Hyperloop technology has taken a leap forward this week, as two separate teams have debuted their new pod technologies.
The Hyperloop was an idea dreamed up by Elon Musk (the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and SolarCity) in 2013, when he released a 58-page paper calling for the creation of a new technology. It’s like bank pneumatic tubes crossed with maglev: People or products in pods would be whisked through tubes between cities at speeds nearing the speed of sound (767 mph or 1235 km/h), thanks to the great reduction in friction granted by magnets.
Or, in other words, such a system would take you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 30 minutes—a journey that normally takes six hours driving or around an hour of flying.
Critics have already chimed in, arguing that the Hyperloop will be too expensive to create and implement (not to mention uncomfortable for those who ride it), but that hasn’t stopped a huge number of groups from trying.
MIT takes the crown
In February, SpaceX held a competition at Texas A&M in which more than 100 teams competed to design the Hyperloop, and a team from MIT won. Known as MIT Hyperloop, they have unveiled their pod design just yesterday, as reported by BBC.
The proud team who brought the pod to reality. We’re grateful for all your help and support! pic.twitter.com/16fKiHEyyW
MIT’s pod is shaped like a water droplet, and—as called for by Musk—uses magnets to lift itself off an aluminum track. It’s currently a scale test model of future pods, coming in at about one-third to one-half the size of what the real things will be. However, the team is confident that scaling up the model will be a fairly straightforward task. According to RT, trials funded by Musk inside tubes will begin in August.
However, their model currently has two major issues. First, it’s not quite there in terms of real-life output: Turning (even gently) is a “huge problem,” as the team told BBC; the brakes need “more testing”; and, according to RT, the team has admitted that their model can only reach 250 mph (402 km/h) at the moment.
Who will win the game of thrones?
Second, they have some stiff competition. A mere three days before MIT debuted their pod, a startup company known as Hyperloop One held its first public test in the desert outside of Las Vegas. The track was short and not enclosed by a tube, and the pod reached only 116 mph (187 km/h), according to The Guardian, but the company is confident for the future.
Backed by companies like GE Ventures and France’s national railway, SNCF, they will attempt a full-scale, full-speed test inside a tube by the end of the year.
“Today, we are one step closer to making Hyperloop real,” said the start-up’s chief executive Rob Lloyd, in a statement. “We will be moving cargo in 2019, and we think we will have passengers safely transported by Hyperloop in 2021.”
If you think ancient civilizations existed in their own bubbles, you may want to reconsider—especially as an archaeologist from the Australian National University College of Asia-Pacific claims he has discovered that ancient Irish musical traditions and instruments are currently being used in south India.
The man who made the discovery, PhD student Billy Ó Foghlú, says this realization reveals a long, lively history of cultural exchanges between iron-age Europe and India, dating 2,000 years. He believes the two cultures shared their independently-developed musical technologies and styles, including horns, which are nearly identical when comparing modern Indian horns and iron-age Irish horns.
“Archaeology is usually silent. I was astonished to find what I thought to be dead soundscapes alive and living in Kerala today,” said Ó Foghlú in an ANU statement. “The musical traditions of south India, with horns such as the kompu, are a great insight into musical cultures in Europe’s prehistory.
“And, because Indian instruments are usually recycled and not laid down as offerings, the artefacts in Europe are also an important insight into the soundscapes of India’s past.”
Pointing to connections between cultures
The paper, which is published in the Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology, includes the example of a carving from Sanchi, India dating to 300 BCE, which depicts a group of musicians playing European instruments known as carnyces—a type of bronze trumpet with an animal’s head for the bell.
Linking ancient Irish and Indian musical traditions can also help explain some of the mysteries surrounding Celtic iron-age horns unearthed in excavations—especially considering that viewing discoveries through the musical soundscape of modern Western Europe makes it somewhat difficult to predict what an entirely different musical tradition of an ancient population may have sounded like.
Credit: Australian National University
“Some almost identical instruments have been unearthed together, but they are slightly out of tune with each other to western ears,” Ó Foghlú said. “This was previously assumed to be evidence of shoddy workmanship. But in Indian music this kind of dissonance is deliberate and beautiful.
“Horns are used more as a rhythm instrument, not for melody or harmony in a western sense.”
Incidentally, this is not Ó Foghlú’s first large discovery concerning ancient Irish music—in September, he also made headlines after he proposed a famous ancient spear butt was actually the mouthpiece of a horn—and to prove his point, he made a 3D print of the “spear butt” and played it with a recreated horn.
Working can be difficult enough when you have fibromyalgia. Depending on the nature of your job, it can heap more exhaustion on top of the fatigue that you already experience with your illness. While managing your job is challenging enough, looking for a new job when you have fibro presents even more issues. Here are some questions to ask yourself during your job search.
Can You Find a Telecommute Situation?
Many people with fibromyalgia find it very difficult to hold down a traditional job, especially if it requires long commutes or regular overtime. You may need regular naps to deal with your fatigue, which is not compatible with most traditional jobs. Working at home can be a solution that still enables you to keep working while eliminating some of the biggest sources of stress. Try doing a search for your job title or field and the word “telecommute” or “remote” to find opportunities.
Should You Disclose Your Illness During the Interview?
It can be difficult to decide whether or not you should mention your illness during the interview. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects against discrimination, employer biases can still affect their judgment. Whether or not you should disclose your illness is a personal decision with no one right answer.
Fibromyalgia is not always a visibly apparent illness unless you walk with a cane. If you decide to disclose during the interview process, it’s important to spin your illness in a positive light. Instead of focusing on the likelihood that you’ll need to take regular days off work, highlight the obstacles you’ve overcome and what you are still able to do. Remember that if you don’t disclose during the interview, you can always do so after you’re hired at a time that seems appropriate.
Can You Actually Perform the Job Duties?
You may feel desperate about needing a job, especially if you don’t like your current job or if you’re unemployed. However, it’s important to be honest with yourself about whether or not a specific job you’re pursuing is one you think you’ll realistically be able to perform. Physically demanding jobs or ones that are high stress tend to be more difficult for people with fibro because they’re more likely to trigger a flare.
Create a List of Possible Needed Accommodations
The ADA gives disabled employees the right to work with reasonable accommodations. You can improve your work life by making a list in advance of the accommodations that might benefit you and make it easier to do your job. Here are some ideas:
Get job instructions in writing when possible.
Reduce distractions in the work environment.
Establish multiple shorter break periods for rest instead of a couple longer breaks.
Implement a fragrance-free workplace policy
Move workstation near office equipment and restrooms
Would You Benefit from Vocational Rehabilitation?
Vocational rehab is designed to keep people with disabilities in the workforce in the most appropriate roles. In addition to performing assessments of your current functioning, vocational rehab will also help to discover what types of interventions you might need. You can get referrals to other services if necessary and can also get career counseling that will help you find a job that fits your physical needs.
Jupiter and the Moon to share a close encounter Saturday night
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Before turning in for the night on Saturday, make sure you look up at the sky, as Jupiter and the Moon, two of the brightest objects visible in the night sky, will be close to each other and can be spotted by looking in the southern part of the sky near the constellation Leo.
According to Space.com and Astronomy Now, the two objects will be visible high in the sky, approximately two-thirds of the way between the horizon and the zenith (the point that is directly overhead), and both can easily be seen using a pair of basic, low-powered binoculars.
The moon, currently in its waxing gibbous phase, can be found about 13 degrees to the right of Jupiter on Saturday and will be located seven degrees to its left on Sunday night, Dan Malerbo from the Buhl Planetarium & Observatory said earlier this week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The duo should be visible starting roughly 45 minutes after the sun sets.
In addition to its close proximity to Jupiter, the moon will be 64 percent sunlight, according to Space.com. Combined, these factors mean one thing: “The pair will no doubt make for an eye-catching sight even to those who aren’t paying much attention to the sky,” the website said.
Great Red Spot, four of Jupiter’s moons may also be visible
While the moon and Jupiter will be easily visible to just about anyone looking up to the sky this weekend, National Geographic points out that there’s a special added attraction for all those who have more powerful binoculars or telescopes: a chance to see four of Jupiter’s moons.
“If you point your binoculars at this gas giant, you can easily see its four largest moons, first observed and recorded by famed astronomer Galileo back in 1609,” the website said. “And if you have a small telescope handy, you can see the planet’s beautiful atmospheric details, such as swirls and festoons of gas compounds that make up the upper cloud deck.”
Furthermore, this weekend will also give stargazers an opportunity to get a good look at Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, the anticyclonic storm located south of the planet’s South Equatorial Belt, noted Astronomy Now. The Great Red Spot is easiest to see when it is in transit, crossing the imagined line connecting Jupiter’s north and south poles, and it is expected to do so early Sunday morning – in the UK, at least.
Finally, mark your calendars for August 27, as Space.com said that Jupiter will be part of what they are calling “a spectacularly close conjunction with Venus” on that date. Sure, it may still be more than three months away, but it never hurts to make plans and be prepared!
NASA funding research in cryogenic sleep chambers, other future technologies
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Technology designed to place astronauts in a state of induced hibernation and use lasers as a propulsion system for miniature spacecraft are among the projects that have received a second round of funding through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program.
In total, the US space agency has selected eight proposed missions which they feel “have the potential to transform future aerospace missions, introduce new capabilities, and significantly improve current approaches to building and operating aerospace systems.” Each proposal has been awarded a Phase II grant that could be worth up to $500,000 over two years.
Among those proposals is one that intends to create technology that would place astronauts in what Popular Science refers to as “an state of advanced hypothermia,” causing their core body temperature to drop nearly 10 degrees and reducing their metabolic rate during the nine month journey to Mars. Along the way, the machine would also feed them intravenously, according to lead researcher John Bradford and his colleagues at Spaceworks Engineering.
In addition, University of California physicist Philip Lubin was awarded a Phase II grant for his proposed propulsion system that would enable NASA to send tiny probes on interstellar missions to distant planets. While the project is a long-term one that is unlikely to be finished for decades, once completed it has the potential to reach other star systems in as little as 20 years.
Other projects include protective spacecraft shells, expandable habitats
Another project of interest looks to design a safer way for spacecraft to land on the Red Planet, without needing to rely on its thin atmosphere to reduce the vehicle’s velocity. This traditional method, while affective, can create dangerous friction and requires heavy heat shields to prevent damage to the spacecraft.
However, David Kirtley, a propulsion researcher with MSNW, is working on a new system that would help prevent potential friction-related damage while also reducing the weight of spacecraft traveling to Mars. By encasing the vehicle in a magnetoshell made from plasma and developing a new aerobraking method, he is confident that he could reduce both the weight and the cost of the spacecraft, while also protecting astronauts from potentially harmful radiation.
The magnetoshell project could enable trips to Mars and other planets. Credit: NASA
Other proposals that have received Phase II funding include a dual aircraft platform capable of remaining airborne for weeks at a time; a technique that produces “solar white” coatings which would scatter sunlight and keep fuel tanks cool without the need for additional energy input; and a concept for a new flexible and expandable habitat inspired by the molecular structure of spider silk, according to Popular Science and Daily Mail reports published earlier this week.
“Phase II decisions are always challenging, but we were especially challenged this year with so many successful Phase I studies applying to move forward with their cutting-edge technologies,” NIAC program executive Jason Derleth said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to welcome these innovations and their innovators back to the program. Hopefully, they will all go on to do what NIAC does best – change the possible.”
—– Image credit: NASA
NASA makes first observation of magnetic reconnection event
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
By flying spacecraft through the magnetic fields that connect the Earth to the Sun, researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland have seen for the first time seen the inside of an explosive, invisible burst of energy known as a magnetic reconnection event.
As scientists at the US space agency explained Thursday in a statement, magnetic reconnection is one of the primary sources of space radiation, and learning more about these events would not only shed new light on the environment surrounding our little planet, but it would also help keep our astronauts and are spacecraft safer as we prepare to embark on longer-distance flights.
Despite being a far better vacuum than can be created on Earth, space is home to many small particles and is extremely active. It “overflows with energy” and is home to “a complex system of magnetic fields,” NASA said. On occasion, two sets of magnetic fields connect, which causes an “explosive” reaction to occur in the form of a magnetic reconnection. As these fields re-align, they convert magnetic energy into the heat and kinetic energy of charged particles.
Now, for the first time, the Goddard team has used the four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft to observe what happens inside a magnetic reconnection event, and as they reported in the latest edition of the journal Science, they not only observed magnetic energy being converted into particle energy, but also measured the electrical field and current, and found that the process is dominated by the physics of electrons.
Getting to the heart of a long-standing puzzle
While the effects of magnetic reconnection have been observed throughout the solar system in various forms, scientists were never able to directly witness the phenomenon prior to the MMS mission, which according to lead author Jim Burch of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, is the first satellite with “the precision needed” to collect such data.
The MMS mission is comprised of four identical probes that launched in March 2015 and fly in a pyramid-shaped formation to create a 3D map of anything they observe. Last October, the probes traveled through a magnetic reconnection event which took place at the point where the magnetic fields of the Earth and sun meet. Though the encounter was short-lived, lasting just 25 seconds, it enabled the MMS spacecraft to make thousands of previously-impossible observations.
“From previous satellites’ measurements, we know that the magnetic fields act like a slingshot, sending the protons accelerating out,” Burch explained. “The decades-old mystery is what do the electrons do, and how do the two magnetic fields interconnect. Satellite measurements of electrons have been too slow by a factor of 100 to sample the magnetic reconnection region. The precision and speed of the MMS measurements, however, opened up a new window on the universe, a new ‘microscope’ to see reconnection.”
The four MMS spacecraft flew across the boundary of the magnetosphere and directly through a portion of the phenomenon known as the dissipation region, where the reconnection itself occurs. The observations reveal that, as the magnetic fields shifted suddenly, electrons were fired off in straight lines at speeds of several hundred miles per second – fast enough for them to cross over the magnetic boundaries rather than being deflected backwards.
Observations found to match the crescent model simulation
Once they made it across, the particles were affected by the new magnetic fields and made a U-turn in accordance with a computer simulation known as the crescent model. Then, much to the surprise of the NASA team, these crescents made an abrupt turn at the moment that the magnetic field lines of the Earth and sun interconnected.
The data revealed that the process was “orderly and elegant,” said Goddard scientist Michael Hesse, the man who originally developed the crescent model. “There doesn’t seem to be much turbulence present, or at least not enough to disrupt or complicate the process.”
Observing the crescent shape in the particle distribution “shows us that the electrons move in such a way that electric fields are established and these electric fields in turn produce a flash conversion of magnetic energy,” said co-author Roy Torbert, a scientist with the University of New Hampshire’s Space Science Center (SSC). “The encounter that our instruments were able to measure gave us a clearer view of an explosive reconnection energy release and the role played by electron physics.”
Since October, MMS has flown through five additional magnetic reconnections, and it is hoped that these observations will provide even more information about the processes that drive these unusual phenomenon. Each set of observations made by the spacecraft should help explain each component of these high-energy events, NASA explained, and this knowledge will help experts map out the space environment and better prepare for the long-distance journeys ahead.
Riverbed discovery places humans in the southeast US 1,500 years earlier than previously thought
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
It was a widely accepted fact since the 1930s: The first people to arrive in the Americas, now known as the Clovis culture, came here about 13,000 years ago.
