NASA wants your help solving Ceres’ greatest mysteries
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
While the Dawn spacecraft discovered several mysterious features on the dwarf planet Ceres, one in particular – the four-mile high feature known as the Lonely Mountain – has scientists at NASA so stumped that they’re turning to the general public for assistance.
The mountain, which was first discovered in April, has sides that are as shiny as the odd bright spots that have captured the world’s attention. Researchers involved with the 7.5 year mission are puzzled as to how the mountain might have originally formed, so they’ve decided to turn to citizen scientists to help, Slashgear and Discovery News reported Wednesday.
During a conference held recently in France, Dawn’s chief investigator Christopher Russell said that his team was “ having difficulty understanding what made that mountain,” and that they had been receiving “many suggestions from the public,” including an email from one individual who noted that the mountain looked similar to ice structures found in the woods of Arkansas.
“These ice structures started just poking out (of the ground). Each one of them had a rock or something like that protecting the surface, keeping it cool,” Russell added. “Maybe our lonely mountain was some sort of ice construct. We’re taking suggestions like this very seriously.”
Lonely Mountain not the only unsolved mystery on Ceres
Dawn travelled over three billion miles (4.9 billion kilometers) to study Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt located between Mars and Jupiter. While ideally the mission was intended to discover more about the dwarf planet, in many ways it has only made it more mysterious.
For instance, during the press conference, Russell said that he and his colleagues had “absolutely no idea” what caused a blue ring to appear on a map of the planet. In addition, he noted that they had not determined the source of a white material found on Ceres, but that it may be salt. As the Dawn spacecraft continues collecting data, they hope to find some answers.
Earlier this week, NASA also released a pair of new maps of Ceres: one which is a color-coded topographic map that shows more than a dozen recently-approved names for the dwarf planet’s various features, and another, false-color map that reveals compositional differences that can be found on the surface.
Dawn’s mission is scheduled to continue through mid-2016. The probe is currently in orbit around Ceres at an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), and during this phase of its mission, it will image the entire surface of the dwarf planet up to six times per day. From now through December, it will descend to its final and lowest orbit of 230 miles (375 kilometers), where it will continue collect data and images at a higher resolution than previously possible.
More often than not, the process of diagnosing fibromyalgia is difficult. This is primarily due to the personal nature of how pain is felt. Therefore, a physician will routinely examine specific tender points throughout an individual’s body when making their diagnosis. There are 18 points in all, 9 pairs, and experience pain when pressed upon, and could spread pain to additional parts of the body.
Before Your Diagnosis
Your doctor is going to have their hands full because, like it or not, there is a lot involved with diagnosing fibromyalgia. You can help the process along by coming to your first examination or consultation prepared. By showing up prepared, your doctor will have the preliminary information they need to use as a jumping point and the foundation they need to begin the examination. Bring along:
Prescriptions List
Most doctors’ offices ask for this information on their in-take paperwork, anyway, so you’ll have it on-and to copy over. If not, you can give them this information. Write it out clearly or print it out using your computer so they can read it easily. This information will help them understand if you may be experiencing any side-effects from medications you are taking.
Medical History
Make a comprehensive compilation not only of your medical history, but also of your next of kin’s. This listing should include your current symptoms, your past medical issues, and how you are feeling today. Include every detail.
Symptom log
As soon as you begin noticing any symptoms, begin logging them. If you are having difficulty remembering when they began occurring, ask your friends and family to help you construct this log as far back as they can realistically remember. Then, moving forward, log in each time you experience symptoms again. This will help your doctor understand the frequency of symptoms, as well as when new symptoms are occurring. Make notes about the severity of symptoms, as well.
What is the Cause of Fibromyalgia?
No one knows for sure what the root cause of fibromyalgia is, which is another reason why diagnosing it is so difficult. However, a number of factors are involved with what could cause this issue. A number of researchers and experts associate the on-set of fibromyalgia with an emotionally or physically traumatic event, including car crashes. Other experts make the connection with the development of fibromyalgia to repetitive injuries or illnesses. Still other experts have the belief that fibromyalgia is a spontaneous occurrence.
How to Pin Down Fibromyalgia
Widespread pain that is chronic is fibromyalgia’s main symptom. This includes the following issues your physician will ask you about:
Have you experienced pain for a period of at least three months?
Is this pain localized either below or above the waist?
Do you feel pain of both sides of your body?
Your pain symptoms can include a combination of back pain, hip pain, feet pain, knee pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, as well as pain experienced in just about every other part of your body.
Where is Pain Felt?
According to the guidelines set forth by the College of Rheumatology, individuals who have fibromyalgia will experience pain in 11 tender points or more when their physician applies a specific amount of pressure upon them. Because pain is incredibly personal and one person’s version of “I’m hurting all over the place,” is different from another person’s version, diagnosing is tough. The specific pain points your physician will check are as follows:
Back of your neck
You may experience pain behind your neck due to fibromyalgia, however it could also be due to other issues, as well. These other issues include neck strain, injuries, or rheumatoid arthritis.
In Front of Neck
Once the back of the neck is checked, the front will also be checked. The trigger points are found on both sides of the larynx, considerably above the collarbone.
Elbows
Near the outer side of patient’s arm, below the crease, tends to be where the tenderness and pain is felt most often for fibromyalgia patients. Elbow pain could, however, also be caused by injuries from strain or tendonitis.
Hips
Those suffering from fibromyalgia could experience a tender point near where the thighs join the buttock muscles. However, those experiencing osteoarthritis feel pain right in the hip joint.
Lower Back
This is the most common tender point for fibromyalgia. This pain is felt right at the very bottom of the lower back where the top of the buttocks meets.
Upper Back
In addition to the lower back, the upper back is also checked where the muscles and the tendons meet. The specific area in question is where the shoulder blades and the back muscles connect.
Knees
This is another common area for those experience fibromyalgia symptoms. Inside of the knee pads tends to feel the most-tender when touched.
Shoulders
It is common for fibromyalgia patients to experience a pain point in the shoulders, half-way between the bottom of the neck and the shoulder’s edge.
Chest
Another pain point is located two or three inches below a patient’s collarbone, on one or both sides of their sternum.
Prepare for a Journey
Even though we know where all of these pain points are felt and how tender they feel to the touch when a specific amount of pressure is applied, none of these results will show up in a blood test or an x-ray. This is the primary reason why the diagnosis for fibromyalgia is a long and difficult one. Under most circumstances, it could take as many as two years to receive an accurate fibromyalgia diagnosis.
No matter how experienced your physician is with fibromyalgia, the journey is still a long one. Therefore, it is often a frustrating experience for both your doctor and you, the patient. This is because it is the doctor’s responsibility to rule out all other conditions that mirror the symptoms of fibromyalgia first. This causes potential challenges, particularly during instances when patients are unable to clearly articulate the symptoms they are experiencing.
Drawbacks when you’re unable to clearly discuss your symptoms include:
Your peers are telling you that you can’t be sick because you look too good.
Expectations are placed upon you by your family for you to continue to get up and go.
Friends lack of understanding when dates or appointments are canceled.
You refrain from expressing how you feel so you’re not labeled a “whiner.”
The inability to discuss symptoms with your doctor is an incredibly frustrating roadblock for your doctor when trying to diagnose fibromyalgia.
Terms for Diagnosis
Before picking up any type of instrumentation or performing an examination, your doctor will first listen for some keywords during their preliminary conversation with you. They’ll be listening for specific terms or conditions that are associated with fibromyalgia. Some examples are:
Chronic Fatigue: this is marked by an extreme exhaustion that affects quality of life and prevents you from doing what you want to do on a regular basis.
Concentration or issues with memory: this is also commonly referred to as “fibro fog.” If you are experiencing an increased issue with memory loss, especially within the last three months.
Pain (of course): the specific terms that are tagged alongside the word “pain” include all over, constant, for long periods of time, and widespread.
Tenderness: Non-painful interactions, like a hug or a handshake, are now painful when they previously were not.
Unrefreshed Sleep: no matter how much sleep you get, even when you fall asleep at an adequate time and sleep throughout the night, you are unable to wake up and feel like you’ve slept at all.
Checking for Inflammatory Arthritis
When a doctor diagnosis fibromyalgia, they typically check their patient’s red blood cell sedimentation rate. This blood test will provide them information regarding the rough index of inflammation in their patient’s body. This test is abnormal for many types of arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis. It can also produce abnormal results for some strains of infections. However, in the case of fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis, this test will produce normal results.
You may see your doctor testing for anti-CCP antibodies, as well as rheumatoid factor. When these tests are completed simultaneously, they can help provide a diagnosis for as many as 50 – 80% of rheumatoid arthritis patients.
A test for the ANA (anti-nuclear antibody) may also be performed by your doctor. As with the rheumatoid factor, ANA is an antibody in the blood that is abnormal. It is most common among systematic lupus patients. Women are the most common patients who experience lupus, especially those who are young, and the most common symptoms are fatigue and pain. Lupus could also cause problems with internal organs, including brain problems, heart disease, and kidney disease.
Further Exclusion of Other Problems
Because fibromyalgia mimics so many other medical issues, your doctor will work diligently by running a series of tests to further exclude other problems. Some of these exclusions include:
Mental health issues
Anxiety and depression disorders, among others, often feature symptoms including aches and pain similar to fibromyalgia.
