of the project before April 2014.

[STORY: SpaceX rocket booster successfully lands on barge (kind of)]

“The only option for super fast travel is to build a tube over or under the ground that contains a special environment,” Hyperloop Transportation Technologies wrote in a company profile at the time. “We believe in trying to solve the big problems. By involving the community in this development, we hope to be able to progress with a very fast pace.”

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Fighting African sex-slavery with witchcraft

Written By: John Hopton
Christopher Pilny

John Hopton for redOrbit.com – @Johnfinitum

British courts have found difficulty in bringing African sex-traffickers to justice because a belief in black magic and juju “spells” makes victims afraid to testify. Now, the UK government is seeking out the witch doctors responsible and forcing them to reverse the perceived curse.

[STORY: Polish ‘vampires’ were most likely residents who died of cholera]

The African women, many of who end up in the United Kingdom, believe that the work of witch doctors gives traffickers power over them. Kevin Hyland, England’s first anti-slavery commissioner, is working with Nigerian law enforcement to begin forcing witch doctors to free victims from fear of infertility and even death.

Fighting fire with fire

Much of sub-Saharan Africa has a belief in juju magic and the power of witch doctors, and psychologists say that simply arguing the lack of evidence for the superstition is not enough to convince a believer to change their mind. Instead, the best chance of success in a court case is to fight fire with fire and have the “spell” reversed by the person who first administered it.

[STORY: Modern medicine conquers witchcraft]

The Independent reports that last year more than 100 Nigerian women were identified as having been trafficked into sexual slavery, and that British police had to spend two years trying to dispel the fears of women so they could give evidence in the first case of its kind in Europe, in 2011.

In 2012, British Police persuaded three Nigerian girls who had been trafficked using juju to give evidence against an individual named Osezua Osolase, who ran the operation from his home in Britain. The three initially told police false stories before eventually being persuaded to overcome the witchcraft. “It took time, and trust and confidence,” said law enforcement agent Eddie Fox. “We never really know exactly what threats had been made during the rituals, but they were extremely concerned.”

He added that: “Some of the Nigerian girls come from those areas where juju is held in such esteem and there’s so much fear and belief in it.”

What do the rituals involve?

Mr Hyland said that: “The first thing is the person’s recovery to make them feel better and live their life again. That’s extremely important. Then we will see whether they are confident to give evidence so we can pursue and prosecute the person responsible for this.”

[STORY: Strange paralysis illness gripping US children]

Rituals include the taking of blood, hair and clothing, and swearing oaths to gods who are said to have the power of life and death. Taking hair from the head and pubic hair makes the women believe that the person who paid for the ceremony has power over both their mind and their sexuality.

The process of forcing witch doctors to reverse their work has already been used at least four times in Nigeria, according to that country’s main anti-trafficking organisation.

One case saw victims taken back to Nigeria from Spain for to have juju reversed before giving evidence against the criminal trafficking gangs. Hyland will travel to Africa next month to meet campaigners who have secured criminal convictions after reversing juju spells and persuading witnesses to give evidence.

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New materials offer ‘smart’ bandages, super body armor

Written By: Eric Hopton
Christopher Pilny

Eric Hopton for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Materials become thinner when we pull or stretch them – think rubber band and you get the picture. It’s simple. We assume that when we apply a force along an axis the material always stretches and thins. It now looks like that assumption is wrong.

Our friends at Malta have pulled our conception of stretching to the breaking point. The team have been working with some bizarre stuff known as auxetic materials. Due to their unique internal geometry, auxetic materials actually grow wider when stretched.

Auxetic materials have puzzled scientists for years. But now the Maltese researchers are developing mathematical models to explain the unusual behavior of these logic-defying materials. Their work could lead to a host of practical applications that right now are unthinkable. This could be future-changing science.

Fatter when stretched

The ability of auxetic materials to become fatter when stretched is known as a negative Poisson’s ratio. They become thicker perpendicular to the applied force. This happens because of their hinge-like structures, which flex when stretched. Auxetic materials can be single molecules or a particular structure of macroscopic matter.

In the Malta-developed model, the material’s structure is represented by a series of connected squares. These squares are known as rigid, rotating subunits. When the subunits turn relative to one another, the material’s density lowers while its thickness increases.

[STORY: Fat cells may actually not be so bad]

In a paper published last week in Nature Publishing Group’s journal Scientific Reports, Malta’s mechanical metamaterials chemistry professor Joseph N. Grima and his team presented their mathematical model of auxetic behaviour using hierarchical rotating unit systems.