The first crack in the theory came around in the 1970s, when archaeologists began turning up sites that predated the arrival of the Clovis culture—although acceptance of a pre-Clovis human arrival has been slow.
However, a newly-excavated site in Florida now offers substantial proof for those who doubt, as researchers there have dated human-made tools to 14,550 calendar years before present—and offers up a rare insight into when certain megafauna disappeared from the continent.
The Clovis culture
More than 13,500 years ago, the northern reaches of North America were covered entirely by sheets of ice—which, spanning thousands of miles in solid blocks, hindered the movements of humans and animals looking to move from Bering land bridge southward.
But around 13,500 years ago, a path known as the ice-free corridor opened up, and perhaps 300 years later, the Clovis culture—a prehistoric Paleo-Indian culture—used it to reach the United States.
The Clovis then spread throughout North and South America, leaving behind a myriad of evidence in their wake, including their extremely characteristic projectile points.
Credit: Wikimedia commons
Clovis First?
But slowly, evidence began to show that they were likely people in the Americas before the ice-free corridor ever opened up. The sites of Monte Verde in Chile (dated ~14,500 years before present) and Meadowcroft in Pennsylvania (~15,000 years BP) are extremely famous examples—and researchers in Brazil may have even uncovered fire pits and tools that are 50,000 years old, and researchers in South Carolina may have done the same.
But the evidence has not convinced many archaeologists. In particular, a pre-Clovis site must have three key criteria to offer acceptable proof: First, there must be artifacts that are undeniably associated with humans. Second, they must be found in an undisturbed geological context. And third, they must be reliably dated.
Many of the sites throughout the years didn’t satisfy the researchers, and it didn’t help that so few were available to study.
“The rarity of these early site is due to low population densities, resulting in few archaeological sites and low site visibility thanks to their deep burial [underground] and, in some cases such as at Page-Ladson, the evidence is submerged [underwater],” explained Mike Waters, professor of anthropology at Texas A&M University, in a press teleconference.
But though the evidence has been slow to accumulate, it has been adding up over the past few decades.
“There has been is slow change in the dominant thinking,” added another researcher. “In 1981 you were a quack if you thought there was anything pre-Clovis. I think over the ensuing 25 or 30 years, that has started to slowly change to where it’s become a viable research question again to test whether or not sites are older than Clovis.”
The sinkhole site in Florida can only add to the idea’s feasibility.
Page-Ladson offers new insights
As detailed in the study found today in the journal Science Advances, the site in Florida—dubbed the Page-Ladson site—has been studied before. From 1983 to 1997, the original investigators uncovered eight stone artifacts as well as butchered mastodon remains, which they dated to around 14,400 years BP. But these findings were challenged, and the accuracy of the data remained uncertain afterwards.
Underwater photo of Page-Ladson mastodon tusk in situ. Blue arrow marks location of marks replicated by Webb’s patch mold, offset in the proximal direction relative to the change in color that marks the location of the gingival margin (black arrow). Photo is the same as that used for Webb’s fig. 11.2 on p. 335 (24) and p. 573 (color version). Scale is 20 cm, not including the all-white portion at one end. Original image provided by JSD.
Then, starting in 2012, several more archaeologists returned to the site, in hopes of confirming previous finds. It was a challenging excavation—mainly because the site was located at the bottom of a 30-foot (9 meter) sinkhole along the Aucilla River in Florida. Underwater archaeology, incidentally, is a specialty that doesn’t have anywhere near as many working experts in North America as regular archaeology.
(“The number of people who are specialists in prehistoric archaeology and work underwater…is probably less than 10 of us across the entire continent,” said one researcher.)
Photo of marks on Page-Ladson mastodon tusk (UF 150701) taken shortly after excavation, prior to formation of desiccation fractures of cementum layer. These marks are perpendicular to longitudinal ridges and grooves that characterize the external surface of the cementum. High-angle illumination from upper left; proximal direction on tusk toward left margin. Image rotated 180º from fig. 11.3, p. 336 and p. 553 in Webb (24); original image obtained from JSD.
After some two years of painstaking underwater excavations plus plenty of research and analysis of artifacts, they were able to give a new date to the site: 14,550 years before present, more than a millennia before the Clovis could have arrived.
This date was derived from eight new stone artifacts (including a knife and stone fragment from creating or reworking a stone tool) uncovered onsite made of a type of stone known as chert. In archaeology, many types of rock cannot be directly dated, but instead is dated using the material found near or around it—which is what the researchers here had to do.
Flakes recovered from lower strata at Page-Ladson. A, artifact 12068-1. B, artifact 12209-b. C, artifact 12242-1. D, artifact 12209-a. E, artifact 12068-2. Drawings by J.L. Keene.
71 samples of wood from the relevant layers of sediment were tested using radiocarbon dating, and the dates all fell in right near 14,550 years BP—matching the accurate date criteria for proving a pre-Clovis site. Moreover, the dates of each layer matched one-another, showing that the sediment layers had been undisturbed until this excavation—another criteria checked off.
“Because the Page-Ladson site provides unequivocal evidence of human occupation that predates Clovis by over 1500 years, the site contributes significantly to the debate over the timing and complexity of the peopling of the Americas in several ways,” said Waters.
“First, Page-Ladson is essentially the same age as Monte Verde in Chile, and these sites show that people were living in both hemispheres of the Americas by at least 14,500 years ago. Second, prehistoric people were not alone. Archaeological evidence shows us that people were also present between 14,000 and 50,000 years ago in what are now the states of Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.”
The site also contains two previously-found specimens of interest: A possible (but not yet verified) domesticated dog, as well as a mastodon tusk that shows marks from human tools.
Biface tool in situ [as found onsite]. Marks on scale are 1 cm wide. Photo by J. Halligan.
How did the potential pre-Clovis people get here?
There are two general options for how the pre-Clovis peoples may have arrived. The first: They somehow managed to walk down the Pacific Coast, thereby avoiding the ice sheets, and then spread from there–although it’s unclear whether this was truly a viable option. The second, more popular theory is that they arrived by boat. In fact, there are three suggested places of origin for the pre-Clovis peoples: Beringia, where they sailed down the Pacific Coast; the Iberian Peninsula, where they sailed up and around before arriving in the northeast of North America; and West Africa, where they sailed directly across to Brazil.
Of course, lacking further evidence, one or all of these ideas may be correct
Mastodon-be-gone
The site further shows evidence of when the megafauna known as mastodons went extinct in North America—a date which is currently uncertain.
By tracking a fungus spore associated with herbivore (and therefore mastodon) poop, Sporormiella, throughout the layers of sediment, they were able to associate the decline and disappearance of the fungus (and thus herbivore poop, and thus mastodons) with a layer dated to around 12,600 years ago—meaning these pre-Clovis people likely coexisted with them for around 2,000 years before they went extinct.
Tiny fetus is the youngest Egyptian mummy ever discovered
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
An ancient Egyptian coffin long believed to contain preserved organs has actually been found to hold the youngest known mummified human fetus – a 16- to 18-week-old infant believed to date back to 600 BC, officials from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge have revealed.
According to The Guardian and Discovery News, curators at the museum had long assumed that the 17 inch (44 centimeter) long cedar wood coffin, which was originally excavated from Giza in 1907, contained the mummified remains of organs removed during the embalming process.
However, micro CT scans revealed that the tiny bundle entombed in the coffin actually belonged to a tiny fetus, no more than 18 weeks old and wrapped in bandages sealed by black resin. While its skull and pelvis had apparently collapsed, reports indicate that the long bones of both the arms and legs were visible, as were five digits on both of its hands and feet.
In a statement, the museum said that the fetus was probably the result of a miscarriage, as there were “no obvious abnormalities to explain why it could not have been carried to full-term.” They added that it was “impossible” to determine the if the preborn mummy was male or female.
Discovery shows how ancient Egyptian culture viewed unborn children
Shortly following its excavation from Giza, the cedar wood coffin was delivered to the museum, where it entered into their collection. It is described as “a perfect miniature example” of a coffin from the Egyptian Late Period, and it is believed to date back to around 664 to 525 BC.
While the coffin is “deteriorated,” curators said that it was clearly carved with painstaking care, and while an examination using X-ray imaging technology proved inconclusive, it indicated that the coffin could have contained a small skeleton. Thus, they decided to perform a micro CT scan on the box, during which time the mummified fetal remains were discovered.
“Using noninvasive modern technology to investigate this extraordinary archaeological find has provided us with striking evidence of how an unborn child might be viewed in ancient Egyptian society,” said Julie Dawson, head of conservation at the Fitzwilliam Museum. “The care taken in the preparation of this burial clearly demonstrates the value placed on life even in the first weeks of its inception.”
The newly identified fetus is not the first such mummy discovered by archaeologists working in Egypt – a pair of mummified fetuses were discovered in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 2010 – but it is the youngest, as those mummies were 25-weeks and 37-weeks old (and are believed to have been his daughters, based on the results of DNA testing).
Ancient 14,000-year-old bison remains discovered at Florida excavation site
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Archaeologists working at one of the oldest sites in North America believe they have unearthed the remains of an ancient, now extinct species of bison that could be between 13,000 and 14,000 years old, officials at Florida Atlantic University revealed Wednesday in a statement.
The announcement of the discovery, which was made earlier this year at the Old Vero Man Site in Vero Beach, Florida, came just days after the creature’s modern relatives were designated the official national mammal of the United States. The specimen was discovered beneath a layer of rock the research believe contained material dating back to the Pleistocene period.
A team of researchers from FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute discovered the bones just 10 feet beneath the surface. Using an upper molar, they identified the newfound creature as a member the species Bison antiquus, a direct ancestor of the American bison that had larger horns and bones than its modern-day counterpart, and was roughly 15 to 25 percent bigger overall.
“This finding is especially significant because of the meticulous documentation that has been involved,” explained Dr. James M. Adovasio, principal investigator on the study. “Along with the fact that bones like this have never been found on land as part of a calculated archaeological effort. Others like this have all been found underwater, in sinkholes or streams.”
Credit: Florida Atlantic University
Preserved remains one of the last finds of the 2016 season
Bison antiquus was the most common large herbivore in North America for more than 10,000 years, according to the researchers. They were about eight feet tall, 15 feet long and weighed close to 3,500 pounds. However, since the bison were a creature that was adapted to grassland, nearly all of their bones disintegrated following their demise unless somehow preserved.
Fortunately for the FAU team, they were able to discover well-preserved remains of the animal, along with remains belonging to various small mammals and bone slivers that may be from large creatures such as mammoths or mastodons, near the end of their 2016 excavation work at the Old Vero Man site. The fossils they found have been transported to the school’s Ancient DNA Lab in Harbor Branch for additional research and analysis, the university noted.
Lead archaeologist Dr. Andrew Hemmings said that he and his colleagues “couldn’t have asked for a better representative species from that era” and that the discovery reveals that “people were here in Vero Beach at that time.” The research team had previously discovered the head of a fly and tiny bits of charcoal during this year’s excavations, which began back in February.
Newly-discovered four-planet system is incredibly stable
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
A recently-discovered group of four planets located in a system in the constellation Cygnus have orbits so closely synchronized with one another that it provides long-term stability for the system they call home, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
This extrasolar planetary system, Kepler-223, was discovered by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler mission, and the new study had revealed that the orbital periods of the four planets align with one another, having ratios of 3 to 4, 4 to 6 and 6 to 8, according to the authors.
The Kepler-223 planets “interact gravitationally to keep the beat of a carefully choreographed dance as they orbit their host star,” research team member Eric Ford, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, explained in a statement. This enables the system to have “unusually long-term stability,” he and his colleagues explained in their paper.
For instance, whenever the innermost planet (Kepler-223b) orbits the system’s central star three times, the second-closest planet (Kepler-223c) completes precisely four orbits, which means that both worlds return to the same positions relative to each other and their host star at the end of the process. This synchronization acts like a stabilizing influence for the system.
Observations provide clues as to how these planets formed
This orbital synchronicity also provides strong clues” about “how its planets could have formed,” Ford said. “Our analysis shows that a slow, smooth, migration of the system during its formation and evolution would be able to place these planets into the delicately balanced configuration that we observe today,” he explained.
Systems such as this provide astronomers and astrophysicists with a rare opportunity to test out various different models of planetary formation, and the team’ findings could have implications for other planetary systems as well. In fact, they noted that the system’s current set up is similar to the migration patterns suspected for out solar system’s four outermost planets.
“Kepler found lots of systems with multiple super-Earth and/or sub-Neptune-size planets orbiting close to their host star, but the vast majority of these systems are not in a special resonant configuration like that of Kepler-223,” said Ford. “Many of these systems may have formed similarly to Kepler–223, but then later became destabilized, perhaps by a more distant massive planet or perhaps by the cumulative effect of the scattering of many smaller planetesimals left over from the planet-building process.”
He and his colleagues used data from the Kepler telescope to measure the amount of starlight blocked by each of the planets as the transit (pass in front of) their host star, as well as to detect miniscule changes in each of the planet’s orbits. By combining this data with other observations, they were able to determine the size and mass of each of the planets.
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Image credit: NASA Ames Research Center/Kepler Mission
In a new study that could provide humans with a glimpse of their future, a researcher from the University of Colorado-Denver has unearthed evidence that climate change may have played a key role in the demise of European Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago.
Writing in a recent edition of the Journal of Human Evolution, zooarchaeologist and assistant anthropology professor Jamie Hodgkins and her colleagues analyzed the remains of prey animals and found that Neanderthals were forced to go to great lengths to obtain enough sustenance from the meat and bones of these creatures during prolonged periods of extreme cold.
“Our research uncovers a pattern showing that cold, harsh environments were stressful for Neanderthals,” Hodgkins explained Wednesday in a statement. “As the climate got colder, Neanderthals had to put more into extracting nutrients from bones. This is especially apparent in evidence that reveals Neanderthals attempted to break open even low marrow yield bones, like the small bones of the feet.”
Limited food availability may have called for desperate measures
By examining bones found in caves once inhabited by Neanderthals in southwestern France, the researchers found that the hominins were more likely to pick the bones clean during these glacial periods. Specifically, they found an increase in the frequency of percussion marks, signaling the need to consume all of the marrow due to limited food availability.
The findings provide additional evidence in support of the growing hypothesis that one of the factors involved in the downfall of the Neanderthals was climate change – that these pre-human hominins experienced multiple population crashes linked to glacial cycles in the late Pleistocene epoch approximately 40,000 years ago.
“The exploitation of low marrow yield elements such as phalanges does not show a consistent pattern relating to climate,” the authors wrote. While they noted that this behavior may also have been “a general [Neanderthal] behavioral characteristic,” they believe that the findings appear to indicate that these early hominins were “processing faunal remains more heavily during glacial periods, suggesting a response to increased nutritional stress during colder time periods.”
“Our results illustrate that climate change has real effects,” Hodgkins added. “Studying Neanderthal behavior is an opportunity to understand how a rapidly changing climate affected our closest human relatives in the past. If Neanderthal populations were already on the edge of survival at the end of the Ice Age, the increased competition that occurred when modern humans appeared on the scene may have pushed them over the edge.”