Neurological disorders
Myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis have similar symptoms to fibromyalgia, such as tingling and numbness.
Rheumatoid diseases
There are specific conditions, examples include Sjogren’s disease and lupus, can start with localized pain and aches that mirror that of fibromyalgia.
Investigation of Triggers
There are some instances when fibromyalgia symptoms occur a short period of time after patient experiences a physically or mentally traumatic event, like a car accident for example. Patients who are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) seem to be the most likely to receive a fibromyalgia diagnosis, therefore your doctor could ask you if you’ve undergone any events recently that were traumatic.
A genetic component also seems to be involved with fibromyalgia, as well, so your doctor could also ask you if any of your next of kin are experiencing symptoms similar to yours.
When all of this information is compiled together, your doctor will have a clearer picture of possible triggers for your symptoms. This will help them make a better determination as to how to develop a treatment plan that is effective.
New Criteria Introduced
The original criteria your doctor was required to follow was set forth in 1990 by the ACR (American College of Rheumatology), and it contained the complete diagnostics. During May of 2010, a new publication was released by the ACR containing provisional criteria, however, it was not meant as a replacement for the 1990 publication. The 2010 publication is a supplemental set of guidelines made available for doctors to address the limitations in the orginal 1990 guidelines. The primary goal of the ACR is to provide doctors with a more practical approach allowing for them to monitor symptoms more effectively, as well as the disease’s severity. How often these new criteria is being utilized within a physician’s office still remains to be seen.
These new criteria looks specifically at more symptoms and provides your doctor with an effective system of symptom monitoring for severity. These criteria also allows for flexibility, allowing for fluctuations in the threshold in the tender points from one person to the next. This means the same patient can have different results on different occasions. According to the researchers, this new method has an 88% accuracy rate.
Just like with the 1990 criteria, symptoms must be present for at least three months and other conditions must be ruled out prior to a diagnosis. These new criteria also provides doctors with two new assessment methods, and they are called WPI (Widespread Pain Index) and SS (Scale Score).
There are nineteen specific areas of the body on the WPI list where you explain you’ve experienced pain within the previous week. One point is given on your chart for each area, therefore the final week’s scoring is between 0-19.
On the SS chart’s scoring, you will be discussing your symptoms on a ranking from 0-3. The specific symptoms include the following:
Once the numbers are added up on your chart, they should total up to 0-12.
According to the new criteria, you will receive a diagnosis only if you have either:
a WPI score of 7 or higher and a SS scale of 5 or greater, OR
a WPI score of between 3 and 6 and a SS scale of 9 or greater.
The document containing the full criteria your doctor will use if they follow the new guideline is available online. It includes all of the 19 areas of the WPI, as well of the longer list of symptoms. You can find the .pdf document here: Fibromyalgia Diagnostic Criteria.
Fibromyalgia Treatment
At this time, there is no known cure for fibromyalgia. However, there are a number of treatment options available to you. With a team effort including education about this syndrome, aerobic exercise, behavioral therapies, and pharmaceuticals can help relieve symptoms.
When you use a combination of these therapies, or all of them if needed, you can see a dramatic impact on your quality of life. It takes time and effort to stay educated regarding a systematic treatment program that will help you remain successful with managing your symptoms, but it is not impossible. Some alternative remedies may be beneficial, but your doctor may suggest the use of prescribed medications first.
While working with your doctor through your treatment program, you will also have to work on making some adaptations to your lifestyle. These changes may be uncomfortable at first and take some time to get used, especially for your friends and family. This is where having a strong support system surrounding you is crucial. However, in the case of fibromyalgia, these changes brings forth positive and recognizable improvements in the quality of life and functionality in patients. Educate your peers with regards to this and you will have even more potential for improvement.
Obtain Mental Health Support
It isn’t easy living with a chronic illness, and this poses different challenges for every individual on an emotional level. For fibromyalgia patients, it is important for the development of a program that not only provides emotional support, but also allows them to increase their lines of communication with their friends and family members. There are many communities throughout the country, as well as abroad, with recognized organizations supporting fibromyalgia. These support groups are the first step toward helping patients cope with their chronic illness and the fact that it could be with them throughout their lifetime.
Physical Therapy
Sometimes physical therapy is beneficial and it includes acupressure, acupuncture, application of cold or heat, aromatherapy, biofeedback, breathing techniques, cognitive therapy, chiropractic manipulation, light aerobics, nutritional supplements, myofascial release therapy, relaxation therapy, and yoga. When a multi-faceted approach is taken by each patient, input should be gathered and communicated between them and their doctor so a well-rounded and individualized approach that works for them is created for their treatment plan. There are a large number of facilities located throughout the country that are dedicated specifically to fibromyalgia physical therapies.
How Breathing Slow Can Help to Manage Your Fibromyalgia Symptoms
Written By: admin
admin
Obviously, one of the biggest issues with having fibromyalgia is the pain one feels in the eleven different pressure points throughout the body.
But while the physical pain is the most noticeable thing one feels with fibromyalgia, and almost equally (if not equal) form of pain that fibromyalgia patients suffer from is the emotional side of things.
Depression, stress, anxiety, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, impeded cognitive thinking, and mood swings are all clear and true symptoms of fibromyalgia.
What’s unfortunately true is that the more emotional pain a fibromyalgia patient feels, the worse their physical pain will become. Therefore, if you can control your emotional or mental pain, your physical pain will go down as well.
You can seek out professional treatment, but if you want to start controlling fibromyalgia on your own, controlling the emotional pain is the first step in controlling your fibromyalgia, not letting your fibromyalgia control you.
First, we’ll discuss the types of emotional pain a fibromyalgia patient can feel, then we’ll discuss one of the best ways to control it: slow and controlled breathing.
Depression vs. Anxiety
The two most prevalent forms of emotional pain a fibromyalgia patient will feel is depression and anxiety. Often times, the two can be experienced simultaneously.
Depression is extreme sadness that a patient feels throughout the day. Depression is not the same thing as feeling down in the dumps after a bad dad. Depression is where you feel significantly sad all day every day, regardless of whether you have a good day or bad day.
When feeling depressed, it’s not uncommon for a fibromyalgia patient to act badly by lashing out against others, crying, or feeling angry. Those are all normal symptoms.
Anxiety is feeling worry and fear in almost panicky manner, and over little things. Just like how a temporary feeling of sadness is not the same thing as depression, a brief feeling of your heart racing over heading to a job interview, per say, is not the same thing as chronic anxiety. Anxiety is you feel anxious and worried over nearly everything that happens in your day.
The Connection to Breathing
Depression and anxiety are the two most critical emotional pains a fibromyalgia patient can feel. But the more depressed or the more anxious a patient feels, the worse the physical pain will get.
Yes, there are medications you can take, and yes, you can take therapy to cope with the problem. But if you want to tackle this problem on your own before seeking out professional help, try this: slop and controlled breathing.
Slow breathing can help control a person’s emotional pain as found in a recent study by ‘Pain,’ a reputable medical journal.
Simple exercises such as meditating, sitting down and breathing slowly, or even practicing something like yoga can severely lessen the emotional pain a patient feels.
The study that ‘pain’ conducted took twenty-seven different women who displayed clear symptoms of fibromyalgia and reported suffering from both physical and emotional team.
The same study also took twenty five different women who were completely healthy and roughly of the same age as the twenty seven with fibromyalgia.
The researchers in the study then had all fifty two women practice slow and controlled breathing. All of the women, both those with and without fibromyalgia, reported feeling less emotional distress and subsequently, their pain lessened.
However, the women without fibromyalgia reported feeling less emotional distress and physical pain.
So while those without fibromyalgia reported better benefits than those with fibromyalgia, the fact is that everyone in the study reported having less emotional and physical suffering after controlling and slowing down their breathing.
This was the first time that a breathing situation was taken into account for a controlled, medical study. What’s more, is that there was no particular ‘breathing method’ used in the study.
The women were just told to control their breathing and to breath slowly, however they saw fit. In that regard, you can breathe slowly in whatever method you want to, and it should work.
Our knowledge of fibromyalgia in general is still very limited, and it’s very difficult for doctors to even diagnose those who have fibromyalgia because, well, fibromyalgia is difficult to diagnose.
This is because the symptoms of fibromyalgia often overlap with other chronic diseases and conditions.
But if the test subjects in the study all reported having less pain, than it doesn’t really matter if you have fibromyalgia, does it? Why spend all of the money and time (which can take over a year) to discover if you officially have fibromyalgia?
As long as you feel the pain and symptoms, or any pain and symptoms, why not try slow and relaxed breathing techniques to control your physical and emotional pain?
Stress
Besides the physical pain, depression, and anxiety, slow and relaxed breathing can also greatly help in controlling stress.
Slow and relaxed breathing can control stress because it can balance out the nervous system; the nervous system is what can cause a person to react to stress by increasing the person’s heart rate and blood pressure, and causing the person to sweat and perspire.
Think of the nervous system as the accelerator for feeling stress…only slow and relaxed breathing techniques can control the nervous system.
All in all, it’s important to recognize that you don’t just have physical pain, but emotional pain as well. As we have discussed, you can visit a professional for help, but simply employing slow and relaxed breathing exercises will go a long way to helping you control your stress, depression and anxiety on your own.