These hierarchical systems allow complex structures to be created from the simpler units. The result is a potential range of hierarchical auxetic metamaterials offering much greater flexibility in terms of their mechanical properties. The new materials will also be easier for scientists to control and change.

Scientific game-changer

Professor Anselm C. Griffin from the Georgia Institute of Technology, believes that this work “represents a huge step forward in the conceptualization and design of a new class of metamaterials. With the realistic prospect of tailorable auxetic mechanical properties as described in this paper, the potential for applications of these new metamaterial structures particularly in biomedicine and catalysis is quite exciting.”

Professor Andrew Goodwin at Oxford University believes that the ideas the Malta team are working on could be applied to atomic-scale assemblies as well as life-size structures. Chemists and engineers will be working closer together to develop the smart materials of the future, he added. Such materials are expected to have mechanical properties such as high energy absorption and fracture resistance. Examples of where auxetics may be useful include applications such as body armor, stronger and more flexible packing material, knee and elbow pads, and robust shock absorbing material.

One major potential application for this innovative research, and one which excites the University of Malta scientists the most, is in the field of healthcare, in particular skin grafts. “Current methods don’t allow for the skin to be used as optimally as possible, which is not ideal when larger skin sections are needed. Our work potentially could reduce the amount of good skin needed to treat the injured area,” said Grima. New designs for medical stents as well as other biomedical and industrial devices are also in the pipeline.

One suggestion is a kind of ‘smart’ bandage where the degree of swelling could trigger changes to the rate and extent of the release of medication such as pain relievers, anti-bacterial agents, or anti-swelling agents.

[VIDEO: Engineering a ‘smart’ band aid]

Theoretical mathematical models are one thing, but the researchers are fully aware that real world materials could always behave differently and they are using 3D printing to test the designs. They report that they are already “managing to approach the ideal systems in a very cost-effective manner.”

Grima is convinced that when auxetic materials can eventually be produced on a commercial industrial scale they will have a massive impact. “We see a future where real-life applications of auxetics will be rife,” he said.

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Bejewelled co-creator: VR conference rooms next

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

The co-creator of one of the most addictive computer games of all time has re-emerged, and is looking to create a more social virtual reality experience with his new venture.

John Vechey, who was the co-founder of PopCap Games and helped give birth to the hit match-three puzzler Bejeweled and several other popular video games, left the studio after 15 years and took a short break from the industry, according to Engadget.

[STORY: Virtual reality helps people accept themselves]

Now, five months after leaving PopCap, Vechey announced his new venture: an augmented-reality and virtual-reality studio known as Pluto VR. As he explained to the website, his goal is to create social experiences and software that is not only considered good “because it’s virtual,” but is actually “better than [being there] in person.”

“We live in an increasingly connected world,” he said in a statement provided to VentureBeat. “With video-conferencing, social media, and online gaming, we can communicate and play with others like never before. However, talking into a phone, sharing a video, or looking at a webcam aren’t natural ways of communicating and don’t come close to what it is like to sit across the table from someone and share an experience.”

Never talk to a person in real life again!

“With augmented and virtual reality technology, it is now possible to feel a sense of presence with other people, allowing you to communicate, collaborate, and connect from anywhere in the world, as if you were in person. This is what Pluto VR is building,” Vechey added.

Other co-founders of Pluto VR include Jared Cheshier, who previously worked on several VR and augmented reality projects at a Seattle-based mobile and emerging technology development firm; Forest Gibson, who has a background in VR, video and marketing; and Jonathan Geibel, who served as director of technology at Walt Disney Animation Studio for 14 years.

The company is looking to develop for devices such as Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, and the Samsung Gear VR, and is looking to get started by working on technology that can make multi-user virtual reality easier to program, Vechey told Engadget. Once that is completed, he and his colleagues will look to come up with concepts that can bring people together virtually.

Among the project currently in the planning stages at Pluto VR are a virtual conference room, complete with an interactive whiteboard, the website said. They are also exploring concepts such as shared virtual workplaces and party games similar in nature to Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity – both of which would be build around similar baseline tech, said Vechey.

[STORY: Pluto may be hiding two other planets, scientists say]

When asked, hypothetically, how quickly he would be able to supply software if consumer VR hardware was announced at next week’s Game Developers Conference, he said that it would be only a matter of weeks before they could have something ready for release on such a device.