With all the incredible things that modern technology is capable of, constructing a robotic hand capable of performing a simple act of dexterity such as grasping and using a pencil has remained a challenge – one that experts at the University of Washingtonmay have finally solved.
Vikash Kumar, a doctoral student in computer science and engineering at the university, and his colleagues announced this week that they had successfully built a five-fingered robotic hand that can pivot, bend, and perform other feats of in-hand manipulation commonly limited to humans.
Furthermore, they said that the hand can sense friction and learn from its own experiences, which means that there is no need for humans to direct the unit. Kumar’s team will present their work at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation on Tuesday, May 17.
Self-learning algorithm eliminates the need for human input
“Hand manipulation is one of the hardest problems that roboticists have to solve,” Kumar said in a statement Monday. “A lot of robots today have pretty capable arms but the hand is as simple as a suction cup or maybe a claw or a gripper.” Conversely, his team’s new robotic hand utilizes an accurate simulation model that enables a computer to analyze its movements in real-time.
As a result, the robot hand is capable of multiple dexterous movements, and uses this model to improve its performance at tasks such as rotating long objects. This machine-learning algorithm allows the robot to study the basic physics associated with the task, and to plan which moves it should be performing in order to achieve the desired results, the study authors explained.
“Usually people look at a motion and try to determine what exactly needs to happen – the pinky needs to move that way, so we’ll put some rules in and try it and if something doesn’t work, oh the middle finger moved too much and the pen tilted, so we’ll try another rule,” explained senior study author Emo Todorov, an associate professor of computer science, engineering and applied mathematics at UW.
“It’s almost like making an animated film,” added Todorov. “It looks real but there was an army of animators tweaking it. What we are using is a universal approach that enables the robot to learn from its own movements and requires no tweaking from us.” Their approach eliminates the need for every individual step of a task to be pre-programmed by a human controller.
So how did the UW team manage to pull off this feat?
It wasn’t easy, according to a UW press release. In fact, the university said that constructing a dexterous, five-fingered robotic hand posed significant “challenges” in terms of “both… design and control,” including making sure that it was quick, strong and flexible enough to mimic the basic behaviors that a human hand is capable of performing.
Furthermore, the robotic hand required tremendous resources as well. It cost Kumar, Todorov, and their colleagues approximately $30,000 to develop the system, which uses a Shadow Hand skeleton actuated with a custom pneumatic system. The device is capable of moving faster than human hands, but is too expensive for regular use in the commercial or industrial fields.
“There are a lot of chaotic things going on and collisions happening when you touch an object with different fingers, which is difficult for control algorithms to deal with,” said co-author Sergey Levine, UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering who worked on the hand while studying as a postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley. “The approach we took was quite different from a traditional controls approach.”
Thus far, the researchers have successfully demonstrated that the hardware system is capable of learning at the local level, which means that it can get better at tasks that require it to manipulate one object in similar ways. Their next step will involve demonstrating global learning, meaning that the hand could figure out how to manipulate unknown objects without human input.
Genetic study details how Venus flytraps became carnivorous
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
The fearsome botanical carnivore known as the Venus flytrap utilizes ancient defenses against herbivores, but turns them up to eleven to flip the script and become predators instead of prey, according to new research published online in the journal Genome Research.
As part of their study, biophysicist Rainer Hedrich and bioinformaticist Jörg Schultz of the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany monitored the various genes that Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) expressed when they sensed, captured, and then consumed their prey.
According to Science, Hedrich and Schultz were testing the hypothesis that the plants developed their predatory mechanisms by weaponizing behaviors typically used to detect insects and defend against these invaders, enabling them to survive by providing an alternate source of nutrition.
“We show that the transcriptomic landscape of the Dionaea trap is dramatically shifted toward signal transduction and nutrient transport upon insect feeding, with touch hormone signaling and protein secretion prevailing,” the duo wrote. “At the same time, a massive induction of general defense responses is accompanied by the repression of cell death–related genes/processes.”
So… what exactly does that mean?
By monitoring the behavior of Venus flytraps, the study authors found that it takes advantage of an alarm system that alerts the planet when its would-be victim makes contact with a certain type of hair. This hair essentially acts like a tripwire, sending electrical impulses that stimulate glands in the plant and cause it to produce a substance known as jasmonic acid.
This acid, Science explained, is used by other plants as a defense against herbivores. While they have a different purpose, the two different kinds of plants share similar gene expression patterns, said Hedrich. However, that’s where the similarities end, the researchers explained.
In noncarnivorous plants, jasmonic acid results in the synthesis of defense toxins and molecules that inhibit hydrolase, a substance which is used by herbivores to break down proteins found in the plant. Meanwhile in the Venus flytraps, digestive enzymes engulf the attacker and allow the plant to absorb nutrients, and while both types of plants produce their own hydrolases, flytraps do so at a much higher rate to break down their attacker and turn it into a source of food.
Thus, they hypothesize that the Venus flytrap evolved its carnivorous nature by adapting ancient defense mechanisms and molecular pathways, taking what had been a way for a planet to protect itself and turning it into a method for nutrient acquisition. The genes expressed by Dionaea traps as it athers nutrients are similar to those used by the roots of other plants, they told Science.
—– Image credit: Thinkstock
Earth’s atmosphere used to be half as thick as it is today
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Miniature air bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old volcanic rock have revealed that the Earth’s atmosphere was once much thinner, and that the air pressure was half of its current levels, a team of American and Australian researchers reported this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.
They found evidence that the atmosphere would have been much lighter and thinner than it is today, which contradicts the long-held hypothesis that the early Earth had a thicker atmosphere in order to compensate for a sun than was 20-percent dimmer than today, and which will force scientists to reevaluate why the planet managed to remain largely ice-free during that time.
“All the signs are that it wasn’t that different, in terms of the climate system from today,” UW professor Dr. David Catling, one of the authors of the new study, told AFP. “There was rainfall and rivers, there might have been polar ice caps, but it was warm enough… for the whole world [not] to be covered in ice.”
Findings have implications for the search for life on other planets
Som, Catling and their colleagues analyzed air bubbles trapped in basalt throughout ancient lava flows along the coast of the Beasley River in Pilbara, and compared those trapped at the surface of the lava (which were limited in size only by the air pressure) to those at the base (which were limited by both atmospheric pressure and the weight of the lava).
Volcanic rock allowed scientists to see what the atmosphere was like on the ancient Earth. Credit: Sanjoy Som/University of Washington
This enabled them to calculate the air pressure at the time the lava flow took place, and based on the evidence they collected, the researchers concluded that the atmosphere was much thinner and weighed less than half of what it currently does. So what was keeping the Earth warm enough to prevent water from freezing and the surface of the planet from being coated in ice?
As it turns out, it was a combination of “greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or methane” and lower levels of nitrogen than previously thought. High concentrations of CO2 and methane could have warmed the Earth, even with thinner air surrounding the planet, and the low pressure would have meant that nitrogen produced by microbes would have been “modulated” in a different way that limited how much reached the air, Dr. Catling explained to the AFP.
The results of the research demonstrate that “a planetary environment completely different than modern Earth can sustain life on its surface,” Som told Reuters. “Life doesn’t need conditions like modern Earth to survive and thrive,” he added. “This is important in our quest for habitable environments in extra-solar planets.”
Teenager discovers lost Mayan city using the stars and Google Earth
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
A teenage boy in Quebec has discovered a lost Mayan city in the middle of the Mexican rainforest—and all without leaving his city.
15-year-old William Gadoury has been passionate about the Maya since 2012, when there was a big kerfuffle over the Mayan calendar announcing the end of the world, according to Le Journal de Montréal. He’s been eagerly studying them ever since, and recently he made a connection that no other scientist over the past few centuries ever has: He linked the arrangement of the biggest cities of the Maya to the stars.
It all started with a question.
“I didn’t understand why the Mayas had constructed their cities far from rivers, on lands with little fertility and in the mountains,” Gadoury told Le Journal*.
Searching through Mayan literature
Which is when he turned to the Madrid Codex—one of three extant Mayan books that date before the arrival of the Spaniards.
“There had to be another reason, and since they loved the stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis,” he said*.
After looking through the codex, he came up with 22 Mayan constellations. He then created a transparent map of them and placed it over a map of Google Earth, and realized that the constellations corresponded to the layout of Mayan cities on the Yucatán Peninsula.
“I was truly surprised and excited when I realized that the brightest stars of the constellations corresponded to the largest Mayan cities,” he added*.
This discovery is enormous on its own—according to Le Journal, William’s method also works with the Aztecs, Incas, and Harappa in India—but it didn’t stop there. After poking around another Mayan reference book, he discovered a 23rd constellation, which was made of three stars. When this was added to the map, two more cities fit—but the third was absent.
He knew where the third city was supposed to be, however, and contacted the Canadian Space Agency for help. They gave him satellite images from NASA and JAXA, the Japanese space agency, of the site. He also visited websites that distribute satellite images, where he was able to get his hands on pictures of the area from 2005, when a fire devastated the area—but left parts of the potential city visible to satellites.
All in all, this means that Gadoury has correlated 142 stars with 118 Mayan cities.
Observing the site reveals potential man-made structures beneath the forest canopy. Credit: Google Earth
Preliminary verification
Dr. Armand LaRocque, who specializes in remote sensing at the University of New Brunswick, was able to look at the images for Le Journal.
“The geometric shapes, like squares and rectangles, are apparent in these images, shapes which are difficult to attribute to natural phenomena,” he said*.
For the time being, no one will be going out to verify the satellite images of the city, which Gadoury has named K’àak’ Chi’ (“fire mouth”)—it’s prohibitively expensive to create an expedition to the remote area at the moment. But two Mexican archaeologists have promised Gadoury to bring him in the future.
“That would be the result of my three years of work and my life’s dream,” Gadoury said.
Gadoury isn’t resting on his laurels until then, though. His work is to be published in the upcoming months, and he is looking to attend the Expo-Sciences International conference in Brazil in 2017, where he would represent Quebec.
Currently, his school has paid half the fees, but he needs some help with the rest—about $774 in U.S. currency. If you would like to help him out, please reach out to redOrbit on Facebook or Twitter, and we’ll get you connected.
Writing in the Nature Materials, senior author Robert Langer, a professor at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, and his colleagues report that they had developed a new cream that temporarily smooth wrinkles and tighten skin. Furthermore, with additional work, the team believes that it could be used to treat conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.
The product is a silicone-based skin-like polymer, and as the study authors said in a statement, it is applied directly to the skin as a thin and essentially undetectable layer that mimics the elastic and mechanical properties of young, undamaged skin. The product has been proven to be able to reshape bags under the eyes, enhance skin hydration and even provide UV protection.
While the polymer is currently being developed as a cosmetic product, BBC News and the New York Times noted that it could also some day be used to deliver medicines, and that pilot studies involving 170 participants have to date resulted in no reports of significant allergic reactions.
“It’s an invisible layer that can provide a barrier, provide cosmetic improvement, and potentially deliver a drug locally to the area that’s being treated,” Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering as well as a member of the Koch Institute, said in a statement. “Those three things together could really make it ideal for use in humans.”
Ointment is like ‘a Band-Aid over old and aging skin’
Langer, Anderson and their colleagues began working with polymers 10 years ago in search of a way to repair damage done to the skin by sun exposure, the aging process and other factors. They tested more than 100 different polymers, each of which contained siloxane, a chain of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms, to see which best mimicked the look and structure of actual skin.
Ultimately, they came up with a two-step process. First, a clear siloxane polymer is applied to the desired area. However, this polymer has a weak structure, so a second product is applied to link the oxygen and silicon chains to make it more or less permeable, based on whether or not it is used for under-eye bags or to hold medication in place against the skin.
A special solution can be used to dissolve the polymer, which normally lasts about 24 hours. The second product, described by the researchers as a catalyst, needs to be applied after the polymer, as it makes the material too stiff to spread otherwise. Both of the layers are applied to the skin as ointments or creams, and once the process is complete, they essentially become invisible.
“Creating a material that behaves like skin is very difficult,” Massachusetts General Hospital dermatologist Barbara Gilchrest, one of the co-authors of the new study, said in a statement. “Many people have tried to do this, and the materials that have been available up until this have not had the properties of being flexible, comfortable, nonirritating, and able to conform to the movement of the skin and return to its original shape.”
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a biomedical engineering professor at Columbia University who was not part of the study, called the research “brilliant,” telling the Times, “What they have done is design a clever biomaterial that recapitulates the properties of young and healthy skin” and can be used as “sort of a Band-Aid over old and aging skin.”
Is this star home to an alien megastructure? These researchers say no.
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Sorry, History Channel Alien Guy, but researchers from Vanderbilt University have discovered evidence that an F-type main-sequence star in the constellation Cygnus is probably not home to an alien civilization slowly enclosing it in a megastructure called a Dyson sphere.
The star in question, known as KIC 8462852 (or Tabby’s star, after Yale University astronomer Tabetha Boyajian), is located roughly 1,480 light years away from the Earth and was found to be home to a series of unusual light fluctuations over a 100-day period.
The uneven, unnatural dips in brightness suggested that large quantities of oddly-shaped objects were passing in front of the otherwise typical star. Previous research had suggested that the data showed a “bizarre light curve” that was “consistent with” a megastructure built by aliens.
Scientists initially suggested that an alien megastructure could explain the strange light fluctuations.
Since then, other researchers have examined Tabby’s star and found no evidence of light signals that would suggest the presence of extraterrestrials building a Dyson sphere. Now, researchers at Vanderbilt and colleagues from Lehigh University, NASA and Germany reported in a new study that there was, in fact, no credible evidence that the star’s brightness was steadily changing.
So caused the dip in brightness? That remains unknown.
Their work, which has been reviewed by peers and accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, follows a January paper from Louisiana State University astronomers which stated that Tabby’s star had dimmed by one-fifth over the past 100 years – which, if true, would be hard to explain naturally, but would be consistent with the alien megastructure hypothesis.
In that scenario, extraterrestrials could theoretically be converting material in the KIC 8462852 system into large-scale structures that have been absorbing an increasing amount of energy from the star for more than a century. The new Vanderbilt-led paper, however, found no evidence that any significant changes had been taking place, and that the causes of the dips in brightness, while still unexplained, are almost certainly due to natural causes and not the work of aliens.
As VU physics and astronomy professor Keivan Stassum explained in a statement, “Whenever you are doing archival research that combines information from a number of different sources, there are bound to be data precision limits that you must take into account.” He and his fellow researchers looked at variations of several other, comparable stars using the same database used by the LSU team, the Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard (DASCH).
They found that “many” of these stars “experienced a similar drop in intensity in the 1960’s. That indicates the drops were caused by changes in the instrumentation not by changes in the stars’ brightness.” Still, the fact remains that something is transiting in front of the star, added study co-author and German amateur astronomer Michael Hippke. Discovering just what that might be and solving this cosmic conundrum will require additional research.
For the first time in four decades, oxygen has been detected in the atmosphere of Mars, and even though NASA scientists reported that they had only found half as much as they had expected, the discovery should help them learn more about the Red Planet’s unusual atmosphere.