Medieval chivalry wasn’t always knights in shining armor
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills
Picture medieval times: Grand castles, glorious tournaments, and—most importantly—heroic knights. Of course, there was plague and death and poverty and murder, but we tend to forget those in lieu of marvelous tales of noble deeds.
These are rosy memories of the past adopted by current societies around the 1800s, according to historian Richard Kaeuper.
In reality, chivalry was quite violent, and fairly grisly, according to a report by Futurity. “It’s hands-on cutting and thrusting. It’s a very bloody profession, and [people from the last several centuries] admire it to excess,” said Kaeuper, a professor at the University of Rochester and author of a new book on the subject called Medieval Chivalry.
Moreover, chivalry wasn’t just restricted to being a warrior code. In its own time period—roughly the latter part of the 11th century until the 16th century—it pervaded most aspects of society.
“It’s an immense topic that goes everywhere,” Kaeuper said.
Chivalry itself, according to Kaeuper, refers to “deeds of great valor performed by knights.” But beyond knights, it refers to a set of ideas and practices key to medieval times. “[V]irtually every medieval voice we can hear accepts a chivalric mentalité [mentality] and seems anxious to advance it (and often to reform it toward some desired goal) as a key buttress to society, even to civilization,” he wrote.
In other words, nearly every writer of the time worked under the influence of a chivalric mindset, allowing those attitudes and ideas to shape their writings, both consciously and unconsciously.
Who came up with chivalry?
According to Kaeuper, chivalry itself is “pretty much a French creation” that spread throughout Western Europe in various phases.
First came the knights—a military profession. Next, as the knights become more widespread and famous, these elite men began to develop their own special identity as tournaments, literary romance, and epics began to dominate the landscape. Finally, these ideals developed by knights spread beyond them, dominating other peoples by changing their thoughts and behaviors.
By the end, chivalry spread from the knights of France to the peoples of England, Italy, Spain, and Germany, a noble trend (and a bloody one).
We can thank our European predecessors for forgetting that part, though. Around the 19th century, various Europeans and some Americans began to look back at the Middle Ages as a sort of Golden Age of their ancestors, in an attempt to escape from modern issues and solidify their national identity.
“Far from dark,” Kaeuper wrote, “the medieval past was not only colorful and fascinating, but too important and too useful to be ignored. The romantic revivers did not and perhaps could not recognize that they were altering the original drastically and investing it with meanings that would have surprised its first practitioners.”
This is a fairly common problem with modern people interacting with the past; we are too far-removed from the context to understand it as the original people would have, an instead impress our own beliefs upon them.
“If you start thinking modern as you go into the past, you distort the past. If you start with the past and see if it informs the present, I think you’re on the right path,” he said.
Calcium supplements don’t actually do anything for your bones
Written By: Brett Smith
Emily Bills
Although millions of people around the world take calcium and vitamin D supplements, two new research reviews published in the prestigious British Medical Journal have shown that these supplements don’t help at all when it comes to preventing broken bones.
In one study, researchers collected high-quality analyses from around the world and found that people over 50 don’t see a benefit at all from taking either calcium supplements or from consuming calcium in food. Individuals taking supplements were just as prone to have a fracture. A few scientific studies found individuals who took supplements might have a smaller risk, but the benefits were not readily apparent.
“Dietary calcium intake is not associated with risk of fracture, and there is no clinical trial evidence that increasing calcium intake from dietary sources prevents fractures,” the researchers wrote. “Evidence that calcium supplements prevent fractures is weak and inconsistent.”
The studies’ conclusion matched recommendations that US health officials have been making in recent years. In 2012, a special governmental task force said there isn’t sufficient evidence to advocate taking calcium or vitamin D supplements, and advising against the supplements in some cases.
Women more than 50 years old are told to get 1,200 mg of calcium per day and women under 50 are told to get 1,000 mg daily. Men are recommended to get 1,000 mg each day, although men over 70 ought to get 1,200 mg. However, most people don’t get enough calcium and physicians recommend supplements to ensure their patients get enough calcium.
Not even worth it
But the new studies indicate that people are not helped by supplements, and in fact, calcium supplements can actually be dangerous for some people.
“Clinical trials of calcium supplements at doses of 1,000 mg/day, however, have reported adverse effects, including cardiovascular events, kidney stones, and hospital admissions for acute gastrointestinal symptoms,” the researchers wrote. Zoinks.
In the second study, researchers discovered individuals who consumed the most dietary calcium seemed to have marginally stronger bones as assessed by bone mineral density. However, this didn’t lead to fewer broken bones.
In an editorial responding to the studies’ results, Dr. Karl Michaelsson of Uppsala University in Sweden called for a reassessment of standard supplement practices. “The weight of evidence against such mass medication of older people is now compelling, and it is surely time to reconsider these controversial recommendations,” Michaelsson wrote.
Arsenic & Wine: Sounds like a hipster band name, is actually a real-life problem
Written By: Shayne Jacopian
Emily Bills
You might want to be careful the next time you’re at the liquor store selecting a bottle of red wine. In a new study, the University of Washington tested 65 different red wines and found that all but one of them contained more arsenic than what’s allowed in drinking water.
According to a release from the university, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows drinking water to contain up to 10 parts per billion of arsenic. The wines tested, however, contained an average of 24 parts per billion, ranging from 10 to 76 parts per billion. Only one wine contained less than 10. Uh oh.
Of course, the researchers noted that arsenic is found in many other foods, as well, such as apple juice, rice, cereal bars, and even certain baby formulas. A companion study, published alongside this one in the Journal of Environmental Health, concluded that the health risks of arsenic in red wine are dependent upon how much arsenic one ingests overall from a variety of sources. Simply drinking some red wine every now and then isn’t something consumers should get too hung up on—although you should be aware of what’s in your foods and what the risks might be.
Don’t be worried unless you’re a heavy wine drinker
“Unless you are a heavy drinker consuming wine with really high concentrations of arsenic, of which there are only a few, there’s little health threat if that’s the only source of arsenic in your diet,” said University of Washington electrical engineering professor Denise Wilson, who led the two studies.
“But consumers need to look at their diets as a whole. If you are eating a lot of contaminated rice, organic brown rice syrup, seafood, wine, apple juice—all those heavy contributors to arsenic poisoning—you should be concerned, especially pregnant women, kids, and the elderly.”
“My goal is to get people away from asking the question ‘who do we blame?’ and instead offer consumers a better understanding of what they’re ingesting and how they can minimize health risks that emerge from their diets,” Wilson added.
Arsenic can cause various cancers in high concentrations, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid entirely. As water erodes rock that contains arsenic, it gets into water and soil, and subsequently, many of the foods we eat. It’s kind of like mercury in fish—if you’re not eating tuna sandwiches for every meal day in and day out and stirring your coffee with broken thermometers, you don’t have to worry too much.
Drugs go under disguise as platelets to target cancer
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Using a newly developed method to coat cancer drugs with membranes from a patient’s own platelets allows cancer drugs to remain in the body and combat tumor cells for longer periods of time compared to untreated cells, scientists from North Carolina State University report.
Quanyin Hu and Zhen Gu, from the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and their colleagues tested the new platelet membrane method in mice. They found that it allowed the medications to remain in the creature’s bodies far longer than traditional drug delivery methods, according to UPI reports.
“There are two key advantages to using platelet membranes to coat anticancer drugs,” Gu, the corresponding author of an Advanced Materials paper describing the findings, said in a press release. “First, the surface of cancer cells has an affinity for platelets – they stick to each other. Second, because the platelets come from the patient’s own body, the drug carriers aren’t identified as foreign objects, so [they] last longer in the bloodstream.”
“This combination of features, means that the drugs can not only attack the main tumor site, but are more likely to find and attach themselves to tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream – essentially attacking new tumors before they start,” added Hu, a Ph. D. student and the study’s lead author.
Membrane allows drugs to circulate five times longer
Hu and Gu began by taking blood from the mice, isolating platelets and then separating their membranes. They then placed those membranes in a solution with a nanoscale gel that included doxorubicin (Dox), a drug that attacks the nucleus of a cancer cell. Next, they compressed the solution to force the gel and drug through the membrane to create nanospheres.
The nanospheres were then treated so that their surfaces were coated with another anticancer drug, TRAIL, which attacks the cell membranes of cancer cells. When the pseudo-platelets, which can circulate in the body five times longer than uncoated versions (30 hours vs. 6 hours), they bind to the surface of the cancer cells and deliver a one-two punch the membranes and nucleus.
The authors reported that in the mice study, using Dox and TRAIL in the pseudo-platelet drug delivery system was significantly more effective against large tumors and circulating tumor cells than delivering the two drugs without the membrane. Gu said they want to do more pre-clinical testing on the technique, and that it could also be used to deliver other types of drugs.
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Feature Image: NC State University
Too many sugary drinks may increase heart disease risk by one-third
Written By: Chuck Bednar
John
Just in case there wasn’t already enough scientific evidence to convince you that drinking sodas and other sugary drinks are bad for you, new research has found that these sweetened beverages can significantly increase a person’s risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease.
The study, which was published this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that consuming one or two servings of sugary beverages per day could increase the risk of heart attack or fatal heart disease by 35 percent. Furthermore, such habits were linked with an up to 26 percent risk of developing type 2 diabetes and a 16 percent increase in stroke risk.