“I think we have enough lessons [learned] that we could get something out that was simple enough and was still cool and usable, [but] it wouldn’t be world-shattering,” he told Engadget. “That’s a really long-winded answer saying ‘Yeah, we have something! Would it be Wii Bowling? I can’t say, but would it be something that we stand by and allow people to think about VR differently and allow for something fun and useful? I think so.”

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ESA soliciting CubeSats for deep-space asteroid mission

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

When the ESA’s Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) launches in late 2020, it will be carrying the first European-built CubeSats ever designed to travel beyond Earth’s orbit and into deep space, the agency announced on Thursday.

CubeSats are among the smallest types of probes currently being used internationally, and are formed in standard cubic units of 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) per side. They also typically have a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms and are built using off-the-shelf components. They are literally small, cube satellites that can fit in the palm of your hand.

Typically, they are made to provide smaller companies with a more affordable way to put a satellite into orbit, but thanks to the ESA General Studies Program’s SysNova initiative, teams can submit ideas for CubeSats that will travel beyond Earth’s orbit and into deep space.

Intergalactic contest

“AIM has room for a total of six CubeSat units,” explained ESA mission manager Ian Carnelli. “So potentially that might mean six different one-unit CubeSats could fly, but in practice it might turn out that two three-unit CubeSats will be needed to produce meaningful scientific return.”

“We’re looking for innovative ideas for CubeSat-hosted sensors that will boost and complement AIM’s own scientific return,” he added. “We also intend to use these CubeSats, together with AIM itself and its asteroid lander, to test out intersatellite communications networking.”

According to the agency, the contest will be looking for small probes that provide “innovative solutions to space mission challenges.” Qualifying teams can submit their proposals, which are to include the concepts of the missions and how they plan to address defined technical issues associates with operating such small spacecraft in close proximity to an asteroid.

Selected submissions will be funded by the ESA for additional study over the next seven months, after which time there will be a final review of all projects at the ESTEC technical center in the Netherlands. Winners will collaborate with the agency to further explore and elaborate upon their designs, which will include working at ESTEC’s Concurrent Design Facility.

“ESA’s SysNova initiative will be applied to survey a comparatively large number of alternative solutions, this competition framework giving industry and universities the opportunity to work together on developing their scientific investigations in a field that is the technological cutting edge,” said Carnelli.

[STORY: Watching space weather through Cubesat CINEMA]

The Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) is currently scheduled to launch in October 2020, and will mark the first time that a spacecraft will be sent to a binary system – the Didymos asteroids, an 800-meter main object that is orbited by a 170-meter moon, which will travel to within 11 million kilometers of Earth in 2022.

Preliminary design work on the AIM spacecraft is scheduled to start next month, and during its primary operations, it will perform high-resolution visual, thermal and radar mapping of the moon. AIM will also send down a lander, marking the first time that the ESA will have done so since the Rosetta mission’s Philae lander touched down on a comet last November.

The mission will also serve as the ESA’s contribution to the larger, international Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) project. A NASA-led probe, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will impact the smaller of the Didymos asteroids, while AIM will perform detailed before-and-after mapping, most notably looking for any shift in the asteroid’s orbit.

“While it will return invaluable science, AIM is conceived as a technology demonstration mission, testing out various technologies and techniques needed for deep space expeditions in future,” Carnelli said. “These include two-way high-bandwidth optical communications – with data being returned via laser beam to ESA’s station in Tenerife – as well as intersatellite links in deep space and low-gravity lander operations.”

[STORY: Raindrops on sand mimic asteroid collisions with Earth]

“Once demonstrated, these capabilities will be available to future deep-space endeavors, such as Lagrange-point observatories returning large amounts of data and sample return missions to Phobos – and ultimately Mars – as well as crewed missions far beyond Earth orbit,” he added.

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Head transplants less than three years away, surgeon says

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

The first-ever human head transplant operation could take place in less than three years time, according to bold claims made by one prominent Italian surgeon earlier this week.

According to CNET, Sergio Canavero, director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group (TANG) in Italy, believes that he had found a way to successfully remove a person’s head from his or her existing (presumably failing) body and attach it to a healthier, fully-functioning one.

[STORY: Head of unknown Roman god found in British trash heap]

The core concept is not new, the website points out. In the 1950s, a Russian transplant pioneer named Vladimir Demikhov successfully transplanted the head of one dog onto the bodies of others, even going so far as to create a two-headed canine. Then in 1970, Dr. Robert White took the head of one monkey and transplanted it onto the body of another primate.