The atmospheric oxygen was detected by the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) spacecraft, a modified Boeing 747SP jetliner equipped with a 100-inch telescope and operated by the US space agency and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
According to UPI reports, SOFIA detected the oxygen in Mars’ mesosphere, and the low levels measured there are believed to be due to variations in the layer of gases surrounding the planet. NASA scientists are hopeful that future observations will help enhance their understanding of these atmospheric fluctuations.
“Atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is notoriously difficult to measure,” SOFIA project scientist Pamela Marcum said in a statement. “To observe the far-infrared wavelengths needed to detect atomic oxygen, researchers must be above the majority of Earth’s atmosphere and use highly sensitive instruments, in this case a spectrometer. SOFIA provides both capabilities.”
SOFIA’s latest measurements one of 100+ scheduled for 2016
The new oxygen measurements are the first taken in the Martian atmosphere since the Viking and Mariner missions of the 1970s, according to NASA. They were made possible by SOFIA’s ability to fly at an altitude of between 37,000 and 45,000 feet – higher than most of the infrared blocking moisture in Earth’s atmosphere.
An instrument called the German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (GREAT) made it possible for astronomers to distinguish between oxygen found in the atmosphere of Mars and that found in the layer of gases surrounding the Earth. The NASA and DLR researchers have published their findings in a recent edition of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“We’ll be studying objects spanning the full gamut of astronomical topics including planets, moons, asteroids, and comets in our solar system; star and planet formation; extrasolar planets and the evolution of planetary systems; the interstellar medium and interstellar chemistry; the nucleus of the Milky Way galaxy, and nearby normal and active galaxies,” said Marcum.
“During the February third flight, the target objects ranged from a young planetary system around the naked-eye star Vega, only 25 light years from us, to an infant star 1,500 light years away in the Orion star forming region,” added Erick Young, SOFIA’s Science Mission Operations Director. “We also observed a supermassive black hole hidden behind dense dust clouds in the center of a galaxy 170 million light years away.”
DARPA reportedly working on new unmanned space shuttle
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is on a quest to build a next-gen space shuttle, and recent reports indicate that it will be an unmanned, reusable aircraft capable of sending small payloads into orbit before safely returning to Earth for refueling
The vehicle in question, the XS-1 project, has been in the works for at least two years, according to The Motley Fool and Science World Report, and while it will be tasked with carrying a variety of probes into space, it will not enter orbit itself, traveling only as far as the “edge of space.”
Once it reaches its destination and releases its payload, the XS-1 will then come back to Earth, landing like an airplane. It will then be refueled so that it could be used as soon as the next day, and DARPA’s goal is to have the space plane fly up to 10 times in a matter of just 10 days.
Planes could be ready for flight testing in less than five years
In the first phase of the project, three different aerospace development teams – Boeing / Blue Origin; Northrop Grumman / Virgin Galactic; and Masten Space Systems / XCOR Aerospace – joined forces to help DARPA explore the technical feasibility of constructing a shuttle-like craft capable of placing small satellites into orbit at a cost of just $5 million per mission.
According to The Motley Fool, that phase of the XS-1 project has been completed, and the firm has now moved on to the second and third phases, which involve building an actual prototype of the vehicle. The six companies listed above and any other interested party were invited in April to submit concepts for a possible XS-1 prototype.
Now, DARPA intends to send out official requests for those proposals, which the agency will be evaluating. A winner will be chosen, perhaps as early as next year, and the winning company (or companies) will be awarded a contract to design, build, and test a prototype (Phase 2) and another to conduct flight tests of their newly-built space plane (Phase 3), according to reports.
No official deadline has been announced for the competition, but DARPA has declared that the winning bidder must utilize a propulsion system that will be flight ready by the 2020 fiscal year, suggesting that the vehicle itself will need to be ready for flight tests by that time. Phase 2 and 3 contracts will be worth a total of more than $140 million.
Could we edit our memories? This study says it’s possible
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Everyone has some memories they’d rather forget. Could it be possible to edit our memories? While it sounds like something out of science fiction, a team of researchers at Stony Brook University are getting closer to making it a reality.
In a new study published in the journal Neuron, Dr. Lorna Role, co-director of the Stony Brook Neurosciences Institute and a professor and chair at its department of neurobiology and behavior, and her colleagues explained how they successfully tweaked the strength of a person’s memories by manipulating a memory-signaling neurotransmitter known as acetylcholine.
While the mechanisms responsible for controlling memory in the brain are poorly understood, a majority of experts believe that the amygdala is the region that plays the main role in controlling emotional memories. Cholinergic neurons located at the base of the brain deliver acetylcholine to the amygdala, and these same neurons appear to change early on in cognitive decline.
Previous studies have found that cholinergic input to the amygdala seems to enhance the strength of emotional memories, and by altering their function, the study authors believe that they may be able to enhance the good memories of patients suffering from dementia, or remove the traumatic ones that cause people l to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Breakthrough could lead to new, drug-free ways to treat PTSD
As Dr. Role explained last week in a statement, “Memories of emotionally charged experiences are particularly strong, whether positive or negative experiences, and the goal of our research is to determine the mechanisms underlying the strengthening of memory.”
In order to test memory mechanisms, she and her colleagues used a fear-based model in mice. They used a research method known as opto-genetics, which they explained uses light to control cells in living tissue as a way to stimulate specific cholinergic neuron populations during their experiments.
They found that by increasing acetylcholine release in the amygdala during the formation of a traumatic memory, that memory became much stronger and lasted more than twice as long as it normally would. Similarly, decreased acetylcholine signaling in the amygdala during a typically fear-inducing experience would actually erase the recollection of that traumatic event.
“This second finding was particularly surprising, as we essentially created fearless mice by manipulating acetylcholine circuits in the brain,” Dr. Role explained. “The findings provide the basis for research examining novel approaches to reverse post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“The long-term goal of our research is that we would like to find ways – potentially independent of drug administration – to enhance or diminish the strength of specific memories, the good ones, and diminish the bad ones,” she added. Her team plans to continue researching acetylcholine in the hopes that it could help them find a drug-free way to enhance or manipulate memory.
—– Image credit: Stony Brook University
Climate change swallowed five Solomon Islands, study shows
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Rising sea levels and coastal erosion linked to climate change have already swallowed up five of the Pacific’s Solomon Islands, and six others have experienced severe loss of land, the authors of a new study reported in Friday’s edition of the journal Environmental Research Letters.
According to Gizmodoand AFPreports, the Australian team behind the new research explained that the five islands that disappeared were unpopulated, vegetated reef islands that were up to 12 acres (five hectares) large and which were occasionally used by fishermen in the area.
On one of the other affected islands, at least 10 homes had been lost to the encroaching waters since 2011, and in two instances, fishing communities had to be relocated due to the erosion of the shoreline. The authors fear that the “severe shoreline recession” that the islands are currently experiencing could ultimately affect other low-lying atoll throughout the ocean.
“Rates of shoreline recession are substantially higher in areas exposed to high wave energy,” the study said, “indicating a synergistic interaction between sea-level rise and waves. Understanding these local factors that increase the susceptibility of islands to coastal erosion is critical to guide adaptation responses for these remote Pacific communities.”
Findings could help experts plan for, minimize losses elsewhere
As lead author Simon Albert, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, told AFP, the Solomon Islands are considered by many experts to be a good litmus test for sea-level rise, as increases there tend to be as much as three times higher than the global average.
Albert and his colleagues reviewed aircraft and satellite images of 33 islands between the years of 1947 and 2014, as well as local historical resources, to examine the erosion rates of the region. They claim that this is the first study of its kind to track natural changes occurring there, instead of relying upon dramatic events, and said that the findings could be useful for future research.
“There’s these global trends that are happening,” Albert told AFP, “but the local responses can be very, very localized.” For instance, in addition to the villages that have already been relocated, the Choiseul Province capital of Taro is about to become “the first provincial capital globally to relocate residents and services due to the threat of sea-level rise,” according to the study.
“This study represents the first assessment of shoreline change from the Solomon Islands, a global sea-level rise hotspot,” the authors added. “The large range of erosion severity on the islands in this study highlights the critical need to understand the complex interplay between the projected accelerating sea-level rise, other changes in global climate such as winds and waves, and local tectonics, to guide future adaptation planning and minimize social impacts.”
There are only three Saharan Addaxes left in the wild
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
A new survey has discovered that type of antelope known as the Saharan Addax has been pushed “to the very knife-edge of extinction”—as it found that there are only three left in the Nigerien wild, according to an IUCN report.
The survey involved an extensive search in March across key areas of the Addaxes’ main habitat, Niger. Teams spent 18 hours performing aerial surveys—involving Intelligence Reconnaissance and Surveillance (IRS) technologies, including infra-red capture, and ultra-high resolution cameras that can distinguish different antelope species from the air—but could not locate a single Addax via this method.
A ground search had more success. After traversing more than 430 miles (700 km) in areas where there had been reports of Addax tracks in the past six months, they were able to find one small, apparently nervous group of three Addax—a drastic difference from just six years ago in 2010, when a survey estimated the wild population in Niger at about 200 animals.
The IUCN believes they know why the population here has plummeted so drastically: The oil installations operated by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) paired with habitat encroachment and loss has led to massive disturbances, and the soldiers who protect the oil industry have been poaching the Addax as well.
Fighting to keep the Addax in the wild
Researchers, it seems, are not taking the extinction of wild Addax sitting down.
“We are witnessing in real time the extinction of this iconic and once plentiful species – without immediate intervention, the Addax will lose its battle for survival in the face of illegal, uncontrolled poaching and the loss of its habitat,” said Dr, Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Director of IUCN Global Species Programme, in the report. “On behalf of all concerned parties we are recommending a set of emergency measures to help save the Addax from imminent extinction.”
These measures include securing the remaining populations of wild Addax, stopping the soldiers’ poaching, working with the CNPC to prevent their extinction, and bolstering the existing wild populations through the introduction of captive individuals.
“Those with commercial interests in the desert could make important contributions to the protection of the Addax by cooperating with the wildlife authorities and by adopting more sensitive practices, becoming stakeholders in the management of protected areas and by sharing sightings of these elusive animals with conservationists,” added Dr. Thomas Rabeil of the Sahara Conservation Fund.
Not all is lost
While this survey has dire implications, it is important to note that the survey could have missed Addax (although not likely many), and that there are other Addax habitats outside of Niger—like in Morocco or Tunisia. However, the one in Niger is the largest and most important.
Further, captive populations of Addax can be found both in breeding programs and in private collections across the world, with perhaps 1600 Addax total between them. Of course, some of these private collections are hunting lodges where you can pay to kill Addax, so that probably isn’t helping the problem.
—–
Image credit: Thomas Rabeil/Sahara Conservation Fund
Using data from NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft, researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) have created and released the first-ever complete topographic map of Mercury.
According to the US space agency, the map is the first global digital elevation model of the solar system’s innermost planet and will enable scientists to complete characterize the geologic history of Mercury. It was part of the 15th and final data release from the MESSENGER mission, which has now shared more than 10 terabytes of science data and 300,000 images since 2011.
“The creation of this map is a prime example of the utility and beauty that can come out of overcoming complex cartographic problems,” Lazlo Kestay, Director of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, said Friday in a press release. “This highly aesthetic product literally provides a whole new dimension to the study of Mercury images, opening many new paths to understanding the surface, interior, and past of the closest planet to the sun.”
“The wealth of these data, greatly enhanced by the extension of MESSENGER’s primary one-year mission to more than four years, has already enabled and will continue to enable exciting scientific discoveries about Mercury for decades to come,” added Susan Ensor, a Johns Hopkins software engineer who currently manages the MESSENGER Science Operations Center.
Model reveals the planet’s highest, lowest points of elevation
The USGS team and their colleagues used advanced software applications to identify the various landforms and geologic features on Mercury in more than 100,000 images obtained by the probe, then put them together to create a digital terrain map that covers the entire surface, including, for the first time, the topography of previously unmapped regions of the southern hemisphere.
This new, global model complements a previous version created using past measurements taken by the Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA). Due to MESSENGER’s highly eccentric orbit, the MLA had only been able to collect primary measurements of the planet’s northern hemisphere and near equatorial region. The new model fills in the gaps, and reveals some interesting new features.
For instance, the map shows that the point of highest elevation on Mercury is located in some of the planet’s oldest terrain, just south of the equator. It is 2.78 miles (or 4.48 kilometers) higher than the average elevation level. The point of lowest elevation is 3.34 miles (or 5.38 kilometers) below average and is found on the floor of Rachmaninoff basin, a double-ring impact basin that is believed to be home to some of the most recent volcanic deposits on the planet.
Mercury’s volcanic plains shown in enhanced color. (Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/Carnegie Institution of Washington)
“Production of the digital elevation model of Mercury is the capstone of a significant scientific achievement of the MESSENGER mission,” said Ralph McNutt, MESSENGER team member and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory scientist. “This product reveals the entirety of the innermost planet of the solar system… [and] as such, it is yet another indicator of the turning point from reconnaissance through exploration of Mercury by MESSENGER to an era of intensive study of Mercury in years to come.”
“We are eager to apply what we learned from this mapping effort to small bodies such as asteroids and comets, as well as other planets and moons,” added USGS computer scientist and lead map investigator Kris Becker.
In the wake of “conflicting” findings regarding the potential link between the use of cell phones and the development of cancerous brain tumors, some experts have been hopeful that a long-term study might be able to calm fears and establish that mobile devices do not pose a risk.
While a new study published this week in the journal Cancer Epidemiology is unlikely to put an end to the debate, it does provide evidence from three decades of work finding cell phone use during that time did not result in an increase in brain cancer incidence across Australia.
The study found that there was no increase in brain cancer incidence rates among any age group except for those between the ages of 70 and 84 between 1982 and 2013, and that even in that age group, the increase dated back to 1982 – five years before mobile phones use even began.
This increased incident rate in older Australians was attributed to improved diagnostic detection, according to the authors of the new paper. They found no increase in brain cancer incidence that could be linked to the increased use of cell phone, which now tops 90 percent in Australia.
Cell phone use hasn’t changed cancer rates
Simon Chapman, emeritus professor in public health at the University of Sydney and the lead author of the study, explained in a recent article for The Conversation that he and his colleagues examined the link between age and gender-specific brain cancer incidence rate of nearly 20,000 men and 14,000 women, and national mobile phone usage data over a 29 year period.
They found that, despite the fact that a large percentage of the population had been using mobile phones for at least two decades, age-adjusted brain cancer incidence rates in those between 20 and 84 years old had increased only slightly in most males and were stable in women over the age of 30. The only significant increase was in those over the age of 70. However, data suggests that this predates cell phone use and is likely due to improved CT and MRI technology.
Chapman’s team also compared “the actual incidence of brain cancer over this time with the numbers of new cases of brain cancer that would be expected if the ‘mobile phones cause brain cancer’ hypothesis was true,” he added. “Here, our testing model assumed a ten-year lag period from mobile phone use commencement to evidence of a rise in brain cancer cases.”
Using a model that assumed that mobile devices would cause a 50 percent increase in incidence rates, they determined that had the phone hypothesis been true, a total of 1,866 cases would have been reported in 2012. Similarly, they used a second model that predicted a 150 percent increase among the heaviest phone users, or a total of 2,038 new cases. In both instances, however, the actual number was only 1,435.