Lead investigator Dr. Frank Hu, professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and his colleagues looked at data from recent epidemiological studies and meta-analyses in what they are calling “the most comprehensive review of the evidence on the health effects of sugar-sweetened beverages to date.”
Considering that half of all Americans consume at least one of these beverages each day, and one-fourth drinks at least 200 calories worth every day, Hu said that the findings “underscore the urgent need for public health strategies that reduce the consumption of these drinks.”
Fructose is the primary culprit
The study focused on the role of fructose in the development of these health problems. Fructose, which in sodas and sugary drinks is often found as high fructose corn syrup, is typically used in the US as a low-cost alternative to sucrose, the researchers said. Specifically, they analyzed how fructose is metabolized in the body, and how it leads to weight gain and other issues.
While glucose, another component of sugar, is readily absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream, then transported via insulin into the body’s cells and used as fuel, the same cannot be said for fructose. Instead, the latter sugar is metabolized in the liver, where it could be converted into triglycerides, a fatty compound that could lead to insulin resistance.
In addition, the study authors noted that consuming too much fructose can cause a person’s body to produce too much uric acid in the blood, potentially increasing the risk of contracting a type of painful inflammatory arthritis known as gout. Since fructose and glucose are both typically found in sugar-sweetened drinks, the authors say it is important to consume less of these beverages.
“Although reducing the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages or added sugar alone is unlikely to solve the obesity epidemic entirely, limiting intake is one simple change that will have a measurable impact on weight control and prevention of cardio-metabolic diseases,” Hu said, adding that he hoped the study would lead to nutritional labels revealing the total added sugar content of a drink, as well as the percentage daily value of those added sugars.
Buzz kill: Killer bees invade San Francisco for first time
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
An Africanized type of honeybees referred to as “killer bees” has been spotted in the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time, as researchers from the University of California-San Diego have reported spotting the insects near Briones Regional Park in the city of Lafayette.
According to CBS News and the San Francisco Chronicle, killer bees had only previously been observed as far north as Mariposa County in the more inland Central Valley area, but the insects may have been attracted to the Bay Area because of warming temperatures in the region.
It is unclear how many of the bees, which earned their nickname because of their tendency to swarm and become aggressive when their colony is threatened, have found their way to the San Francisco region. However, the UCSD team believes it is likely that there are multiple colonies of the honeybees, which are hybrids of the European bee and the African bee.
“The sampling is a little sparse up north,” Joshua Kohn, a professor of biology at UC San Diego, told the Chronicle. “Normally honeybees forage within about a mile of their hive, though they can go up to about five miles. There is no way we found a member of the only Africanized bee colony in that region.”
Killer bees have a bad rep
Africanized honeybees can sting en masse when they sense a threat – which they can do from up to 50 feet away from their nests, according to a University of California fact sheet. The bees will pursue targets for at least one quarter of a mile, and although they could pose a threat to humans, Kohn said that San Francisco residents should not be overly concerned.
“An Africanized honeybee out foraging on flowers is no more aggressive than your average European honeybee,” Kohn told the newspaper. “Nor is the sting of an individual any different. It’s only when a hive is disturbed that the level of aggression from Africanized bees is elevated,” he added. In these cases, the bees tend to attack in greater numbers than their relatives.
The professor said that he and his colleagues first detected the bees in samples collected in the spring of 2014. However, he said that he has no way of knowing whether or not the killer bees have made a permanent home in Lafayette, but if they do, the news isn’t all bad. Africanized honeybees as they are a more stable species and have a higher resistance to diseases linked to colony collapse disorder than European types of bees.
Earth-like exoplanets orbiting dim stars may have magnetic fields
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny
Now there’s an even greater chance of finding extraterrestrial life!
Researchers have discovered that Earth-like planets in close orbits around dim stars could have magnetic fields strong enough to help protect them from radiation and cosmic rays—meaning these worlds could potentially be more habitable than previously believed.
According to Forbes and the Daily Mail, a team of scientists led by Peter Driscoll, a geophysicist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC, found that these exoplanets most likely possess magnetic fields strong enough to protect life on the surface by deflecting charged particles in the stellar winds.
The research, published last week in the journal Astrobiology, used computer models to analyze earth-mass planets that are in close orbit around M-dwarf stars. Driscoll’s team looked at orbital interactions and heat-based simulations, and found these planets are often tidally locked, which means the same side constantly faces the host star due to their gravitational pull.
This gravitational pull also generates tidally-created heat inside the planet, and the more of this tidal heating that a planetary mantle experiences, the better job it does at dissipating its heat and keeping its core cool. This process helps create a magnetic field similar to that found around the Earth, which protects the planet’s atmosphere from being lost to space.
Magnetic fields can form, be sustained for billions of years
The computer simulations, which ranged from one stellar mass (the size of our sun) to about one-tenth of that size, proved false the long-standing notion that tidally-locked planets most likely did not have protective magnetic fields and were thus left exposed to their stars, the authors said.
Co-author Rory Barnes, an astronomer at the University of Washington, explained to Forbes that the simulations generated magnetic fields for Earth-sized exoplanets in most cases—which was a surprise to him, apparently. “I really expected the tidal heating to shut down the magnetic field,” Barnes said, but instead it found that these fields could be sustained for billions of years.
He explained that he believed the tidal heating taking place close to a planet’s surface would suppress the heat flow from the core, which in turn would prevent magnetic field generation. In reality, they found that the simulated world cooled quickly through its surface, which also made it possible for the core to cool down too, and the protective layer to form and persist.
“I was excited to see that tidal heating can actually save a planet in the sense that it allows cooling of the core. That’s the dominant way to form magnetic fields,” Barnes told the Daily Mail. Given that low-mass stars are most active during the first billion years or so of their life spans, he added, “magnetic fields can exist precisely when life needs them the most.”
The search for secret chambers within King Tut’s tomb has gained renewed momentum after an announcement made by Egypt’s Antiquities Minister yesterday, in which he asserted that he is more convinced than ever that there could be hidden doors.
Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty made the proclamation after visiting the tomb with British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, who has been studying it. The team so far has found scratchings and markings on plaster of the northern and western walls which are remarkably similar to those found on the entrance to the tomb, according to a report from the Daily Mail.
Further high-resolution imaging “revealed several very interesting features which look not at all natural,” said Reeves. “They feature like very straight lines which are 90 degrees to the ground, positioned so as to correspond with other features within the tomb.” Such features are hard to notice with the naked eye.
“This indicates that the western and northern walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb could hide two burial chambers,” Minister el-Damaty told the Egyptian state press.
Was his tomb actually his?
The popular thought is that King Tutankhamun—who surprised everyone when he died young at age 19—had a rush burial, a notion backed by the fact that most artifacts inside weren’t made specially for Tut, but were actually donated secondhand.
And, because they didn’t have enough time to prepare him a tomb, he instead was placed inside someone else’s. This would fit with the features of the tomb, according to Reeves. Tut’s tomb is unusually small for his standing, and the shape of it more closely matches the shape of tombs made for Egyptian queens—so it seems likely he was added to some queen’s tomb.
But whose tomb was it? Obviously, there is no evidence yet, but there are two popular theories. Minister el-Damaty believes that Kia—the woman often believed to be Tut’s mother—is likely to be buried within. Reeves, however, is much more inclined to believe the tomb holds the famed Queen Nefertiti.
Buried with a babe
Back in the New Kingdom of Egypt some 3400 years ago, Nefertiti was the primary wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, or the king famous for attempting to turn Egyptian religion into a sort of monotheistic worship of the sun. After Akhenaten died, a pharaoh known as Smenkhare reigned, followed by Tut.
Reeves believes that Pharaoh Smenkhare may actually be Nefertiti. “Nefertiti disappears … according to the latest inscriptions just being found,” he said. “I think that Nefertiti didn’t disappear, she simply changed her name.”
It is possible, Reeves suggested, that Tut buried Nefertiti after she died. When he died and the Egyptians were in a pinch, they simply extended her tomb and added him in. “Since Nefertiti had been buried a decade before, they remembered that tomb was there and they thought, well, perhaps we can extend it,” he said.
According to Ahram Online, the archeologists are performing radar scans of the tomb. The results are scheduled to be announced on November 4th. However, even if another undisturbed tomb isn’t found, any new discovery helps archeologists in discovering the full history and culture of ancient Egypt.
“Every Egyptologist has got a different view on the Amarna period, because we have a lot of evidence to discuss but not just quite enough to make a final decision,” said Reeves. “If we find something extra, even one small new inscription would be a great bonus, it could change everything.”
In a surprise move, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key announced plans to establish a marine preserve nearly the size of Texas in an area of the South Pacific.
Called the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, the marine preserve would sit north of the New Zealand mainland and include both an archipelago and underwater volcanoes. The sanctuary would ban both fishing and resource extraction within its borders.
“The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will be one of the world’s largest and most significant fully-protected areas, preserving important habitats for seabirds, whales and dolphins, endangered marine turtles and thousands of species of fish and other marine life,” Key said in a press release.
The preserve will be officially established after legislation is passed, expected to happen sometime next year.
If established, the preserve would include the 6.2-mile deep Kermadec trench, one of the deepest trenches in the world. The trench is known to have a rich biodiversity, including whales, sea lions, endangered turtles, and sea birds. In addition to helping conserve protect species, Key said the move would also benefit New Zealand economically.