Dr. C be like:

While both experiments led to new advances in medical transplant techniques, the patients did not survive for long (Dr. White’s monkey died nine days later due to transplant immunorejection, according to CNET). However, Canavero believes that he has come up with a new method that will overcome the issues that his predecessors were forced to deal with.

Canavero, who has published a paper outlining his technique in the journal Surgical Neurology International and will discuss his plans at the 39th annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in June, told New Scientist that science is “now at a point when the technical aspects” of such a procedure “are all feasible.”

He plans to begin by cooling both the transplant head and the donor body in order to slow cell death, then cutting the neck of both and linking all of the major blood vessels with tubes. After that, CNET explained, he plans to sever the spinal cords with as clean a cut as is possible.

[STORY: Are selfies causing a head lice epidemic?]

The recipient’s head would then be moved onto the donor body, and the two ends of the spinal cord would be fused together. Canavero said that this process is essential to the success of the operation, and to accomplish it, he plans to use a chemical known as polyethylene glycol to flush the area and encourage the fat contained within cellular membraines to mesh.

Afterwards, the muscles and blood supply would be sutured, and the recipient would be placed in a coma to prevent movement for a period of three to four weeks. Electrodes would be implanted to electrically stimulate the spinal cord, a process which can strengthen nerve connections. When the patient wakes up, Canavero believes they would be able to move and feel their face.

It gets weirder

The surgeon also believes that the individual would speak with the same voice, and that physical therapy would allow the patient to walk within one year’s time. The technique has not yet been tested, but Canavero plans to experiment on bread-dead organ donors, and one Chinese colleague (Xiao-Ping Ren of Harbin Medical University) intends to test the technique using lab mice.

Should polyethylene glycol fail, Canavero could turn to other options, including injecting stem cells or self-regenerating olfactory ensheathing cells into the spinal cord, New Scientist said. He could use stomach membranes to create a bridge over the spinal gap, as similar procedures have shown promise in helping people regain their mobility after spinal cord injuries.

[VIDEO: Upward sword thrust through neck, skull killed Richard III]

Regarding the potential ethical considerations of such a procedure, Dr. Canavero said that they were the reason he first brought it up in 2013. He said he wanted “to get people talking about it. If society doesn’t want it, I won’t do it. But if people don’t want it in the US or Europe, that doesn’t mean it won’t be done somewhere else. I’m trying to go about this the right way, but before going to the moon, you want to make sure people will follow you.”

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Fibromyalgia

Are Computers Really a Risk Factor for Developing Fibromyalgia?

Written By: Fibromyalgia Treating

Fibromyalgia is a very stressful, chronic disease to go through, and if you’re currently suffering through it, the last thing you probably want to hear about are some of the risk factors of making the symptoms become worse.

You’ve probably heard all about the usual risk factors: eating a poor diet, not getting enough, sleep etc.  But here, we’ll introduce an entirely new risk factor that you’ve probably never considered before. You may find that you were taking this risk all along, and if you can correct it, you could see a reduction in your fibromyalgia symptoms and pain levels in the long run.

Well here it is: your body can have a very strong, negative response to the energy field of a computer.  Sounds a little crazy, right?  However, it’s understood that if we have an energy field and the computer has an energy field as well, then it would make sense for the computer’s field to interfere with our own…thereby resulting in the pain we feel from fibromyalgia to reach new levels.

Are Computers Really a Risk Factor for Developing Fibromyalgia

Weekend vs. the Week

To give you an idea of how computers can actually have a surprising, negative reaction on patients, people who have fibromyalgia have reported numerous times that they feel better during the weekend than during the week. Even if this alleviation in pain is ever so slight, at least it’s something. Well, what’s the common denominator here?  Why feel better during the weekend than during the week?

The answer is because we work during the week.  No doubt, stress plays a major role in this finding. Regardless of whether you’re at the computer all weekend or not, you’re going to feel less stressed out during the weekend and that certainly plays a role in the reduction of pain.  But there are still some interesting correlations between feeling less pain and spending less time at the computer screen.

Here are some steps you can take to feel in less pain both during the work week and when you’re at the computer. Begin the work week by evaluating your condition. How energized are you? How much pain are you in?  Do you feel relaxed?  Do your muscles ache?  Do you feel stiff or flexible?

Next, perform a test with your computer. Turn the computer off and sit in front of it for about a minute.  Then, stand up and move around.  If you work in an office environment, you certainly don’t want to embarrass yourself, but you can walk around your chair.  The point is that you just need to tell what it was like to walk around, and then answer the same set of questions that you asked yourself at the beginning of the evaluation.