“We have had mobiles in Australia since 1987. Some 90% of the population use them today and many of these have used them for a lot longer than 20 years,” Chapman said. “But we are seeing no rise in the incidence of brain cancer against the background rate.”
Massive cache of 70 million year old fossils found in Antarctica
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
An international team of scientists hunting for fossils in one of the harshest, most remote places on Earth have made an incredible discovery: a massive cache of dinosaur, bird, and marine reptile remains that date back roughly 70 million years ago to the late Cretaceous Period.
According to Smithsonian.com and the Daily Mail, the researchers made their discovery during an expedition on the James Ross Island region of Antarctic, located several hundred miles south of Chile, in February and March. Most of the creatures were plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, extinct groups of marine mammals, but they also found the remains of early birds and dinosaurs.
“We found a lot of really great fossils,” explained Dr. Steve Salisbury, a researcher from the University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences and one of 12 American, Australian and South Africa on the expedition. “The rocks that we were focusing on come from the end of the age of dinosaurs, so most of them are between 71 million and 67 million years old. They were all shallow marine rocks, so the majority of things we found lived in the ocean.”
“We did find a lot of marine reptile remains, so things like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs – a type of marine lizard made famous by the recent film Jurassic World.,” he added. Dr. Salisbury also told reporters that the team discovered the remains of early ducks that lived during this era, as well as dinosaur remains which they hope to have a paper published on in the near future.
The tents that some of the researchers stayed in. Credit: University of Queensland
It will take years to comb through the fossils
The researchers began their difficult journey by flying to South America, then embarking on a five-day trek through the Drake Passage – home to some of the roughest seas on Earth, according to Smithonisan.com. Once they reached their destination, they set up camp and spend give weeks hunting for fossils on the Antarctic Peninsula.
“It’s a very hard place to work, but it’s an even harder place to get to,” Dr. Salisbury told ABC News Australia. He had made several past attempts to reach Antarctica, but had previously been blocked by sea ice. “It was so great to finally get there and have a full blown expedition.”
The expedition was well worth the wait, as he and his colleagues managed to recover a collection of ancient dinosaur, reptile, and bird remains that they said could take them at least a year or two to fully catalog and study. The larger bones especially “will need quite a bit of preparation before we can do much research on them,” he said. In the meantime, they will be sent to Chile, and then onto theCarnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“The diversity and quality of what we found will provide a detailed snapshot of life in Antarctica at the end of the age of dinosaurs,” Dr. Salisbury told the Wall Street Journal. “We went there because it is one of the few parts of Antarctica when in summer, rocks are exposed and for us it is a good spot for us to go because those rocks come from the end of the age of dinosaurs.”
Depression is a common fibromyalgia symptom. But who wouldn’t be depressed by having to deal with many days each month when you’re completely exhausted and in pain? A lot of doctors focus on the depression aspect of fibromyalgia, and a lot of fibro sufferers are understandably wary when they get a prescription for antidepressants because it feels like another variation of being told “it’s all in your head.” Here’s the real deal about antidepressants and fibromyalgia.
Antidepressants Have Come a Long Way
One antidepressant in particular, Cymbalta, received FDA approval specifically for treating fibromyalgia. It’s only the second drug that was approved for treating fibro. The other approved medication is Lyrica, which is not an antidepressant. Lyrica is in the anticonvulsant category of drugs but appears to work on the pain centers in the brain.
Different Results from Different Medications
Some antidepressants help fibromyalgia patients with symptoms other than depression. One study of fibromyalgia patients found that low doses of a tricyclic antidepressant called amitriptyline provided the greatest relief from pain, fatigue and sleep disturbances. However, it did not appear to have much of an impact on depression itself.
Cymbalta is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI), one of the newest classes of antidepressants. Because it is specifically approved for fibromyalgia, this is the antidepressant you may be prescribed first. The same study showed that Cymbalta provided a small amount of relief from pain, fatigue and sleep disturbances.
Prozac and Paxil are both selective-serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI) medications that are the “gold standard” medications used for treating patients with depression. The study showed that these drugs had a minor effect on depression and pain, but showed no benefit for sleep or fatigue.
Certain Antidepressants Can Make Some Symptoms Worse
Sexual dysfunction is a common problem for fibro sufferers. Many women with fibromyalgia find it difficult to reach orgasm. Taking antidepressants can make this problem worse. Sexual dysfunction is a known side effect of certain antidepressants, particularly those in the SSRI category like Prozac and Zoloft.
Fibromyalgia as Mind-Body Illness
We know for certain that fibro symptoms are not all in your head. We also know that depression doesn’t cause fibromyalgia symptoms, either. However, it is clear that there is a definite mind-body link in fibromyalgia. Most fibro sufferers will tell you that stressful life events are likely to trigger a flare-up of symptoms. It is also probable that the pain of a fibro flare causes anxiety, and the isolation that often comes from having to stay home while in pain can lead to depression.
Depression is common in people who suffer from other chronic pain conditions as well, such as chronic back pain or multiple sclerosis. There seems to be a cyclic relationship between pain and depression. Those who are in pain are more likely to hide and to feel upset about their loss of normal activity, which leads to depression. Many of the symptoms of depression are self-perpetuating and lead to more depression.
Using antidepressants to break the cycle between pain and depression may work for some people, but it’s not always a magic fix. Regardless of whether or not you choose to take antidepressants, make sure to see friends and family, get regular gentle exercise and take care of yourself. You’re worth it!
British research vessel is officially not named ‘Boaty McBoatface’
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
To the enormous disappointment of pretty much everyone with a sense of humor, the $288 million (£200 million) British polar research vessel is not going to be named the “RRS Boaty McBoatface”.
However, they seem to have made two excellent compromises.
And the title goes to…
First, they selected Sir David Attenborough—a world-renowned and beloved British naturalist and broadcaster who wrote and presented Life, as well as presented The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet—as its namesake, according to a UK government press release.
This decision comes mere days before Sir David’s 90th birthday, and was done to honor the six decades of work he has done in helping to inspire love for the natural world.
“I am truly honoured by this naming decision and hope that everyone who suggested a name will feel just as inspired to follow the ship’s progress as it explores our polar regions,” said Sir David, when he heard the news. “I have been privileged to explore the world’s deepest oceans alongside amazing teams of researchers, and with this new polar research ship they will be able to go further and discover more than ever before.”
But “Boaty” will live on
As for why “Boaty” didn’t make the cut, the U.K. Minister for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson, seems to indirectly have made an explanation:
“The public provided some truly inspirational and creative names, and while it was a difficult decision I’m delighted that our state-of-the-art polar research ship will be named after one of the nation’s most cherished broadcasters and natural scientists,” he said.
“This vessel will carry the Attenborough name for decades to come, as it fulfils its mission to explore the oceans and put Britain at the forefront of efforts to preserve our precious marine environment.”
Which is to say, perhaps “Boaty McBoatface” didn’t have the proper gravitas for the largest and most advanced research ship to ever come out of the U.K. However, part of the ship will actually bear the Boaty title.
The real “Boaty McBoatface”
“The ship has captured the imaginations of millions, which is why we’re ensuring that the Boaty name lives on through the sub-sea vehicle that will support the research crew, and the polar science education programme that will bring their work to life,” said Johnson.
Looking to the future
The RRS Sir David Attenborough is set to launch in 2019, where it will study both poles so that we can get a better understanding of the world’s ocean and how we should address climate change in the future.
But further, Minister Johnson has announced today that the U.K. government will be investing up to $1.44 million (£1 million) in a new four-year Polar Explorer program, which will aim to use the science, mathematics and engineering of the construction and launching of the ship to engage young people—in hopes of inspiring them to become future scientists, engineers, and explorers.
Odd creature is the earleist herbivorous marine reptile ever found
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Two years ago, researchers found a fossil belonging to a bizarre-looking, crocodile-sized reptile that appeared to have a flamingo-like beak. Now, despite the fact that the fossil of this nearly 250 million year old creature was poorly preserved, they know what this “beak” actually is.
In a new study published Friday in Science Advances, Olivier Rieppel, Rowe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology at The Field Museumin Chicago, and his colleagues revealed that the odd structure is actually part of a hammerhead-shaped jaw apparatus used by the creature to consume plants on the ocean floor.
The creature, which is said to be the earliest known specimen of an herbivorous marine reptile to be discovered, lived 242 million years ago in what is now southern China, the study authors said. It was named Atopodentatus unicus (Latin for “unique strangely toothed”), and as Rieppel noted in a statement, this reptile was “a very strange animal.”
“It’s got a hammerhead, which is unique, it’s the first time we’ve seen a reptile like this.” he said. Along with paleontologists from Scotland and China, and with the assistance of a child’s toy, he was able to discern what the creature looked like and how it used its odd shaped head to procure sustenance.
How Play-Doh helped the researchers solve a biological mystery
As Rieppel explained, “To figure out how the jaw fit together and how the animal actually fed, we bought some children’s clay, kind of like Play-Doh, and rebuilt it with toothpicks to represent the teeth. We looked at how the upper and lower jaw locked together, and that’s how we proceeded and described it.”
Thanks to their efforts, he and his fellow paleontologists were able to determine that the wide jaw of the Atopodentatus unicus was shaped like a hammerhead, and that it had peg-like teeth along the edges. Further into its mouth, the shape of the teeth changed, becoming more needle-like. Based on the structure of the jaw, the study authors conclude that it was used to help the reptile eat plants.
“It used the peg-like front teeth to scrape plants off of rocks on the sea floor, and then it opened its mouth and sucked in the bits of plant material,” Rieppel said. “Then, it used its needle-like teeth as a sieve, trapping the plants and letting the water back out, like how whales filter-feed with their baleen.”
“The jaw structure is clearly that of an herbivore. It has similarities to other marine animals that ate plants with a filter-feeding system, but Atopodentatus is older than them by about eight million years,” he added. Based on that conclusion, this new specimen represents the earliest known species of herbivorous marine reptile, the researchers said. Furthermore, it shows that creatures living in the days following the Permian-Triassic extinction some 252 million years ago were able to adapt and rebound more quickly than previously believed.
Six new ancient primate species capture climate change pressures
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Antropoid primates– the forerunners of modern apes, monkeys and humans – first appeared in Asia, but what happened to them when climate change rendered much of the region too cold to be hospitable? A study published this week in the journal Sciencemay have the answer.
“At the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, because of the rearrangement of Earth’s major tectonic plates, you had a rapid drop in temperature and humidity,” K. Christopher Beard, senior curator at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and co-author of the new study, explained in a statement. “Primates like it warm and wet, so they faced hard times around the world.”
In North America and Europe, the creatures died out when this cooling began approximately 34 million years ago, but managed to survive in Africa and Southern Asia. Now, the discovery of a half-dozen new fossil primate species in southern China had revealed that the transitional period nearly wiped out these creatures, forcing them to migrate to Africa to survive and evolve.
Beard and his colleagues spent more than a decade working at a site in the Yunnan Province of southern China, where they managed to unearthed jaw and tooth fragments belonging to six new species of primates that help explained what happened to our forerunners during this period.
Courtesy IVPP, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Had temperatures not cooled significantly, humans may have evolved in Asia
The fossils managed to survive thanks to their tough enamel surfaces, the study authors noted, and analysis revealed that the creatures were primarily tropical tree-dwellers that fled to this part of China because it was warm enough for them to avoid extinction. One of the creatures, known as the Oligotarsius rarus, was remarkably similar to the modern-day tarsier.
“If you look back at the fossil record, we know that tarsiers once lived on mainland Asia, as far north as central China,” said Beard. “The fossil teeth described in this paper are nearly identical to those of modern tarsiers. Research shows that modern tarsiers are pretty much living fossils – those things have been doing what they do ever since time immemorial, as far as we can tell.”
Had climate change not occurred during the Eocene-Oligocene transition, causing temperatures around the world to plummet, the main phases of primate evolution may have continued to take place in Asia, as the creatures would have had little reason to migrate to Africa, he and his fellow researchers said. More to the point, the study sheds new light on the vulnerability of primates to climate change.
“This is the flip side of what people are worried about now,” Beard concluded. “The Eocene-Oligocene transition was the opposite of global warming – the whole world was already warm, then it cooled off. It’s kind of a mirror image. The point is that primates then, just like primates today, are more sensitive to a changing climate than other mammals.”
Meat consumption linked to increased risk of early death
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Bad news for fans of bacon cheeseburgers: a new review of large-scale studies involving more than 1.5 million subjects has discovered that consuming at least one serving of red or processed meats every day causes a significant increase in all-cause mortality rate.
The paper, which was published in the May edition of the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, looked at six previous studies that evaluated the effects of both meat and vegetarian diets on mortality, and found that most of them discovered a link between red meat consumption and increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer or other causes.
Dr. Laurent added that the new evidence “can assist physicians in counseling patients about the important role diet plays, leading to improved preventive care.” Based on their work, the authors recommend that physicians advise their patients to limit the amount of animal products that they consume, and to have a diet that is based more around fruits and veggies than meat.
Long-term vegetarians found to live the longest
The researchers reviewed three studies that evaluated the impact of red and processed meats on a person’s mortality risk, and three others that analyzed the effects of a vegetarian diet. Two out of the three meat-based studies found an increase in all-cause mortality linked to red meat, while all three of them found a similar link related to the consumption of processed meats.
Only two of the studies specifically analyzed the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and one addressed the increased risk of developing cancer, but in all cases, an association was found. On the other hand, two out of the three vegetarian studies found that such diets decreased risk of all-cause mortality, ischemic heart disease, and – in some instances, at least – even cancer.
For the purposes of the study, processed meat included products such as bacon, sausage, salami, hot dogs, and ham, while unprocessed red meat included uncured, unsalted beef, pork, lamb, and wild game. The reviewed studies also found a 3.6-year increase in life expectancy for those on a vegetarian diet for at least 17 years, compared to those who were to short-term vegetarians.
“All-cause mortality is higher for increased daily consumption of red meat, especially processed meat. However, the compiled evidence does not link other meat products to all-cause mortality,” the study authors wrote, adding that doctors should “encourage patients” to “substitute red meat and processed red meat with plant-based foods. Patients may supplement a plant-based diet with moderate amounts of fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy if desired.”
Scientists grow two week old human embryo in a lab, doubling previous record
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
In an enormous breakthrough, scientists from Cambridge and Rockefeller University have created a new technique that allows embryos to develop beyond the stage in which they would normally implant in the womb—a feat that no one has managed to achieve before now.
“This portion of human development was a complete black box,” said Ali Brivanlou, professor at Rockefeller, in a statement.
Scientists can now analyze these embryos to better understand the key stages of human embryo development up to 13 days after fertilization has occurred—up until now, seven days has more or less been the limit of what science could achieve. This now means they’ll better be able to help families struggling to conceive via ICF, as they have a better understanding of how the process unfolds.
“Implantation is a milestone in human development as it is from this stage onwards that the embryo really begins to take shape and the overall body plan are decided,” said author and Cambridge professor Zernicka-Goetz in a statement.