A win all around!
“Creating protected areas will support not only our own fisheries, but those of our Pacific neighbors, adding to New Zealand’s efforts to help grow Pacific economies through the responsible management of their ocean resources,” the Prime Minister said.
“New Zealand welcomes the focus on the sustainability of the world’s oceans and marine resources – a goal which resonates strongly with our region where so many draw their food and livelihoods from the sea,” he added.
According to a BBC report, environmentalist groups widely approved of the announcement. Pew Environment Group, which had called for the reserve’s creation, noted that the sanctuary would effectively grow New Zealand’s protection from 0.5 percent to 15.5 percent of its marine area.
“It’s an extraordinary achievement for all New Zealanders and for the people of the Pacific Islands,” Pew’s campaign director Bronwen Golder told the BBC. The Reuters news agency reported that the announcement took at least one fishing organization by surprise.
George Clement, chairman of Seafood New Zealand, told Reuters that they had had “no forewarning from government” and his industry “needs time to consider the full implications.”
Human trials begin for blindness cure made from stem cells
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
UK-based surgeons have completed the first operation that will use embryonic stem cells as a potential way to cure blindness in patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration or AMD, launching human trials of the experimental treatment, reports indicate.
According to Reuters and BBC News, the procedure was performed last month on a 60-year-old woman at Moorefield’s Eye Hospital in London, and thus far, there have been no complications. The operation involved inserting a minuscule patch with specially engineered eye cells behind the retina, allowing treatment cells to replace damaged ones in the back of the eye.
The operation, which was part of the London Project to Cure Blindness, involved a patient who wished to remain anonymous. She is one of 10 scheduled to take part in the trials, and retinal surgeon Lyndon Da Cruz, who is performing the operations, said he hoped many patients would “benefit in the future from transplantation of these cells.”
Professor Peter Coffey of the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology, co-leader of the London Project, told BBC News that surgeons “won’t know until at least Christmas how good her vision is and how long that may be maintained, but we can see the cells are there under the retina where they should be and they appear to be healthy.”
Hope for people with AMD
The operation centers around cells from the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), or the layer of cells which help nourish and support photoreceptors in the central part of the retina. This area is called the macula and is responsible for much of the vision used in day-to-day activities.
Each of the patients undergoing the trials had experienced a sudden loss of vision due to defects in the eye’s blood vessels, which causes RPE cells to die. The cells used in the procedure were originally derived from a donated early embryo, and once the treated cells are implanted, each of the patients will be monitored for one year to see if the procedure is safe and effective.
“This is truly a regenerative project. In the past it’s been impossible to replace lost neural cells,” Dr. Da Cruz told BBC News. “If we can deliver the very layer of cells that is missing and give them their function back this would be of enormous benefit to people with the sight-threatening condition,” which is believed to affect one in 10 people over the age of 65 worldwide.
Chris Mason, a professor of regenerative medicine at UCL, explained to Reuters that the trials were important both as a step towards finding a cure for AMD and as a way to better understand how to therapeutically use embryonic stem cells. If successful, the trials will open the door for embryonic stem cells to be cheaply made and for easy mass-production of the treatment, Mason added.
When Apple first decided to include the new Wi-Fi assist feature in the latest version of its mobile operating system, it must have seemed like a good idea at the time: a feature that automatically switches to network data when the free wireless signal is poor.
As is so often the case with technical innovations, however, something was overlooked in the transition from concept to execution – namely, the fact that having a device that switches itself over to your 3G or 4G network without your knowledge could result in MASSIVE cell bills for those customers lacking the good fortune of unlimited data plans.
The point of the Wi-Fi assist, the CBC and New York Daily News explained, is to ensure that users do not have to stop watching a video or performing a task simply because they wandered too far away from a hotspot.
Sounds good in theory, but you could be ambushed by high overage fees if you are unaware of the frequency with which your device is jumping back and forth between Wi-Fi and your actual data plan. There is a way to find out if you’re using it – look for a grayed-out Wi-Fi icon – but unless you’re keeping tabs on it 24-7, it could sneak up on you.
Just switch it off!
Fortunately, there is an way to switch off the Wi-Fi assist feature, as Engadgetand othershave pointed out. Simply go to Settings, then Cellular, and scroll down until you see the toggle switch for Wi-Fi Assist, then tap it to do away with the feature. Alternatively, you could simply search Settings for Wi-Fi Assist to find the on-off button and deactivate the feature.
If you’re hesitant to just switch it off (and let’s face it, there are times it could really come in handy), ZD Net noted that you can track your data usage by using the Reset Statistics feature, which is located just below the Wi-Fi Assist button. This can give you a head’s up as to how much of your data plan is being consumed by the feature without your knowledge.
How much of an impact could this feature have on your usage rate? According to Gizmodo’s Chris Mills, he had used roughly one-third more data since the release of the iOS 9 update (an increase from 3GB to 4GB). While Mills said that it was “impossible” to directly attribute all that extra usage to Wi-Fi Assist, he added that he had “suspicions” that it was to blame.
NASA, Google to use most powerful quantum computer ever
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
One of the largest tech companies in the world and the agency responsible for sending American men and women into space have signed a new seven-year deal to use the most powerful quantum computers on the planet as part of their future research endeavors.
According to PC World and Popular Science reports, Google, NASA, and the Universities Space Research Association have announced that they would be using D-Wave 2X quantum computers through 2022. The 2X doubles the amount of qubits (units of quantum data somewhat similar to classical computing bits) from its predecessors to 1,000.
What that means, in layman’s terms, is that the computer’s processor is capable of evaluating a total of 21,000 possible solutions at the same time while it “converges on optimal or near optimal solutions, more possibilities than there are particles in the observable universe,” D-Wave said.
It requires an operating temperature of less than 15 millikelvin—180 times colder than interstellar space and close to absolute zero. The deal will also provide Google (and NASA as well, we assume) with all updated versions of the computer produced over that span.
Agreement could help legitimize quantum computing
Unlike traditional transistors, which exist in one of two binary states (either on or off), quantum computers use qubits that can hold multiple states at once, allowing them to be both on and off at the same time, PC World said. This enables computers such as the 2X to (theoretically, at least) to perform multiple calculations simultaneously, increasing their processing power.
However, the website added that quantum computing has had its skeptics, and Popular Science noted that research co-authored by physicist Mattias Troyer found that the technology could not outperform traditional computers on key benchmark tests. D-Wave disputed the study’s claims, but since its publication, there has been little additional effort to test the technology.
Having the likes of NASA and Google on board will add an air of legitimacy to the company’s efforts. The Mountain View, California-based tech firm and the US space agency have multiple potential uses for the technology, including speech recognition, robotics-based space missions, air-traffic control, and even online searches, D-Wave officials told Popular Science.
In a statement, Eugene Tu, director of the Ames Research Center, said, “Through research at NASA Ames, we hope to demonstrate that quantum computing and quantum algorithms may someday dramatically improve our ability to solve difficult optimization problems for missions in aeronautics, Earth and space sciences, and space exploration.”
Well, they discovered another highly venomous snake in Australia
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny
Already home to the highest concentration of venomous snakes in the world, Australia can now add yet another species of deadly, slithering reptile to its roster thanks to the recent discovery of the Kimberley death adder by a team of local and UK-based herpetologists.
According to The Telegraph and the Huffington Post, the Kimberley death adder (Acanthophis cryptamydros) was named for the remote region of Western Australia in which it was originally discovered. It is an orange-and-brown snake that is about 20 inches long, has a head shaped like a diamond, and is a “sit-and-wait” predator that stays camouflaged before striking.
The discovery, which was reported in the journal Zootaxa, adds to a growing list of poisonous creatures that call Australia home. In fact, according to published reports, the continent is home to 20 of the 25 deadliest snakes on Earth, including every single member of the top ten.
Death adder is among the 10 deadliest snakes on Earth
Study author Paul Doughty from the Western Australian Museum told The Guardian that it was “a surprise to see that the Kimberley has its own death adder,” adding that the newly indentified relative of desert death adders was one of “the top 10 venomous snakes in the world.”
“These snakes are super-camouflaged – its idea is to look like a rock or a bunch of leaves,” he added. “Unlike a brown snake they aren’t designed for speed at all, they are quite slow. They use their tail like a lure, they will dangle it down while it’s hidden until a lizard or something comes close and then it will strike.”
Doughty and his colleagues compared genetic material from the species to other types of snakes, including desert death adders, as well as the physical characteristics of the reptiles. They used an estimated 20 exampled of the species that had previously been collected, as well as 15 specimens of the creature, ABC News Australia reported earlier this month.
The Kimberley death adder is said to be extremely rare, with Doughty telling ABC News that he had only ever seen one in the wild, despite spending many years studying the reptiles in northern Australia. Its low numbers, coupled with the fact that it lives in relatively isolated regions of the commonwealth, mean that it is not a significant threat to humans, UPI said.