Now, sit back down in your chair, start it up, and begin work. In five or ten minutes, leave the computer on, but get up against and walk from your computer. Now you can answer the exact same set of questions, but in particular ask yourself: how easy was it to get up and move around after working at the computer screen?  Do you feel less stiff or more stiff?  Has your pain flared up again?  Do you feel energetic at all?  Take the time you need to answer the questions, as your body will likely need a few minutes before it can relate back to you the questions.

This may sound like too simple of a test, but it’s a very effective way to evaluate whether or not sitting in front of the computer screen is increasing or decreasing the pain, fatigue, and energy levels that you feel. The beauty of this test is that you can perform it several times a day, whenever you want to, and for whatever duration.  But as a word of advice, you probably won’t want to be performing this test so often that it disrupts with your work performance…

Additional Risks and Studies

Computer technology has advanced at some of the fastest rates in recent years, and while we don’t have a definitive number, it’s estimated that more than three in every five families have a computer in their home, and that nearly the same number of workers use computers to complete their jobs and other job-related tasks. It’s understandable if you’re a person afflicted with fibromyalgia and regretting you found this information out of the relationship between greater chronic pain and more time with the computer.

Nonetheless, you may feel comfortable in knowing that you are not alone.  Sitting in front of the computer screen is actually a risk that exists with other diseases as well, not just fibromyalgia. For example, those with arthritis also suffer from pain, weakness, fatigue, and limited movement.  The same reasons for why a computer is a risk factor with fibromyalgia patients exist with arthritis patients as well. However, arthritis patients are actually more prone to computer-related injuries than those with fibromyalgia.  In that regard, you could be an even worse boat.

Additional studies have been conducted on both arthritis and fibromyalgia patients alike to detect any increased levels of pain and discomfort experienced with computer use. Examples of pain that can occur during computer use have to do with sitting down on the chair, staring at the monitor, typing on the keyboard, moving the mouse, and so forth.

The results of the studies were quite clear. An overwhelming majority of fibromyalgia and arthritis patients alike reported that working at the computer impeded their ability to work due to their condition, and nearly the same number reported feeling pain and discomfort throughout the work process. This is shocking in comparison to the rest of the population, who report significantly lower levels.  Fibromyalgia patients reported that even when working in an idea work environment, they would still feel pain and limitations.

If you work at the computer, you’ll have to do what you can to reduce the pain. But it’s important that you take as much time off from the computer over the weekend as possible in order to reduce the stress, fatigue, discomfort and limitations that you feel.

Further reading:

Computer Use As A Risk Factor For Pain: http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/computer-use-as-a-risk-factor-for-pain.html

Is Your Computer Hurting Your Fibromyalgia Pain? http://fibromyalgiafreelife.com/about-fibromyalgia/fibromyalgia-computer-pain/

#Thanks: Pay your friends with Twitter

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Need to send money to someone, but don’t have their address, banking information or email address? A new app lets you transfer funds using only the recipient’s Twitter handle.

The app, which is available through Barclays bank, it called Pingit and it currently allows UK customers to pay a friend or small business simply by entering the recipient’s telephone number. As of March 10, however, it will add the option to pay Twitter users, according to CNET.

To pay through social media, you simply have to log into the Pingit app and enter the Twitter handle of the person you want the money to go to, the website explained. The payment will be sent instantly, and there will be no transaction fees for payments send between individuals.

[STORY: New app lets you turn your smartphone into a computer mouse]

Both the sender and the recipient need to have their Twitter handles registered with the free app, and once the money is sent, you can even send out a tweet to let the other party know payment is on the way. Usage of the app is not limited to Barclays customers either – anyone can use it, just as long as they have both a UK bank account and mobile phone number.

The app, which was launched in 2012, also works with a phone number, and small businesses can obtain a special QR code for customers to scan, CNET explained. It also comes with a built-in calculator to help divide up costs, logs payments both in the app and via text message.

For a person to receive the money, they need to have either installed the Pingit app on their mobile device, or be registered for the Paym mobile payment service, the website added. If they don’t, the money will remain in the sender’s account, and the recipient will receive telling them about the payment and instructing them to install Pingit within the next five days.

[STORY: Afraid of your plane crashing? There’s an app for that!]

“We are always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to make people’s lives easier and customer feedback plays a big part in how we chose to further develop our apps,” Darren Foulds, Director of Barclays Mobile Banking and Pingit, said in a statement.

“Adding the ability to pay people or a small business using just a Twitter handle brings together a social and digital experience to create a new step forward for mobile payments in the UK,” he added.