“It is also the stage of pregnancy at which many developmental defects can become acquired. But until now, it has been impossible to study this in human embryos. This new technique provides us with a unique opportunity to get a deeper understanding of our own development during these crucial stages and help us understand what happens, for example, during miscarriage.”
The previous limit of about a week came about because of an issue surrounding embryonic implantation. If an embryo is unable to implant at this stage in development, it can no longer adapt or survive further—which, incidentally, is a major cause of early pregnancy loss.
But thanks to the new technique—which involves surrounding the embryo in a specific chemical environment and providing a suitable scaffold for the embryo to attach to—the number of days an embryo can survive is now about double. Well, technically it could actually be more, but the legal limit for the length of time an embryo can be studied is 14 days in the UK.
Plus, the researchers have now demonstrated that the reorganization of the embryo that normally occurs fairly quickly after the embryo implants can also now be achieved in a lab, given the conditions are right.
New discoveries made through the study
And after studying these embryos for 13 days, they have already made a few new discoveries, according to the researchers’ two papers, one in Nature Cell Biology (which discusses their new technique and finds), and a second in Nature(which calls for new discussion about the 14-day rule).
“Embryo development is an extremely complex process and while our system may not be able to fully reproduce every aspect of this process, it has allowed us to reveal a remarkable self-organising capacity of human blastocysts [a stage of embryonic development] that was previously unknown,” said Dr. Marta Shahbazi, one of the co-first authors of the study from the University of Cambridge.
Further, they have uncovered that a particular part of the development of the embryo—which involves forming a cavity in the embryo—does not occur as many scientists had hypothesized. Whereas it was assumed that apoptosis, or programmed cell death, created the cavity, they now know that this isn’t actually the case.
“This process is similar to what we have recently observed in mouse embryos, despite the significant differences in the structure of post-implantation embryos in these different mammalian species”, said Zernicka-Goetz. “This suggests it may be a fundamental process conserved across many species.”
And there are likely only more insights yet to come—which may provide new hope to those attempting to have a family via IVD.
“This is about much more than just understanding the biology of implantation embryo development,” said Dr. Simon Fishel, founder and President of CARE Fertility Group. “Knowledge of these processes could help improve the chances of success of IVF, of which only around one in four attempts are successful.”
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Image credit: Gist Croft, Alessia Deglincerti, and Ali H. Brivanlou/The Rockefeller University
Student discovers second largest galactic shockwave ever found
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Using observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, a researcher from the University of Alabama in Huntsville has discovered a merger shock that was produced by galaxy clusters that is second in strength only to the Bullet Cluster shockwave.
Sarthak Dasadia, a UAH doctoral student advised by assistant physics professor Dr. Ming Sun, located the new shockwave in the merging galaxy cluster Abell 665, according to research that was published in a recent edition of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
This extremely strong shock zips along at speeds of 2,700 kilometers per second (more than 1,650 miles per second), or three times the local speed of sound in the cluster. To put that into perspective, the fastest-ever manmade object, NASA’s Juno spacecraft, has a peak velocity of just 40 km/second, or less than 25 miles per second, the study authors explained.
“Studying mergers of galaxy clusters has proven to be crucial to our understanding of how such large scale objects form and evolve,” Dasadia said in a statement, adding that his research “could open a door, where people can do a number of different studies based on what I have found.”
Energy produced, movement of gas among measurements collected
Dasadia’s study, which was accepted for publication in just 10 days, sheds light on a shock that could present scientists with an opportunity to analyze high-energy phenomena in the hot plasma located between galaxies (also known as the intra-cluster medium). The UAH student noted that some experts are already using these shocks in order to study the elusive dark matter.
According to the study author, there are two kinds of galaxy clusters in the universe: those that are relaxes, which have been around far longer and are less dynamically active, and those which are unrelaxed, which are prime targets for scientists looking to observe merger features, such as shocks and turbulence. Abell 665 is the latter type of cluster, he said.
“These galaxy clusters are not boundary objects. They do not have a very well-defined boundary around them,” he said. When these poorly defined boundaries begin the slow process of colliding into one another, their cold cores collide, which can create a shockwaves of heated gas in what is among the most energetic events in the universe, behind only to the Big Bang, Dasadia noted.
These occurrences are not dissimilar to the weather events we experience on Earth, according to the UAH researcher. The physics are similar, and the same types of features (fronts, shockwaves and temperature differences) play key roles in the observed phenomena. As part of his work, he explained that he was able to measure the velocity of the collision and observed the events which occurred in them 3.2 billion years ago (the length of time it took the light to travel here).
Among the observations he collected was the amount of energy produced by the collision, the movement of the gas, and measurements of the discrepancy between the visible and dark matter involved. Dasadia said that he was “amazed” by “how long it takes for this information to even reach the Earth” and by the degree to which “we have advanced in developing the telescopes and equipment it takes to be able to observe and study these interactions.”
Researchers measure black hole with ‘unprecedented accuracy’
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Thanks to the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, a team of astronomers managed to measure the mass of a nearby supermassive black hole with what they are calling “unprecedented accuracy,” according to a newly published study.
Andrew J. Baker, an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and his fellow researchers used the ALMA telescopes to measure the black hole located at the center of NGC 1332, a galaxy that is located approximately 73 million light years from Earth.
As reported Thursday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers discovered that the black hole is roughly 660 million times more massive than the sun, and is surrounded by a cloud of gas that circles around it at speeds of more than million miles per hour. They noted that these measurements were made possible by ALMA’s high-resolution observations of carbon monoxide emissions from the high-speed gas disk surrounding the black hole.
“This has been a very active area of research for the last 20 years, trying to characterize the masses of black holes at the centers of galaxies,” Baker, who started studying black holes as a graduate student, said in a statement. “This is a case where new instrumentation has allowed us to make an important new advance in terms of what we can say scientifically.”
What precise data can tell us about black holes and their galaxies
Black holes, massive regions of space-time that are so dense that their gravitational pull typically attracts anything that ventures close enough to them (including light), can form after matter from an exploding star condenses due to gravity, said Baker, who is part of the Astrophysics Group in the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Once they have formed, these black holes can grow to supermassive size by consuming gas, stars and even other black holes. However, as Baker pointed out, objects such as stars can travel near a black hole without being swallowed up, provided they have stable orbits and are moving quickly enough to avoid capture.
“Just because there’s a black hole in your neighborhood, it does not act like a cosmic vacuum cleaner… The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which is the biggest one in our own galaxy, is many thousands of light years away from us. We’re not going to get sucked in,” the professor explained. Scientists believe that there is a black hole at the center of most if not all massive galaxies, and are eager to learn more about how they form and evolve.
The data collected from NGC 1332’s black hole using the ALMA telescopes could shed new light on how galaxies and their central supermassive black holes form, said Baker. For instance, the ratio of a black hole’s mass to that of its galaxy is essential to understanding their makeup, as research has suggested that the growth of both galaxies and black holes are coordinated.
In order to fully understand how galaxies form, science needs to know how black holes form. A key part of this, the study authors wrote, is to determine the exact masses of these black holes, as this knowledge will allow researchers to determine if they are growing as quickly as their host galaxy. Unless the black hole mass measurements are extremely accurate, as was the case in this new paper, scientists will be unable to draw any concrete conclusions.
Once those conditions developed, interactions between water and impact-heated rock enabled the synthesis of complex organic molecules, lead author Edel O’Sullivan and her colleagues said in a statement. Ultimately, these craters evolved into self-contained habitats where life flourished, the researchers added, noting that the discovery could solve the mystery of the origins of life.
Previously, scientists have suggested that the materials left behind the meteor and comet impacts contained organic materials such as water, glycine, and β-alanine – substances which would have served as the raw materials for organisms to develop – as well as the energy needed for synthesis to occur. In the new study, however, O’Sullivan’s team proposes the hypothesis that these impact craters served as ideal environments for the first “seeds of life” to emerge.
“Previous studies investigating the origin of life have focused on synthesis in hydrothermal environments. Today these are found at mid-ocean ridges – hallmark features of plate tectonics, which likely did not exist on the early Earth,” she explained. “By contrast, the findings of this new study suggest that extensive hydrothermal systems operated in an enclosed impact crater at Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.”
A potential new pathway to explain how organisms first emerged
While no ancient terrestrial impact craters are preserved there, the authors noted that the Sudbury basin afforded them the opportunity to study sediment that would have given them a good look at what those early ecosystems might have looked like. The Sudbury location has been described as unique due to a thick basin fill and its carbon and hydrothermal metal-rich deposits.
“Due to later tectonic forces, all the rocks of the once ~200 km-wide structure are now exposed at the surface rather than being buried,” said senior author Balz Kamber, a professor of geology and mineralogy at Trinity. “This makes it possible to take a traverse from the shocked footwall through the melt sheet and then across the entire basin fill. To a geologist, this is like a time journey from the impact event through its aftermath.”
Kamber, O’Sullivan and their colleagues collected samples from throughout the basin, analyzing each for their chemical composition and carbon isotope content. Based on their work, they were able to conclude that the crater had become filled with seawater at an early stage, and that it had remained isolated from the open ocean long enough to deposit more than 1.5 km of volcanic rock and sediment.
The bottom layer was comprised of rocks that formed when water entered the crater at a time when its floor was covered by hot impact melt, the researchers explained. Coolant reactions then led to the deposition of volcanic rocks, promoting hydrothermal activity. The layer above these deposits marks the first appearance of reduced carbon, and this is where the volcanic products started to become increasingly basaltic. The data indicates that microbial life within the crater’s basin was responsible for the presence of carbon and the depletion of some nutrients.
“There is clear evidence for exhaustion of molybdenum in the water column, and this strongly indicates a closed environment, shut off from the surrounding ocean,” said O’Sullivan, adding that these isolated, submerged impact basis could represent a new explanation for how the core conditions that led to the synthesis of living organisms originally occurred.
Solar Impulse Lands in Phoenix, prepares for trip to New York
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
At 8:55 MST (10:55 EST) on May 2, Solar Impulse 2 and pilot André Borschberg landed safely in Phoenix, Arizona in Goodyear Airport—completing the first flight over the North American continent.
Just 15 hours and 52 minutes before, Borschberg had flown out of Moffett Airfield in California, where the solar-powered plane had been resting for a week following its flight from Hawaii to California. The journey was only 745 miles, but as the plane flew at a little less than 44 miles per hour (70 km/h) on average, the flight took longer than we are generally accustomed to for modern air travel. However, the length of time for the flight is completely excusable, as Solar Impulse 2 is a completely solar-powered airplane. Covered with more than 17,000 solar cells, it must store up energy in batteries during the day so that it can continue to fly at night—which necessitates slow flying both to save up energy and to make it last through the night. Solar Impulse 2 will leave as soon as possible for its next U.S. stopover—which will be somewhere in the Midwest. Of course, first it needs a good weather forecast, as well as a quick check-up:
The engineers are doing the general inspection of #Si2 which has to be done every 150 hours. All looks good 👌 pic.twitter.com/w0tWSuqrI6
Si2 will then perhaps make a second Midwest pit-stop before heading to New York. From there, it will leap the Atlantic Ocean to Europe, before eventually making it back to its starting point—Abu Dhabi—thereby completing the first circumnavigation of the planet using solar power.
If you live in Phoenix or happen to be visiting, you can go visit Solar Impulse at its hanger! Details below:
What can canine genetics tells us about our eating habits?
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Labrador retrievers have long been one of the most popular breeds of dog, but they also tend to overeat and become fat. Now, new research from Cambridge University has found a genetic link to obesity in these canines – the first ever discovered in this group of mammals.
Writing in Tuesday’s edition of the journal Cell Metabolism, lead author Dr. Eleanor Raffan and her colleagues reported on the discovery of a DNA variation associated with appetite and weight-gain in these notoriously voracious animals that makes them more likely to pack on pounds.
According to BBC News, the gene is believed to play a key role in controlling how the brains of these dogs recognize hunger, as well as the feeling of satiation after they had consumed enough food. More than one-fifth of all Labradors (23 percent) are believed to carry at least one copy of the variant, and for each copy, the dog was an average of 1.9kg (4.2lbs) heavier.
“This is a common genetic variant in Labradors and has a significant effect on those dogs that carry it, so it is likely that this helps explain why Labradors are more prone to being overweight in comparison to other breeds,” Dr. Raffan explained Tuesday said in a statement.
Research could combat the human obesity epidemic
The gene in question is known as pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), and it has already been linked to regulating how the brain recognizes the feelings of hunger and post-meal fullness, the authors said. Its discover suggests that the brain of Labradors may be hard-wired for obesity, but the link is “not a straightforward picture,” according to Dr. Raffan.
“People who live with Labradors often say they are obsessed by food, and that would fit with what we know about this genetic change,” she noted. However, she added that “the variant is even more common among flat coat retrievers, a breed not previously flagged as being prone to obesity,” suggesting that there is also something else at work causing these dogs to get fat.
The Cambridge researchers studied more than 310 pet Labradors and assistance dogs. They had each animal weighed and their body condition measured by independent veterinary professionals and then searched for variants of three different potential genes linked to obesity. They also had each dog’s owners provide a “food motivation” profile to disclose the canine’s behavior when it comes to eating.
What they discovered was that a 14 bp deletion in the POMC gene that resulted in a disruption of the melanocyte-stimulating hormone β-MSH and β-endorphin which has been linked to adiposity and food motivation, as well as increased body weight. The mutation was found to be much more common in assistance animals, and the researchers believe that learning more about this variation and POMC itself, could also help combat obesity in people, who also possess the gene.
“There are even some rare obese people who lack a very similar part of the POMC gene to that which is missing in the dogs,” senior author Stephen O’Rahilly, the co-director of the Wellcome Trust-Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science, said in a statement. “Further research in these obese Labradors may not only help the well-being of companion animals, but also carry important lessons for human health.”
‘Impossibly rare violet diamond’ discovered in Australia
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
An “impossibly rare” gemstone discovered in the remote Argyle mine of Australia will be featured at London-based mining company Rio Tinto’s annual pink diamonds showcase later on this week, according to reports published by the AFP and Daily Mail Australia.
The gemstone in question is a rare violet diamond that, at 9.17 carats, was the largest jewel of its kind ever discovered, the media outlets said. It was originally unearthed in August 2015 and after several weeks of assessment, it was polished down to a 2.83 carat oval-shaped diamond.
Rio Tinto said that the jewel had been assessed by the Geomological Institute of America, and while they said it would be the centerpiece of their upcoming show, they would not disclose its estimated value. However, the firm noted that they expected to receive a significant amount of interest from potential buyers, and some figures suggest it could bring in $3.96 million.
“Impossibly rare and limited by nature, the Argyle Violet will be highly sought after for its beauty, size and provenance,” Patrick Coppens, the company’s general manager of sales, said in a statement. “This stunning violet diamond will capture the imagination of the world’s leading collectors and connoisseurs,” added Argyle pink diamonds manager Josephine Johnson.
The mine where the diamond was discovered.
So how did this rare violet diamond come to be, anyway?
Unfortunately, specific details about how and why the gemstone acquired its unusual coloring are unknown, according to the AFP. However, experts believe that it may be due to a distortion to its molecular structure that occurs as the gem forms in the crust or comes to the surface.