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Feature Image: The Kimberley death adder (Acanthophis cryptamydros) lying in wait. (Credit: Ryan Ellis, Western Australian Museum)
Living with fibromyalgia is unimaginably difficult due to the interminable aching and pain that inhibit everyday activities. Many people try different ways to control their symptoms without resorting to the overuse of drugs. Although there are no scientific studies that prove diet eliminations can cure symptoms of fibromyalgia pain, many fibromyalgia sufferers do note signs of improvement after cutting certain foods, giving others hope that they too can improve their quality of life through diet elimination challenges.
What is a diet elimination challenge?
A diet elimination challenges requires the individual to cut certain foods from their normal intake for a week or two. Then, the individual starts to reintegrate those foods, one-by-one, into their diet. This happens over a period of three weeks. During this time, it is important to keep a food journal handy to record any noticeable changes in your body.
Who tries diet elimination challenges?
Diet elimination challenges are used by all types of people who suffer from food-related allergies, such as chronic inflammation, intestinal disorders, headaches, and many other ailments. But the same strategy has been helpful to many fibromyalgia sufferers, and it’s an exciting potential new weapon in the fight against the painful onslaught from this disease.
What foods should I try cutting from my diet?
Here is a list of foods in the “level one” category. These are known common food allergy triggers.
Sugar
Dairy
Wheat
Alcohol
Caffeine, including coffee, chocolate, tea, and soft drinks
Some of these foods trigger inflammation, while others trigger very intense headaches. Reducing inflammation in the body may be helpful in managing the pain, and anything to end headaches is a welcome relief. Always consult your doctor before making drastic changes to your diet, lifestyle and treatment.
The Food Journal
Remember, always keep a journal to write down any changes in mood, pain, and general well-being while reintegrating foods back into your daily diet. This is important so you can look back and compare notes for all of the days in your diet elimination challenge and come to a conclusion on which foods you should continue to cut.
A Few Tips
Make sure to read all food labels while undergoing the diet elimination challenge. You might be surprised to see one of the foods you’re trying to cut out appears in your favorite cereal or ice cream! This is a common way for elimination challenges to have unwanted results.
Clean out your fridge and pantry prior to starting your challenge. This will help with tempting treats that will ruin the results of your healthy experiment. You could even donate unwanted items to your local food bank!
Find support from your loved ones by asking them to participate in the diet elimination challenge with you. Who knows? You might bond over how much you miss chocolate! But the sure thing is your family will come to understand your struggles in a new way, which will help bring you together.
Remember that there is no proven cure for fibromyalgia, but luckily there are so many ways you can try to reduce your symptoms. As the saying goes: we are what we eat! Try out a diet elimination challenge and you might just be surprised at the results!
Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder that is characterized by pain, tender points, insomnia, headaches, and more. There are lots of treatment options that can help you with the symptoms of fibromyalgia, including yoga.
One fairly new study says that women who have fibromyalgia can reduce their symptoms of fibromyalgia and improve their level of functioning and quality of life by practicing the mind-body techniques that characterize yoga.
This study took place in Oregon, and took fifty-three women age 21 and older. The women were chosen to participate in a program called “Yoga of Awareness.” These women all showed a marked improvement in the symptoms of fibromyalgia.
In order to take part in this study, the women had to have received a diagnosis of fibromyalgia according to the criteria set forth by the American College of Rheumatology for at least one year. Additionally, they were required to have been on a regimen of prescription or even over the counter pain medications for at least three full months.
Due to the fact that fibromyalgia is much more prevalent in women than in men, the study only involved women. Twenty-five of these women participated in the yoga awareness program and 28 of the women only received standard care. The women in the yoga awareness program participated in an eight week program of yoga instruction and yoga exercise.
20 minutes: presentations on how to use yoga principles to cope
25 minutes: group discussion
At the conclusion of the study, both of the groups were tested for symptoms of fibromyalgia as well as function deficits, and for an overall improvement of their pain. Additionally, the women all were required to undergo physical tests in order to identify any tender points. They were also asked about their personal coping strategies for their pain so that researchers could include that in their findings.
Can Yoga Help Fibromyalgia Pain?
Women who were taking part in the yoga program showed significant improvement on the standardized scale that measures fibromyalgia symptoms such as pain levels, mood, fatigue, and other symptoms related to this disorder.
Researchers said that the results of this study suggest that using yoga to intervene brought about a very beneficial shift in the way that fibromyalgia patients deal with their symptoms, including a greater use in their pain-coping strategies- such as participating in activities despite the pain, accepting their condition, using religion to cope with their condition, and finding ways to relax despite the symptoms they’re experiencing.
Additionally, women who were in the intervention group also were reporting that they were feeling more included/less isolated and after the study were less confrontational. They were also much more likely to see things in a positive light (or at least not see them in a negative light) and were less likely to “catastrophize” situations.
Yoga is Helpful for Fibromyalgia
The traditional treatment for fibromyalgia includes medications along with exercise as well as some instructions on how the individual can best deal with the pain and other symptoms of fibromyalgia.
The researchers in this study say that though yoga has been practiced for many years, it is only recently that the effects of yoga on individuals dealing with persistent pain is being exposed. This study is contrasted with the previous multi-modal interventions and integrates a very wide spectrum of techniques based on yoga such as mindful meditation, postures, breathing, applying yoga principles to help cope with symptoms, and finally- group discussions/support groups.
This study offers some promising support for the benefits of yoga for those individuals suffering from fibromyalgia. A training course for the yoga teachers who wish to offer yoga for fibromyalgia has been planned. The course will help these teachers to build their skills for working with chronic pain sufferers.
Did you know that fibromyalgia is an extremely debilitation disorder that currently affects more than 11 million people in the United States alone and has an annual direct care cost of over $20 billion.
Fibromyalgia sufferers are looking for alternative treatments because the truth is that the drug, and other medical therapies, are typically only around thirty percent effective in relieving the pain and other symptoms of fibromyalgia.
Though the results are promising, more research is necessary to determine if there are any biological changes occurring during a yoga session.
Tips for Using Yoga for Fibromyalgia
If you do decide that you want to try yoga as part of your personal fibromyalgia treatment program, following are some tips that can help you get the most out of it.
First of all, you want to make sure you don’t overdo it. If you’ve been suffering from fibromyalgia for any length of time, you know that the symptoms tend to fluctuate. You may feel great one day and feel horrible the next. It is vital that you take it easy even on those good days so that you can avoid triggering a flare-up of your symptoms.
While you don’t want to overdo it, you do want to consider working through your pain. When you’re afraid of causing damage, this may put a stop to your yoga program. While you may think you’re damaging your tissues and muscles, the truth is that your nerves are likely sending out pain signals incorrectly- so it is very important that you understand when to work through it and when enough is enough.
Make sure that you track your progress- keep a written journal or an online one. If you notice that you’re having an increase or even a decrease in pain on specific days, try to figure out if you see any links. Try some different poses in order to try to reduce your pain or other fibromyalgia symptoms.
Yoga is a very simple and very safe way that you can reap great benefits that can help you relieve the symptoms of your fibromyalgia. Make sure that you start out slow and stick to your routine.
There are so many different diseases that have similar symptoms that it’s sometimes hard to determine exactly what you have. In the case of fibromyalgia, there are a variety of similar conditions that cause you to become sluggish and feel constant pain. In this article, we’re going to take a look at lupus, which is one of the many diseases that often get mixed up with fibromyalgia. What is lupus, and what symptoms overlap? Let’s take a look.
What is Lupus?
Imagine that everything in your body was swollen and inflamed. Everything hurts, and your body started to have odd reactions to everything that happens within your body. Your heart may start beating irregularly or may beat a lot more quickly than it would otherwise. You end up having a weak immune system and you’re more likely to fight off illness. Headaches are a regular part of your daily life, and you feel exhausted a lot of the time.
These are very common signs and the results of an autoimmune disease known as lupus. Lupus, in short, is where your immune system starts to attack pretty much everything in your body, causing it to swell and, in turn, causing a variety of different health problems that you have to cope with.
Lupus is not very common, with less than 1 million known cases across the country. There are three main types of lupus – one is caused by the use of drugs, one affects only the skin and face (it results in a severe rash), and the last, and most common, is known as systemic lupus erythematosus.
This form of lupus is the one that goes through your body, screwing everything up. At this point, the causes of lupus are thought to be genetic and environmental, and it is especially common if you have been exposed to particular types of toxins in your body. The symptoms are all over the place, and two people with lupus are not usually going to have the same symptoms because of how many different things it can do to the body.
The scary part about lupus is that it can affect a lot of your internal organs. One of the most commonly attacked organs is the liver, which is what causes jaundice (yellowing of the skin) that you see in many people who are suffering from lupus.
In the worst cases, lupus sufferers may need to have parts of certain organs removed or they may even need to get transplants because of how much damage can be done as a result of the disease. This is rare, and only really happens if the lupus is left untreated.
Other issues that can come up with lupus are exhaustion, stress, pain, and issues where your organs are not acting as they should. That being said, lupus often gets misdiagnosed as other types of diseases before a doctor finally makes a clear diagnosis.
Where Do Lupus and Fibromyalgia Intersect?
Before we get into this, it’s important to realize that those with fibromyalgia don’t end up getting lupus unless it is a medication based one; even those cases are quite rare. If they happen together, it’s because a lupus sufferer ended up developing fibromyalgia over time. It’s estimated that about 1/3 of all lupus sufferers end up having fibromyalgia as well, so it’s an important thing for you to keep in mind if you are already diagnosed with lupus. Talk to your doctor if you’re concerned about possibly developing fibromyalgia.