Pingit is available for iPhones running iOS 6 and above, BlackBerry devices running OS 4.4 and above, mobile devices running Android 2.2 and above, and Windows 8 smartphones, the bank’s website said. It is free to download and only requires a UK mobile phone number.

[STORY: New app tells you what to take when you’re sick]

Users must be over the age of 16, and those without smartphones or tablets can register to receive payments without the app as long as they have a mobile device that can receive texts, Barclays added. Pingit can also be used to send international payments to regions of the world such as Botswana, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mauritius or Zambia.

Transactions made using the device are protected by Barclays Mobile Banking Guarantee, and any money that is taken from your account if you’re a victim of fraud will be refunded, the bank said. However, they warn that Pingit may not work correctly on a jailbroken smartphone or any device with modified system files, and it is not available on phone with rooted access.

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Carnivorous blatterwort genome is like a Tardis

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

A carnivorous plant known as the humped blatterwort has a genetic makeup that sounds like something out of a science-fiction novel – it has a smaller genome than many well-known types of plants, but has a greater number of genes, a team of researchers has discovered.

Writing in a recent edition of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, researchers from the University of Buffalo reported that the bladderwort (Utricularia gibba) has 80 million base pairs of DNA, six times fewer than the grape, but has 28,500 genes versus the grape’s 26,300. It also has a smaller genome but more genes than the coffee and papaya plant, they added.

[STORY: World of Warcraft adds color-blind support]

Previous research

According to the Washington Post, the study builds upon previous research conducted by lead author and Buffalo professor Victor Albert in 2013. In that paper, Albert revealed that the plant had far less “junk” DNA (DNA that does not directly code for proteins) that is abundant in many types of organisms. The bladderwort has just three percent of so-called junk DNA, he explained, while an estimated 90 percent of human DNA is either junk or have unknown roles.

Albert believes that the carnivorous plant only has time to maintain coding DNA, and in the new study, he suggests that its ultra-efficient genome may be due to long-term, widespread editing of DNA. Essentially, the newspaper explained, the plant is adding new and deleting old DNA at an unusually rapid pace, and it may have even duplicated its entire genome at least three times.

[STORY: Trekkies rejoice: ‘Star Trek’ communicators are finally here]

“The story is that we can see that throughout its history, the bladderwort has habitually gained and shed oodles of DNA,” Albert, a biological sciences professor, said. “With a shrunken genome, we might expect to see what I would call a minimal DNA complement: a plant that has relatively few genes – only the ones needed to make a simple plant. But that’s not what we see.”

Rampant DNA deletion

Further research revealed that U. gibba contains an abnormally high amount of genes responsible for facilitating carnivorous behavior, specifically those which enable it to create enzymes which help break down meat fibers. The bladderwort was also found to be rich in genes associated with the biosynthesis of cell walls, which helps the aquatic plant species keep water at bay.

“When you have the kind of rampant DNA deletion that we see in the bladderwort, genes that are less important or redundant are easily lost,” explained Albert. “The genes that remain – and their functions – are the ones that were able to withstand this deletion pressure, so the selective advantage of having these genes must be pretty high.”

[STORY: ‘Jurassic World’ producers unveil new dinosaurs with Legos]

“Accordingly, we found a number of genetic enhancements, like the meat-dissolving enzymes, that make Utricularia distinct from other species,” he continued. The majority of the DNA that the plant deleted over time was noncoding DNA that contained no genes, Albert added.

He and his colleagues compared the bladderwort to four related plant species in order to find out how it evolved its current genetic structure. They discovered a pattern of rapid DNA alteration in which the plant was constantly shedding genes while also gaining them as a solid rate, allowing it to remain alive and produce adaptations appropriate for its environment.

However, Albert and his colleagues are still uncertain why this particular species rapidly copies and deletes its genetic material. The professor told the Washington Post that it simply might not be as good at repairing its DNA as its aquatic, carnivorous, larger-genomed relatives. The team is planning to conduct future studies hoping to uncover the reason for this unusual mechanism.

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Graphene targets, neutralizes cancer stem cells

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Graphene, the ultra-strong and highly-conductive material typically thought of as a potential component for electronic devices or advanced composites, could also be used to combat several different forms of cancer, experts from the University of Manchester have discovered.

Writing in the journal Oncotarget, Professor Michael Lisanti, Dr. Aravind Vijayaraghavan and their colleagues have found that a modified form of the carbon allotrope can target and neutralize cancer stem cells without harming other cells, meaning it could treat or prevent the disease.