The company said that violet diamonds are extremely rare, and that only 12 carats of polished stone has been produced over the last three decades. The newfound jewel is the largest Rio Tinto had ever recovered from the Argyle mine, making it a unique offering in its showcase.
Other unusually colored diamonds, including those that are pink or red, are typically worth 50 times more than regular white diamonds, the firm told Daily Mail Australia. Some of them have even sold for as much as $1.95 million (AUD$2.6million) per carat, they said.
The Argyle Violet gem was polished in Western Australia master polisher Richard How Kim Kam, according to a Rio Tinto press release. It has been given the color grade of Fancy Deep Greyish Bluish Violet, and private viewings for the violet diamond will begin next month. The diamond’s tour will travel to Copenhagen, Hong Kong and New York, the company added.
Ancient volcanoes erupted under Martian ice sheets, study finds
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed more of the Red Planet’s secrets, having found evidence that volcanic eruptions took place beneath an ice sheet located far from currently frozen regions on Mars several billion years ago, the agency announced on Tuesday.
Using the orbiter’s mineral-mapping spectrometer, Purdue University scientist Sheridan Ackiss and colleagues analyzed the surface composition in an area of Mars called “Sisyphi Montes” and found that the unusual, flat-topped mountains located there were strikingly similar to Earth-based volcanoes that had erupted beneath a layer of frozen water.
The discovery suggests there had once been an extensive ice sheet on Mars and the environmental conditions may have contained the perfect combination of moisture and heat for flowing water, allowing microbial organisms to survive and thrive there.
“Rocks tell stories. Studying the rocks can show how the volcano formed or how it was changed over time. I wanted to learn what story the rocks on these volcanoes were telling,” Ackiss said in a statement, adding that the discovery of minerals like zeolites, sulfates, and clays are the same as those found following subglacial volcanic activity here on Earth.
Mineral composition said to be similar to that found on Earth
Located in the southern portion of Mars, far from any frozen areas currently found on the planet, Sisyphi Montes is mountain range located in the Sisyphi Planum region. The range has a diameter of 124 miles (200 km) and was named in 1985.
More to the point, some of the flat-topped peaks in the region were found to contain the various minerals that have been linked to subglacial volcanism on Earth. The orbiter’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) detected those zeolites, clays and sulfates by imaging the region at a resolution of about 60 feet (18 meters) per pixel.
The mountain range extends from approximately 55 degrees to 75 degrees south latitude, NASA said, and CRISM’s high-resolution observations have revealed that some sites have shapes and compositions that are consistent with volcanic eruptions beneath ice sheets located roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away from the planet’s current south pole.
Earlier this week, researchers discovered that boiling water may have carved the dark streaks on the slopes of the Red Planet, suggesting that Mars may still contain liquid H2O, but that it could also have less liquid water than previously believed.
Based on the amount of water thought to be needed to create these streaks, as well as the fact that said water would be short-lived, the authors of the study believe that it would make the current Mars a less-than-ideal environment for microbes.
Fibromyalgia affects every aspect of your life. When you’re in chronic pain every day, it can be difficult to get to work, go shopping and spend time with friends. So it’s no surprise that fibro takes a toll on your sex life, too. Here are some of the ways that fibro affects your sex life—and tips for how you can still maintain intimacy even despite your physical limitations.
How Fibro Affects Your Sex Life
If you’re reading this as a fibro sufferer, you may have a look of disbelief on your face right now. Since fibromyalgia causes widespread physical pain, of course it will affect your sex life! But pain is not the only thing that prevents you from wanting to have sex.
Sleep disturbances are one of the most common problems that plague fibro patients. When you don’t get a good night’s rest, you probably value sleep more than sex by the time night rolls around. There are other possible factors to consider as well, like headaches (not just an excuse when you have fibro!), irritable bowel syndrome and fatigue.
Medication side effects can also put a damper on your sex life. Antidepressants such as Prozac can lower your interest in sex and make it difficult enough to reach orgasm that you might decide it’s not worth it to bother. Muscle relaxers can be so sedating that you just want to sleep. And some people experience nausea from drugs like Lyrica.
Overlapping conditions that often occur with fibromyalgia can also complicate the issue. Many women with fibro also suffer from intense pain during intercourse called vulvodynia or inflammation called interstitial cystitis, which feels similar to an untreated urinary tract infection.
Here’s Why It’s Worth It
If you’re in a committed relationship, it’s worth it to maintain an intimate life. Even if you’re not physically able to have sex as often as your partner might like, you can still find ways to stay connected.
Ask your doctor if there’s anything you can do to make sexual contact less painful and more pleasurable. You could switch medications or change your dosage if the meds are interfering with your sexual function. You may need to consult with more than one doctor to get a useful answer; try your gynecologist, a urologist or rheumatologist. Don’t give up if you see one doctor who is unhelpful.
Talk to your partner and express that you still care for him or her, despite the amount of pain that you’re experiencing. Let them know that your reluctance to have sex is about your pain and not about how you feel about them. When you do attempt to be sexually intimate, use lube and go slow.
Find other ways to be intimate with each other. Touch is an important part of a relationship. Even if your fibro makes you less comfortable with being touched, your partner still needs it. Take time to cuddle and be romantic, and really listen to what t
Endangered venomous mammal predates the dinosaurs, study shows
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
Scientists have discovered that a modern venomous mammal—which has been described as a “giant rat with Freddy Krueger claws”—actually predates the dinosaurs.
The mammal, which is called the Hispaniolan solenodon, can only be found on (you guessed it) the island of Hispaniola, which includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It grows to be about a foot (30 cm) long, and is currently endangered thanks to the introduction of cats and dogs on the island—although it has been around for some 78 million years, having diverged from other living mammals at that time, according to the scientists.
An ancient mammal with an impressive track record
“It’s just impressive it’s survived this long,” said co-first author Adam Brandt, a postdoctoral researcher at Illinois, in a statement. “It survived the asteroid; it survived human colonization and the rats and mice humans brought with them that wiped out the solenodon’s closest relatives.”
Researchers from the University of Illinois and the University of Puerto Rico came to this conclusion after completely sequencing the DNA of solendons’ mitochondria—the part of the cell frequently referred to as its “powerhouse,” which comes complete with its own separate DNA.
Not that getting this DNA was easy—because of their endangered status, solenodon DNA is hard to come by. The team actually had to collect samples by laying on the ground and waiting for the venomous critters to crawl across their bodies. After it all was collected, the researchers then analyzed the samples two different ways in order to sequence the mitochondrial genome—both of which came up with completely identical results.
Then, an expert at Texas A&M used the genes to estimate when solendons diverged from other mammals, which resulted in the date of 78 million years.
This study, which can be found in Mitochondrial DNA, has also filled in the last major branch of the placental mammals on the tree of life by sequencing their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Further, it has supported the notion that there are two genetically distinct subpopulations on Hispaniola, one in the north and one in the south, which should be conserved separately. The researchers also determined that the northern population is much more genetically diverse than the southern population.
Moreover, the date of their evolution fits nicely with a hypothesis regarding how the solendons came to live on Hispaniola. Some geologists have theorized that the island was part of a volcanic arc which was connected to what is now Mexico some 75 million years ago. Over time, it drifted eastward, away from the continent, until arriving where it is today.
“Whether they got on the island when the West Indies ran into Mexico 75 million years ago, or whether they floated over on driftwood or whatever else much later is not very clear,” added lead researcher Alfred Roca.
Eta Aquarid meteor shower reaches peak activity this week
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
This week, one of the fastest meteor showers of the year, the Eta Aquarids, will reach their peak, providing astronomy enthusiasts with a spectacular show that will feature as many as 30 meteors per hour traveling nearly 150,000 mph under peak visibility conditions.
The Eta Aquarids have been visible since April 19, according to the New York Times, but are set to reach their peak on May 5 and 6 before ending sometime around May 28. They are caused by the Earth traveling through a ring of debris left behind by Halley’s comet, the newspaper said.
Just how fast do these meteors travel? “If you blink, you’re not going to see them. They move that fast,” Bill Cooke, an astronomer with NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO), said to the Times. While typically no larger than a grain of sand, they often have the same velocity as a .357-caliber bullet, which is “why they leave these brilliant streaks in the atmosphere.”
Skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere will get the best show
The Eta Aquarids are one of two meteor showers created by our planet’s interaction with the ring of debris left behind by Halley’s comet. The other, known as the Orionids, can be seen during the month of October – but if you’d rather not wait, here’s how to best see this month’s display.
While the shower is expected to peak in teams of the greatest number of objects produced on the 5th and 6th of May, EarthSky notes that a decent number of meteors should also be visible on the 4th and 7th. The best time to watch will be during the predawn hours, and stargazers living in the Southern Hemisphere will have the best view, with 20 to 30 meteors per hour visible at peak.
As for those of us living in the north, the Times said that we will only be able to see between 10 and 15 meteors per hour during prime viewing periods, which while somewhat disappointing at least means that the Eta Aquarids will put on a better show than last month’s Lyrids. While the meteors can been seen in most parts of the sky, those wishing to find their origin should look to the eastern part of the sky, towards the constellation Aquarius, National Geographic noted.
“The best views will be from the countryside, away from city light pollution,” the publication added. “But you can probably catch a few of the brighter meteors, including a couple of fireballs, sweeping through the upper atmosphere even from a suburban backyard.” No special telescopes or other instruments will be needed, but viewers should be sure to provide ample time (at least 20 minutes) to allow their eyes to adjust to the dark before going meteor hunting.
HMS Endeavour: Did scientists just find Captain Cook’s ship?
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
Researchers with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project (RIMAP) have reportedly found the HMS Endeavour, the ship sailed by famous British Explorer James Cook which was sunk off the coast of Rhode Island while forming a blockade during the Revolutionary War.
According to AFPreports, the remains of the vessel were found along with the wreckage of five other ships off the coast of Newport Harbor, Rhode Island. That site is one of nine discovered by RIMAP, and the Endeavour is one of 13 sunken ships located by the project, reports indicate.
The ship, which was eventually renamed the Lord Sandwich, was used by Captain Cook when he and his crew discovered the East Coast of Australia in 1770, the Daily Mail said. After a three year voyage, it sailed back to England, where it was sold in 1775, repurchased by the British navy, and scuttled in 1778 during an effort to create a blockade during the Battle of Rhode Island.
Now, the remains of the vessel have apparently been located in the waters of Narragansett Bay by RIMAP, which analyzed historical shipping documents from the UK along with cutting-edge seabed mapping techniques to discover at total of 14 vessels. The group told the Daily Mail that it is “80 to 100 percent certain” that the Endeavour is among those sunken ships.
A recreation of the HMS Endeavour
The Endeavour is ‘One of the most important shipwrecks in world history’
In a statement, RIMAP said that it had “mapped 9 archaeological sites of the 13 ships that were scuttled in Newport Harbor in 1778 during the American Revolution,” and that one group of five ships “included the Lord Sandwich transport, formerly Captain James Cook’s Endeavour.”
“All of the 13 ships lost in Newport during the Revolution are important to American history, but it will be a national celebration in Australia when RIMAP identifies the Endeavour,” they added, promising to reveal additional details of the find, including scans of the ships, on Wednesday. If possible, they hope to recover material from the wreckage and put it on public display.
Cook left England in 1768 in search of Australia, then known as the “unknown Southern Land,” the Daily Mail and New York Daily News said. He sailed the HMS Endeavour around Cape Horn in Africa and visited Tahiti, New Zealand and Australia, circumnavigating both the northern and southern islands of New Zealand and becoming the first ship captain reach to the eastern coast of Australia.
Cook was killed during a 1779 trip to the Sandwich Islands (now known as Hawaii), and his ship had been lost for more than two centuries. Now, on the eve of Rhode Island’s 240th birthday, the RIMAP team is expected to officially announce the location of what they called “one of the most important shipwrecks in world history.”
Analysis unlocks genetic secrets of Ice Age Europe
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
A new genetic analysis of prehistoric humans has led to the discovery of two significant shifts in population across Europe, both of which were linked to the end of the last Ice Age, researchers at Harvard Medical Schoolreported in Monday’s edition of the journal Nature.
As part of their new study, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator David Reich and his colleagues found that, as the ice sheet began to retreat and the Ice Age grew less intense roughly 19,000 years ago, prehistoric humans from southwest Europe repopulated the continent.
Then, in a separate event some 5,000 years later, humans from the southeast (including Turkey and Greece) spread into Europe and displaced the previous group. The study sheds new light on how human populations migrated and evolved during the era spanning from 45,000 years ago to 7,000 years ago by providing never-before-seen genomic data from the period.
Previously, there were only four samples of prehistoric European modern humans available for analysis, which Reich compared to “trying to summarize a movie with four still images.” Thanks to his team’s work, however, they now have access to 51 samples, which allows them to “follow the narrative arc” and “get a vivid sense of the dynamic changes” that occurred over time.
“What we see,” he said in a statement, “is a population history that is no less complicated than that in the last 7,000 years, with multiple episodes of population replacement and immigration on a vast and dramatic scale, at a time when the climate was changing dramatically.”
DNA analysis reveals two expansion events, mixing with Neanderthals
Based on the DNA analysis, the authors concluded that, starting 37,000 years ago, Europeans all came from a single founding population that was able to survive through the Ice Age. However, this group included different branches from different regions of the continent, including one that is represented from a Belgium population apparently displaced some 33,000 years ago.
About 19,000 years ago, a population related to this Belgium branch was able to once again re-expand throughout Europe, Reich explained. Based on the DNA evidence, he believes that this group may have expanded from the southwest, near modern-day Spain, after the Ice Age reached its peak. Then, 14,000 years ago, there is a second expansion event that takes place, he said.
“We see a new population turnover in Europe, and this time it seems to be from the east, not the west,” the Harvard researcher said. “We see very different genetics spreading across Europe that displaces the people from the southwest who were there before. These people persisted for many thousands of years until the arrival of farming.”
Reich and his colleagues Svante Pääbo and Johannes Krause also detected some intermingling with Neanderthals as modern humans spread throughout Europe some 45,000 years ago. These discoveries were made possible by a technique in-solution hybrid capture enrichment, which enabled them to extract and study DNA from ancient human remains without fear of the samples being contaminated by anyone who had previously handled the specimens.
Get ready for Mercury’s rare solar transit on May 9th
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
On May 9th Mercury will do something that happens only once or twice every decade: On Monday, May 9th, it will be seen passing in front of the Sun.
Known as a transit of Mercury, this event happens about 13 times per century—the next one will be in 2019. However, it won’t be visible everywhere—Japan and other parts of eastern Asia, and Antarctica will be unable to see it, according to Space.com.
Mercury and Venus are the only planets that circle between Earth and the Sun—meaning they’re the only planets whose transit we can see. However, transits are visible from other spots in the solar system—like in 2014, when the Curiosity rover caught glimpse of Mercury’s transit from Mars. And of course, Earth itself has its own transit. In fact, that’s how aliens might find us.
Venus, which is 24 million miles (38 million km) away at its closest point, has transits that can be viewed through a pinhole projector. But Mercury, which is 48 million miles (77 million km) away at its closest point, is too small to be seen with the naked eye. When its transit happens in the fall, it appears to be 1/194 the size of the Sun; in spring, it’s slightly larger, at 1/158. So instead, you’ll have to use either binoculars or a telescope.