Many people with lupus accidentally get misdiagnosed with fibromyalgia first, because of the major symptoms of fatigue, depression, and periods of remission and flare-ups that seem to alternate. But that’s where the similarities between the two diseases seem to end.
As mentioned above, lupus is an autoimmune disorder, whereas fibromyalgia is not. Fibromyalgia is not going to damage your organs and tissues that are inside your body, whereas lupus is going to do a lot of that. Blood tests and other types of tests will help your doctor determine whether you have one, the other, or even both of the disorders at the same time.
How Does Treatment Work?
Because the symptoms are so similar, and because the doctor is ultimately trying to achieve the same goal, a lot of the treatments for lupus and fibromyalgia are going to intersect with one another. Many times, you are going to be told to go to physical therapy on a regular basis, or you’re going to be encouraged to get more exercise than you would.
Yoga and aerobics are two types of exercise that are incredibly helpful for those who are suffering from the pain of either (or both) disorders, because they’re low impact, but they help to increase your motion and your flexibility at the same time.
You may also approach natural remedies for both lupus and fibromyalgia. You may want to take supplements, which means that you’re going to increase the nutrients in your body that will help with the healing process. You may also consider acupuncture, chiropractics, and other forms of therapy that are more about the holistic end of the healing process. In other cases, you may consider prescription medication and techniques that will help to reduce the pain and stress that you are feeling from the fibromyalgia and the lupus symptoms that you’re dealing with.
So, as you can see, there are lots of different ways that lupus and fibromyalgia intersect, thus making it hard to determine the difference between the two.
If you are working with a professional (which you should be), they will be able to give you the proper tests that will result in a correct diagnosis. It’s important to figure out which disorder(s) that you actually have, because then you can be sure to get the treatment that you need in order to live your life. Contact your specialist today if you have any questions or concerns about either lupus or fibromyalgia.
Gene test determines if breast cancer patients can avoid chemo
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills
Chemotherapy isn’t necessary in every case of cancer, but it’s often hard to decide when a patient should undergo the treatment. Frequently, the notion is better safe than sorry, but in many cases this can lead to unnecessary time and money spent, emotional and physical strain, and can actually cause a new cancer to grow (albeit rarely).
However, thanks to a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, there is now strong evidence that a gene test can determine which breast cancer patients can safely avoid chemo, according to a press release.
The gene test examines 21 genes taken from a sample of a tumor. Using this information, the test is able to determine how active the genes are—meaning how hard they work to spread the cancer—by assigning an activity level between 0 and 100. A lower number indicates that chemo may be less necessary, as it signifies that the cancer is less likely to spread only if it’s treated with hormone pills like tamoxifen.
Previous studies also indicated that chemotherapy would not work as well in those with low scores, and that it does not add any additional survival benefits to hormone therapy. However, these studies involved fewer patients than the current study, which enrolled 10,253 women with a certain kind of breast cancer known as hormone-receptor positive, HER2 negative cancer. So it wasn’t certain whether the results would be replicated.
In the 10,000 women, the tumors had not yet spread to the lymph nodes, but had features that generally meant they should be given chemotherapy paired with endocrine therapy pills (like tamoxifen). Low scores mean good news
After the women were given the gene test, those with scores of 10 or lower—about 15.9% of the women—received the standard hormone pill therapy, but did not undergo chemo. Another 68% fell into the mid-range scores of 11-25, and were randomly assigned either hormone pills alone or pills with chemotherapy.
These women were monitored closely for five years. The mid-range group received minimal benefits as compared to the normal statistics, but the low-range group showed significant improvements. They had a less than 2% risk of the cancer spreading to local sites. Further, their five-year survival rate was 98.7%—almost 5% higher than the average survival rate for this kind of cancer (93.8%).
“This should provide a lot of reassurance to women and their physicians,” said co-author Kathy Albain, MD, FACP, FASCO of Loyola University Medical Center and Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. “In women whose breast cancer scored low on the multigene test, there was outstanding survival with endocrine therapy alone. The test provides us with greater certainty of who can safely avoid chemotherapy.”
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Feature Image: Thinkstock
Potential emergency care problems of transgender people highlighted in case study
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
A prominent journal has published a new case study of one transgender patient’s horrific emergency room experience in the hopes that it will highlight some of the issues facing the community and help prevent these problems for other people who do not identify as their birth sex.
The study, which appears online in the Journal of Emergency Nursing, highlights the case of a transgender patient identified by the pseudonym of Brandon James, a masculine transgender man who transitioned with hormone replacement therapy five years before the ER visit in question.
James was asked to present his driver’s license, which identified him as a female, and had past medical records that also included female gender markers, study authors Ethan Collin Cicero, a registered nurse, and Dr. Beth Perry Black, both from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, explained.
During the check-in process, James said that staff gathered to discuss his gender aloud, even recruiting co-workers to chime in on the issue. James said he felt like “a spectacle” or “a freak show at the circus,” and that he felt the whole thing “was definitely to draw attention to the fact that my outward appearance didn’t match (my identification).”
How nurses can prevent this from happening
After a wait that lasted several hours, a nurse listened to James’ friend recount the experiences of the check in, apologized for the events that transpired, and validated their experience, officials at the Emergency Nurses Association said in a statement. ENA president Matthew F. Powers said that the story had “new implications for emergency nursing practice.”
“All patients must be treated with dignity and respect. We want nurses and their ED colleagues to understand how to give these patients the care and respect they deserve,” he said, adding that his agency “fully supports the best practices outlined in this article and supports further research around transgender emergency care.”
The ENA advised emergency room personnel to begin by asking the patient how they would like to be addressed, and then to use the pronoun that matches the gender that they currently identify with. Also, nurses should only ask questions that are clinically relevant, pertaining exclusively to the injury or illness for which the patient is currently seeking treatment.
The organization also noted that when the patient is taken to an area of the ER where they will be asked to share a space with another patient, the gender with which the patient identifies needs to be kept in mind. Finally, they emphasized that nurses need to lead by example, since they tend to be at the forefront of care and should be ready to deal with any sensitive situations that arise.
Bigger, better plants ahead with enhanced soil microbiomes
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
You don’t necessarily need to genetically modify plants in order to have them grow larger and produce better yields. Engineering the plant soil microbiome can also have a significant effect on the ability of crops to grow, according to a new Trends in Microbiology study.
In the study, biologists Ulrich Mueller from the University of Texas at Austin and Joel Sachs of the University of California, Riverside, found that breeding better soil microbes can improve the growth and nutritional value of a plant when compared to a second, genetically identical one.
The artificially-selected microbiomes can then be passed on from parents to offspring, the study authors explained. The discovery came after Mueller and Sachs noticed that several Arabidopsis plants in their lab were larger than others, despite having no genetic differences, said Gizmodo.
The duo determined that growth differences were due to differences in the microbes that lived in the soil around the plants’ roots. These microbes help plants convert nutrients into easier-to-use forms, and by harvesting them from the soil surrounding well-growing plants and transferring them, they could encourage plant growth in sterile dirt.
A cheaper, easier way to curb plant and animal diseases
This process, known as artificial selection, has long been used by farmers to breed healthier and larger livestock, Gizmodo said. Mueller and Sachs repeated the process multiple times, choosing the best from each generation of soil microbes based on which plants grew the largest. Over time genetically identical plants were able to grow better due to enhanced soil microbiomes.
“My hope,” Mueller said in a statement, “is that others will become interested in optimizing methods in other systems. For agricultural applications, I would start with artificial selection of root microbiomes in a greenhouse environment, using cash crops such as lettuce, cucumber, or tomatoes, learn from these greenhouse experiments, then gauge whether any of these principles can be applied to outdoor agriculture and horticulture.”
“Selecting artificial microbiomes may be a cheaper way to help curb plant and animal diseases rather than pesticides and antibiotics or creating genetically modified organisms,” he added. The methods required are extremely simple and could potentially done by anyone to engineer microbiomes specific to the problems of that specific place.
Mutant lungs keep some smokers healthy, researchers find
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Cigarettes are one of the leading causes of death, and smoking increases the risk of developing lung cancer by 25 times, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But why do the lungs of some tobacco users seem to be resistant to such ill effects?
The answer, British scientists report in research funded by the UK’s Medical Research Council, is that those men and women have favorable genetic mutations in their DNA that enhance their lung function and serve to mask the impact of the habit, according to BBC News reports.
Study authors Professor Ian Hall of the University of Nottingham, Professor Martin Tobin of the University of Leicester, and their colleagues, who have published their findings in the latest issue of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, believe that the research could lead to the development of a new treatment for conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The research also identified the genetic differences which affect whether a person is more likely to get addicted to cigarettes, and could also result in improved smoking cessation methods, The Guardian noted.
Genetic variants reveal how lungs respond to damage
Using data from the UK Biobank project, the research team selected 50,000 participants based on their lung health and smoking habits, then used a new genetic analysis technique to compare that information with roughly 800,000 common and rare variants throughout the human genome.
They found six independent genetic variants associated with lung health and COPD, as well as a group of variants linked with the condition in non-smokers. One of these signals, the researchers said, is the first example of structural variation in the human genome found to impact lung health while another five were found to be associated with heavy smoking, they added.