[STORY: WTF is graphene?!]

That modified form, graphene oxide, acts as an anti-cancer agency that selectively targets cancer stem cells (CSCs), and when combined with existing types of therapy, it could eventually lead to tumor shrinkage while also preventing the spread of cancer and recurrence of the disease.

The researchers caution that additional pre-clinical studies and extensive clinical trials will be required before the research could be used on patients in the clinic. However, their work could open up a new treatment possibility for those suffering from various forms of cancer.

[STORY: Meet penta-graphene: The newest structural variant of carbon]

“Cancer stem cells possess the ability to give rise to many different tumor cell types,” explained Professor Lisanti, who is the director of the Manchester Centre for Cellular Metabolism in the University’s Institute of Cancer Sciences. “They are responsible for the spread of cancer within the body – known as metastasis – which is responsible for 90 percent of cancer deaths.”

Biomedical applications

CSCs also play a key role in the recurrence of tumors after treatment, the professor added. This is because conventional types of chemotherapy and radiotherapy only kill the “bulk” cancer cells and generally have no affect on the cancer stem cells.

“Graphene oxide is stable in water and has shown potential in biomedical applications. It can readily enter or attach to the surface of cells, making it a candidate for targeted drug delivery,” said Dr. Vijayaraghavan. “In this work, surprisingly, it’s the graphene oxide itself that has been shown to be an effective anti-cancer drug.”

[STORY: Your engagement ring could hold the secrets to the origins of life]

“Cancer stem cells differentiate to form a small mass of cells known as a tumor-sphere,” he added. “We saw that the graphene oxide flakes prevented CSCs from forming these, and instead forced them to differentiate into non-cancer stem-cells. Naturally, any new discovery such as this needs to undergo extensive study and trials before emerging as a therapeutic.”

Developing a real-life treatment option for cancer

However, the researchers remain hopeful that their results, which were recorded in cell cultures created in the laboratory, will translate into a effective, real-life treatment option for cancer. They explained that they prepared several different types of graphene oxide and tested them against six different common types of cancer – breast, pancreatic, lung, brain, ovarian and prostate.

They found that the flakes inhibited tumor formation in all six types of the disease, indicating that graphene oxide could be effective against a large number of different cancers (if not all of them). It works by blocking processes which occur on the surface of the cells, the authors noted, and could lead to improve clinical outcomes when combined with conventional treatments.

[STORY: Magnetic nanoparticles could stop blood clot-caused strokes]

“These findings show that graphene oxide could possibly be applied as a lavage or rinse during surgery to clear CSCs or as a drug targeted at CSCs,” said study co-author Dr. Federica Sotgia. “Our results also show that graphene oxide is not toxic to healthy cells, which suggests that this treatment is likely to have fewer side-effects if used as an anti-cancer therapy.”

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BREAKING: FCC passes net neutrality law; internet now public utility

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has officially approved a net neutrality law that reclassifies broadband Internet as a Title II public utility.

According to TechCrunch, the measure passed by a 3-2 vote, with the FCC’s two Democratic appointees joining Chairman Tom Wheeler in voting in favor and the two Republican members voting against it.

The website added that the plan underwent a last-minute revision, removing a potential flaw in its formation that the agency was alerted to by Google. That weakness could have allowed some paid prioritization, a tactic used by some ISPs to collect additional fees from companies that use more bandwidth, including video streaming services such as Netflix.

“[The Internet] is our printing press; it is our town square; it is our individual soap box and our shared platform for opportunity,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said during today’s open commission meeting, according to Engadget. “That is why open internet policies matter. That is why I support network neutrality.”

Should we still be concerned?

However, Commissioner Ajit Pai said that it was “sad to witness” the FCC replacing Internet freedom with “government control.” Pai added that the FCC only passed the regulations due to the intervention of President Barack Obama, and said that the new plan “is not a solution to a problem.” Rather, the new rules are, themselves, “the problem.”

“No one, whether government or corporate, should control free and open access to the Internet,” said Chairman Wheeler. “The Internet is too important to allow broadband providers to make the rules.” He added that the new rules are “no more a [secret government] plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech.”

Gizmodo explained that the new rules largely resemble those initially laid out by the White House three months ago, banning paid prioritization and throttling. They do not permit ISPs from blocking websites and giving the FCC the authority to step in when it feels as though companies are not acting in the public interest.