Be Careful!!
But for all that is holy, do not look directly at the Sun without appropriate eye protection—that can cause permanent eye damage or blindness.
When watching the transit, you might be able to see its various stages. The first stage (called contact I) begins at 7:12 a.m. ET (11:12 GMT)—and you’ll see Mercury kiss the edge of the Sun. This will grow for three minutes until contact II (7:15 a.m.), at which point the entirety of Mercury will be in front of the Sun. Then, for several hours, Mercury will cross the Sun, hitting the center at 10:57 a.m. ET (14:57 GMT). Contact IV will be when Mercury touches the other side of the Sun (2:39 p.m.), and contact V will be when Mercury last touches the Sun (2:42 pm).
Many observatories around the country and world, as well as amateur astronomy groups, will host events for the transit—be sure to see what’s going on in your area!
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) restarted operations last spring after two years of upgrades and back in December, the project appeared to yield signs of a new particle that was previously unknown.
“It’s a hint at a possible discovery,” Csaba Csaki, theoretical physicist from Cornell University who isn’t involved in the project, told the Associated Press. “If this is really true, then it would possibly be the most exciting thing that I have seen in particle physics in my career — more exciting than the discovery of the Higgs itself.”
In 2012, physicists were able to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson, referred to as the “God particle”, thanks to LHC experiments. The particle cemented the status of the Standard Model of physics, which strives to clarify how the universe is organized at the smallest level.
Breaking down the Standard Model
In December, the LHC’s Atlas and Compact Muon Solenoid particle detectors spit out initial readings that indicated a particle not included by the Standard Model might exist at 750 Giga electron Volts. This unknown particle would be almost four times more massive than the top quark, the biggest particle in the simulation, and six times bigger than the Higgs, CERN officials said.
The Standard Model has stood up well, but has holes exist, particularly around dark matter, which is thought to make up one-quarter of the mass of the universe. If the initial December results are validated, they could help solve that mystery; or it could indicate a graviton – a theoretical first particle with gravity – or a different boson, even suggest the existence of a new dimension.
More information is needed to resolve those possibilities, and even then, the December outcomes could just be a fluke. However, with so much still unexplained, physicists say discoveries of new particles may be inevitable as colliders get more and more powerful.
“This particle — if it’s real — it would be something totally unexpected that tells us we’re missing something interesting,” said Dave Charlton, who heads up the LHC’s Atlas team
Scientists find three Earth-like planets in habitable zone of ultracool brown dwarf star
Written By: Brett Smith
Brian Galloway
Scientists have announced the discovery of three Earth-like planets orbiting a nearby star that could host life, according to a new report in the journal Nature.
Just 40 light years away, the planets were the first to ever be found orbiting an ultracool dwarf star. Because they are orbiting so close, the dim light thrown out by the star could be enough to sustain life, the study team said.
“The kind of planets we’ve found are very exciting from the perspective of searching for life in the universe beyond Earth,” study author Adam Burgasser, a professor of physics at the University of California San Diego, said in a news release.
How did scientists discover the planets?
Watching the distant star over a 62-day period, the study team saw three intermittent dips in brightness that signaled the presence of three planets, regularly casting their shadows back to Earth. Follow-up studies revealed these planets are probably close to the same size as Earth. Two of the planets orbit the star at periods of 1.5 days and 2.4 days. The study team said the third planet take between 4.5 and 73 days to orbit its sun.
“With such short orbital periods, the planets are between 20 and 100 times closer to their star than the Earth to the Sun,” said co-author Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège in Belgium. “The structure of this planetary system is much more similar in scale to the system of Jupiter’s moons than to that of the Solar System.”
The team established the three planets are about Earth-sized and may be rocky. Moreover, the inner two planets two to four times the quantity of solar energy that the Earth does, since their star is much fainter than the Sun.
This means these two planets are inside the habitable zone for this system, an orbital ring of distances where liquid water can exist and temperatures can support life.
The TRAPPIST Telescope was used to make this discovery. Credit: ESO
The study ream said it is still likely that they have habitable regions on their exterior, although details such as their clouds, and atmospheres-if they have atmospheres-make it hard to calculate if exterior conditions are really well suited for life. The third, outer, planet’s orbit is not yet well known, but it surely gets less solar energy than the Earth does, but maybe still enough to lie inside the habitable zone.
The astronomers said the two planets nearest to the star could possibly be tidally locked, with one face perpetually facing the star and the other constantly dark. That could restrict circulation of water and atmosphere, which might become captured on the cold, dark side, even though the astronomers speculate that life could exist in the continuous dawn at the day side’s western edge. Alternatively, tidal forces could keep the planets’ exterior cozy even on the dark side, but it could also cause brisk geothermal activity that makes the surfaces unstable.
“Fortunately, we may be able to answer these questions in the near future, as the geometry of the system makes it likely that we will be able to detect the atmospheric gases of these planets in the next decade with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope,” Burgasser said. “This facility will allow us to search for biogenic gases–oxygen or methane for example–that would firmly indicate the presence of life, or search for other gas species that would tell us about the planets’ compositions, geothermal activity and evolutionary history.”
Daredevil breaks hoverboard world record with 2km flight
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
A 37-year-old French jet-ski champion has shattered the record for the longest flight ever taken on a hoverboard, traveling more than a mile while flying over the Mediterranean off the coast of Sausset-les-Pins on Saturday, Guinness World Recordsconfirmed over the weekend.
During what was described as a “spectacular” display, Franky Zapata flew 50 meters (164 feet) above the ground and traveled a total distance of 2,252 meters (7,388 feet), easily surpassing the previous record of 275.9 meters (905 feet, 2 inches), set last year by a Canadian inventor named Catalin Alexandru Duru, according to Guinness World Records.
Zapata used a hoverboard that had been developed by his own company, Zapata Racing, known as the Flyboard Air. The vehicle can purportedly reach a maximum height of 10,000 feet, as well as speeds of up to 150 kilometers per hour (93 mph). It uses an “Independent Propulsion Unit” to fly hose-free, and it can remain airborne for as much as 10 minutes, Guinness added.
More than 200 people were on hand to watch Zapata’s flight, including by Sofia Grenache, an adjudicator at Guinness World Records who verified the achievement. During a press conference held afterwards, Zapata told reporters that the endeavor had “really been a life’s work.”
Not the first record-setting feat for Zapata
Saturday’s feat was not the first time Zapata had set a new world record. In 2014, during a live CBBC television broadcast, he successfully completed a record 26 backflips while using a water powered jetpack. That mark was surpassed last August by China’s Liu He, who managed 27 flips.
After breaking the hoverboard flight record, he said that flying so above the ground was “really peaceful,” telling The Guardian, “I open my arms because it helps me control my movements, but when you open your hands and you feel the wind go through your hand and you have nothing under your feet – it’s hard to describe, really. You have to experience this moment in your life.”
Video footage of a test flight that was posted to YouTube went viral and was viewed more than three million times, but drew many comments from users skeptical that it was authentic and that the hoverboard was even real. Not only is it real, it’s now a world record holder, completing its two kilometer journey at an average speed of 50-60 km/hour, the Associated Press said.
Rare 400 year old metal grill uncovered in Jamestown, VA
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
It’s often joked in archaeology that all they do is study garbage, and a recent rare find at Jamestown, Virginia is no exception. While the scientists were excavating a 400-year-old cellar—which, like others in the area, had been filled in with trash after the building above it became unsuitable for use—they came upon a mysterious metal object.
As scientifically described by conservator and curator Katharine Corneli, the artifact looks like a “semi-circle with a squiggly line in it,” according to WY Daily.
Jamestown Rediscovery team was stumped; they had never seen something quite like it.
The artifact was too fragile to be directly extracted from the cellar, and so it was brought up with the soil underneath it, which acted as a support matrix for the item until it could reach a lab for study. It was there that they finally figured out what this rare modern-day find was: What was probably an extremely common household item in colonial times, a cooking grill.
It now appears that the archaeologists uncovered half of an iron grill, which would have been used on a daily basis for cooking and baking, both directly on the grill and in pots—a notion supported by appropriately-shaped cooking marks on a pot fragment discovered in 2009. Though the current grill seems flat, Corneli believes it may have once had little legs that held it up over a fire.
An example of what the grill could have looked like. Credit: Jamestown Rediscovery Project
But why is a common item so rare?
There are currently several theories about why so few of these grills have been found. The leading theory is that these iron grills were both quite useful and durable, meaning that they were rarely thrown away (unlike the one found in the cellar).
And even if a grill did break, the colonists could easily have repurposed the metal instead of chucking out the entire thing, meaning that more grills may have actually been found onsite—just in utterly unrecognizable forms.
Either way, the grill is now undergoing the standard rigorous cleaning and conservation processes for metal artifacts in the lab, while the archaeologists keep a sharp eye out for more grill fragments in the field.
OceanOne–New robotic diver recovers treasure from untouched French ship
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
More than 350 years ago, the flagship of the French Navy, La Lune, sank, dragging treasure and hundreds of men down with it. Since then, no human hands have touched any of the ruins or material remains—well, until now that is, thanks to the invention of what is being called a “robo-mermaid.”
The robot, which is called OceanOne, fills in a great need in underwater archaeology. Some sites exist at depths too dangerous to permit extended excavations by human hands. Submersibles or an atmospheric diving suit could be used instead, but are often quite expensive to buy or rent—and are relatively clumsy when it comes to handling delicate objects.
Which is exactly where the robot comes in.
“OceanOne will be your avatar,” said Oussama Khatib, a professor of computer science at Stanford, in a university statement. “The intent here is to have a human diving virtually, to put the human out of harm’s way. Having a machine that has human characteristics that can project the human diver’s embodiment at depth is going to be amazing.”
OceanOne is humanoid in form, with roughly five feet of head, torso, and “tail”—a section that houses its batteries, computers, and thrusters. It’s outfitted with an artificial brain, which makes sure the robot has a firm grip on objects while also ensuring it doesn’t grip them too hard. The brain is also paired with stereoscopic vision, which permits the pilot to see what the robot is seeing.
Further, OceanOne has two arms, each complete with a fully articulated wrists and hands fitted with sensors that provide haptic feedback to the pilot’s controls—meaning the pilot can actually feel whether the robot is grasping something heavy, light, firm, or delicate.
“You can feel exactly what the robot is doing,” Khatib said. “It’s almost like you are there; with the sense of touch you create a new dimension of perception.”
Of course, the robot can function pretty well without a pilot even laying a finger on a joystick. Its sensors are able to monitor current and turbulence, activating its thrusters as needed to keep it steady. And as the body of the robot moves, motors in the arms react immediately, adjusting them so that the hands stay in place.
Moreover, it can navigate thanks to its ability to “see” (through cameras and others sensors) the environment around it, and can even sense when it’s about to collide with an object and brace for impact with its arms.
In short, OceanOne is intended to fill in for a human in places where humans can’t go.
“We connect the human to the robot in very intuitive and meaningful way. The human can provide intuition and expertise and cognitive abilities to the robot,” Khatib said. “The two bring together an amazing synergy. The human and robot can do things in areas too dangerous for a human, while the human is still there.”
La Lune sees daylight
La Lune, meanwhile, was the flagship (vessel which was used by the commanding officer of a groups of ships) of French king Louis XIV’s navy. Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, is famous for turning Versailles from a hunting lodge into the palace we see today, and La Lune was perhaps equally grandiose in scale: Approximately 140 feet (43 m) long and 30 feet (10 m) wide, it was an 800-ton ship that was carrying 1,000 men when it sank in 1664.
It was rediscovered in 1993 by Nautilus, the submarine which explored the Titanic, in about 300 feet (100 m) of water off the coast of Toulon, France.
But in the intervening two decades, La Lune was never excavated or looted, thanks to its depth. Then, OceanOne stepped in. Carefully manipulating its controls, Khatib was able to successfully guide OceanOne through the wreck, freeing it using its arms when it got stuck between two cannons.
Then, he used it to gently grasp and remove a grapefruit-sized vase, which was brought up to the surface for the first time in some 350 years—a proof-of-concept that means OceanOne is probably only just getting started.
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Image credit: Frederic Osada and Teddy Seguin/DRASSM
Ask 10 people about their image of the typical fibromyalgia patient, and it’s likely that all 10 will describe a typical fibro sufferer as being a woman. While it’s true that 80 to 90 percent of fibromyalgia patients are women, new evidence suggests that the illness may be widely underdiagnosed in men. One study suggests that fibromyalgia is underdiagnosed in both men and women—and the actual rate in men may be as much as 20 times higher than currently diagnosed. Here are some possible reasons men may be underdiagnosed.
Bias Against Seeking Health Care
It’s not just a stereotype that men avoid going to the doctor. According to the Centers for Disease Control, men are 80 percent less likely than women to go to the doctor. One-third of men haven’t had a check-up in the past year. Half of all men don’t even have a regular doctor. Even if they do see a doctor, men are less likely than women to mention physical complaints like fatigue and muscle pain. Men are culturally taught to “buck up” and accept such pains as normal.
Men who do not have a regular relationship with a doctor are less likely to seek a diagnosis for fibromyalgia symptoms in the first place. But for those who do seek care, their lack of an ongoing relationship with a doctor may make it less likely for them to be correctly diagnosed.
Poor Diagnostic Methods
Fibromyalgia is usually diagnosed based on an 18-point checklist developed in 1990 by the American College of Rheumatologists. The checklist is based on tenderness or pain at certain pressure points throughout the body. The document has only been updated twice since 1990, and many fibro advocates believe the diagnostic criteria is outdated and insufficient.
Medical Bias Against Diagnosing Men
The myth that fibro patients are always women may be so deeply ingrained in society that a male patient’s description of symptoms like headaches, sleep problems and body pain don’t suggest fibromyalgia to medical staff. Doctors may be more likely to diagnose men with an illness that has similar symptoms to fibromyalgia, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus or even sleep apnea.
Men May Have Different Symptoms
A 2012 study suggests that men with fibromyalgia may experience different symptoms than women with the same illness. According to the study, men have a higher pressure pain threshold at the 18 pressure points than women and experience less pain overall. However, men with fibromyalgia are also more likely than women to have intense, ongoing pain in the neck region. Other research suggests that even though depression is a common fibromyalgia symptom for women, men may be even more likely to be depressed than women. Although men may have fewer intense physical symptoms than women, they tend to be more socially and mentally impacted by the effects of their illness.
Any sort of chronic illness tends to be more difficult to diagnose in men, in large part because men are more likely to downplay their symptoms as nothing serious. When they do seek a diagnosis, doctors are prone to look for different causes. It’s time for the medical community to learn that fibromyalgia can impact anyone, even men.
Fibromyalgia Treating is now part of the RedOrbit.com community!
We are excited to announce that FibromyalgiaTreating.com is now part of RedOrbit.com. All of the same great people, writers and editors but now with more firepower. We now have access to an enormous amount of additional research information
from doctors and scientists. We can now extend to other conditions that may be part of your everyday lives and help you on a broad level if that is what you need. We are here for you and now, better than ever so sit back and enjoy
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