Long road ahead…still

While the government can now regulate the Internet as a public utility, like telephones, it will not give them the ability to determine the price of broadband service. Gizmodo called it “fantastic news… [that] we’ve been waiting years to hear. However, the battle is likely far from over, as companies will likely file legal challenges, and lawmakers could also attempt to intervene.”

“Legal action in response to the new rules is expected. Chairman Wheeler decided to invoke Title II to reclassify broadband service, something that has long been anathema to ISPs,” TechCrunch added. “So, while this vote was important, the life of net neutrality is not yet safe. Congress has agitated against the FCC’s plan in recent weeks.”

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Seven ancient crocodilian species discovered in Amazon

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – @BednarChuck

Researchers from the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Natural History in Lima, Peru have unearthed an incredible group of seven-different ancient crocodile species in what the western Amazon region of what is now northeastern Peru.

Crocodile fossils

Researchers uncovered fossils from seven different species of crocodiles that lived together about 13 million years ago in the Pebas Formation in what is now the Amazon Basin of northeastern Peru. Their skulls and jaws, shown here, are extremely diverse: (1) Gnatusuchus pebasensis, (2) Kuttanacaiman iquitosensis, (3) Caiman wannlangstoni, (4) Purussaurus neivensis, (5) Mourasuchus atopus, (6) Pebas Paleosuchus, and (7) Pebas gavialoid. The three new species (1-3) are shown in illustrations below the respective fossils. Reconstructions by Javier Herbozo. (Credit © Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi)

According to USA Today, the new fossils are of crocodilians that inhabited the same region of swampland approximately 13 million years ago. Those species range from “a powerful predator as long as a stretch limousine to a newfound croc with bulbous teeth for crushing clams.”

The find, which was detailed this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, was the result of more than a decade of work in Amazonian fossil beds, the researchers said. It also marks the largest number of crocodile species ever found co-existing in one place at anyone one time, which was likely due to an abundant amount of food in the form of mollusks.

“The modern Amazon River basin contains the world’s richest biota, but the origins of this extraordinary diversity are really poorly understood,” explained co-author John Flynn, Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals at the AMNH. “Because it’s a vast rain forest today, our exposure to rocks – and therefore, also to the fossils those rocks may preserve – is extremely limited.”

“So anytime you get a special window like these fossilized ‘mega-wetland’ deposits, with so many new and peculiar species, it can provide novel insights into ancient ecosystems,” he added. “And what we’ve found isn’t necessarily what you would expect.”

Some history

Approximately 10.5 million years ago, before the Amazon basin had its river, it was home to a large wetland system filled with swamps, lakes, and rivers that drained northwards towards the Caribbean instead of eastwards towards the Atlantic Ocean, the authors noted. Learning which types of creatures lived there at the time may help understand modern Amazon biodiversity.

While invertebrates such as mollusks and crustaceans have been abundant in Amazonian fossil deposits, evidence of vertebrates other than fish have been very rare, they added. Flynn and his colleagues have been working at the fossil outcrops of the Pebas Formation in northeastern Peru, which has preserved species from the Miocene, including the newly discovered crocodiles.

Three of the species have never been seen before, and include a short-faced caiman with globular teeth known as the Gnatusuchus pebasensis. This species is believed to have used its snout to dig for clams and other mollusks in mud bottoms, and the increase of shell-crunching (durophagous) crocs like it are associated with a peak in mollusk diversity and numbers.

Gnatusuchus pebasensis

This model is a life reconstruction of the head of Gnatusuchus pebasensis, a 13-million-year-old, short-faced crocodile with globular teeth that was thought to use its snout to "shovel" mud bottoms, digging for clams and other mollusks. Model by Kevin Montalbán-Rivera. (Credit © Aldo Benites-Palomino)

Blunt snout, globular teeth

The scientists also found the first-ever unambiguous fossil representative of the living smooth-fronted caiman Paleosuchus, which had a longer and higher snout that would have been suitable for catching a variety of prey, including fish and other active swimming vertebrates.

In an interview with USA Today, co-author Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi of the Museum of Natural History in Lima called the find “amazing.” He went on to explain in a statement that he and his fellow researchers had uncovered a time in which the ancient wetland ecosystem had peaked in term of size and complexity, just before the rise of the modern Amazon River system.

“At this moment, most known caiman groups co-existed: ancient lineages bearing unusual blunt snouts and globular teeth along with those more generalized feeders representing the beginning of what was to come,” he added. As the modern Amazon River system emerged, there was a sharp decline in mollusk populations, leading durophagous crocodile species to become extinct.

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