Professor Tobin told BBC News that the newly indentified genes appeared to affect the way that lungs grow and respond to damage. However, he added that there “doesn’t appear to be any kind of magic bullet that would give anyone guaranteed protection against tobacco smoke,” and those peoples’ lungs would still be “unhealthier than they would be had they been a non-smoker.”
Ian Jarrold, head of research at the British Lung Foundation, called the findings “a significant step forward in helping us achieve a clearer picture about… lung health. Understanding genetic predisposition is essential in not only helping us develop new treatments for people with lung disease but also in teaching otherwise healthy people how to better take care of their lungs.”
‘Mini-Hubble’ is India’s first astronomy satellite in space
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Let’s dance, Hubble. Looking to become a major player in the $300 billion global space industry, India launched its first ever astronomical satellite–a research observatory that has been called a miniature version of the Hubble telescope–into orbit on Monday.
The observatory is called ASTROSAT, and according to Reuters, it will enable scientists in that country to get a better look at distant stars and conduct in-depth analyses of far-off systems. The observatory will be able to detect objects in multiple wavelengths (including X-rays), but it lacks the precision of the Hubble, officials told the international news agency.
“This will bring little commercial advantage but will show India’s new capability in space research,” said Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, a group which made three of ASTROSAT’s five instruments. The probe is scheduled to have a five-year mission and will transmit data to a control center located in Bangalore, Reuters noted.
Harsh Vardhan, India’s minister for earth sciences, called the launch “important for astronomical sciences” in a statement. It lifted off at 10 am local time, according to Time, and entered its low-earth, 650 km orbit about 20 minutes later, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.
Observatory could boost India’s space program
India, whose landmark mission to Mars last year succeeded on its first attempt, has not had such a great overall success rate on their proposed missions. While the ISRO is just the fifth space program to place an observatory in orbit, it was only able to complete about half of the 60 missions it had planned between 2007 and 2012.
Last December, the country was able to successfully test a more powerful new rocket known as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III. While the rocket will be able to carry heavier payloads into space, reports indicate that it is not yet fully functional.
ASTROSAT was one of seven probes carried into space by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-XL), said Time. Four of them were from the US, one was from Canada, and the remaining one was from Indonesia. The PSLV-XL lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, approximately 55 miles from the city of Chennai, according to The Guardian.
Unfriending coworkers on Facebook is now workplace bullying in Australia
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
We’ve all had that annoying co-worker whose friend request we’ve regretted accepting, but you might want to think twice before unfriending said individual in Australia, as officials there ruled recently that kicking someone to the social media curb may be considered bullying.
According to CNETand Engadget, the Australian Fair Work Commission had been hearing the case of Rachael Roberts, an employee of a real estate agency in Tasmania who accused coworker Lisa Bird and Lisa’s husband James (the agency owner) of trying to belittle and humiliate her.
Roberts presented a total of nearly 20 incidents from her three year stint with the company, such as being forbidden from changing the office air conditioning temperature settings. She also noted that Bird unfriended her on Facebook, an act which the commission said constituted evidence of the alleged bullying (along with other instances of name-calling and harassment).
Unfriending Roberts, the FWC declared, helped demonstrate the “lack of emotional maturity” of Bird and her husband when it came to their interactions with Roberts. Ultimately, the victim was given an order to stop the bullying, which she said has caused anxiety, depression, and even sleep disorders – granted at least in part because she was unfriended on Facebook.
Act of unfriending ‘indicative of unreasonable behavior’
As an Australian news outlet noted, however, there were multiple other alleged incidents of workplace harassment that took place, including one in which Bird referred to Roberts as a “naughty little schoolgirl running to the teacher” after she called Bird’s husband to find out why there weren’t any of her listed properties displayed in the front window of the agency.
Following one meeting that left her in a “very distressed state,” Roberts thought to check social media to find out if Bird commented about the incident, only to discover that Bird had already unfriended her. That action, FWC deputy president Nicole Wells ruled, demonstrated “a lack of emotional maturity and is indicative of unreasonable behavior” in the workplace.
While Engadget said it is “doubtful that you’ll see cases that lean primarily on unfriending as evidence,” they added that in light of this verdict, “the act may prove more important in legal disputes down the road” as it is often “a strong sign that one person has fallen out of favor with another.” If co-workers seem more reluctant to touch base through social media in the future, it may be because they’re worried that doing so could affect them down the line.
Archaeologists haul more treasure from famous Antikythera shipwreck
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills
It’s apparently a good time to be a classicist, because besides the rare tomb recently found in Pompeii and the underwater fortified city found off of a Greek beach, marine archaeologists have just recovered more than 50 items off of the famous Greek Antikythera shipwreck.
This isn’t the first time this shipwreck has made headlines—it was first discovered in 1900, and is thought to be the largest ancient shipwreck ever discovered. So large, in fact, that excavations are still ongoing, and continue to bring up objects of immense rarity.
As announced by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, most recently archaeologists have recovered a bronze armrest, which may have been part of a throne; the remains of a bone flute; fine glassware; luxury ceramics, whose contents will undergo DNA analysis to determine what was inside; a glass pawn from an ancient board game; and several components of the ship itself, including remains of the hull.
“This shipwreck is far from exhausted,” reports project co-Director Dr. Brendan Foley, a marine archaeologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). “Every single dive on it delivers fabulous finds, and reveals how the ‘1 percent’ lived in the time of Caesar.”
The best is yet to come with this shipwreck
The shipwreck is thought to have occurred around 65 BCE, 20 years before Caesar would come to a pointy end. Previous finds from Antikythera include 36 marble statues depicting mythical heroes and gods, various bronze sculptures, the skeletal remains of the crew and passengers, and—most famously—the Antikythera mechanism.
The mechanism is considered the world’s oldest computer, dating back to around 205 BCE. (Take that, relatives who claim to be too old to use an iPhone!) One (unconfirmed) belief is that the mechanism was created by Archimedes, and was carried off to Rome after the general Marcellus conquered Syracuse. What happened after is even more unknown, until it ended up onboard a ship that sank off of the island of Antikythera some 150 years later.
The current excavation of the ship is expected to continue for several more years. Already, the team has a better understanding of the wreck than anyone else before, thanks to improved technology and cooperative weather. While at the wreck, the team completed a metal detection survey, and discovered metal objects spread out over an area of about 120 by 150 feet—meaning much more is yet to come.
It’s one of those basic tenets of biology even high schoolers learn about: Viruses, while widespread and deadly, are not alive, which is why we have such a hard time getting rid of them.
Unfortunately, it now appears that another basic tenet has bit the dust, because with the addition of a new study published in Scientific Advances, the evidence seems to be pointing to viruses actually being alive.
Let’s review: For a long while, viruses have generally been seen as non-living organisms. It has been argued that they are merely pieces of DNA and RNA shed by living cells—a point strengthened by the fact that viruses must invade a living cell and hijack the cell’s machinery in order to reproduce.
There’s some new theories in town
“Many organisms require other organisms to live, including bacteria that live inside cells, and fungi that engage in obligate parasitic relationships — they rely on their hosts to complete their lifecycle,” said co-author Arshan Nasir, a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “And this is what viruses do.”
Beyond how they reproduce, it was hard to tell whether viruses are the detritus of living cells, or whether they derived through a different means. Viruses are pretty difficult to classify as compared to other organisms. One of the biggest problems in regard to viruses is the sheer number of them, as it is estimated that over 1,000,000 virus species exist, although we have only managed to identify and sequence about 4,900. And because viruses tend to mutate very quickly, their genetic material is hard to track, especially in terms of deep evolutionary signals.
Going back to the basics
The researchers therefore took a different view of viral history. Instead of focusing on the genetic sequences contained within viruses, they chose to focus on their shapes—specifically, the way their proteins fold into 3D structures.
Protein folds don’t tend to change anywhere near as often as genetic information does, making folds a better marker of ancient events. So, by comparing proteins fold structures across various branches of the tree of life, the researchers believed it would be easier to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the folds and thus the history of viruses.
The researchers analyzed all of the known protein folds in 5,080 organisms that represented every branch of the tree of life—including 3,460 viruses. After analyzing the folds, they determined that 442 protein folds are shared between viruses and cells, while 66 are unique to viruses alone.
“This tells you that you can build a tree of life, because you’ve found a multitude of features in viruses that have all the properties that cells have,” Caetano-Anollés said. “Viruses also have unique components besides the components that are shared with cells.”
Moreover, the team discovered genetic sequences in viruses that are unlike anything seen in cells, contradicting the idea that viruses derived their genetic information purely from cells.
With this data, the researchers used computational methods to build trees of life with viruses included. The end result suggests “that viruses originated from multiple ancient cells … and co-existed with the ancestors of modern cells,” the researchers wrote.
It also appears that the proteins coats that protect viruses when they move outside of cells emerged not long after modern cellular life did, as the protein coats (known as capsids) contain many of the unique protein folds.
“This is no more,” said co-author Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, a University of Illinois crop sciences and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology professor. “Viruses now merit a place in the tree of life. Obviously, there is much more to viruses than we once thought.”
Yale scientists create a ‘healthier’ sunscreen that doesn’t penetrate skin
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Developing nanoparticles capable of adhering to skin has led a team of scientists from Yale University to come up with a new type of sunscreen, and it’s one that they claim is safer, because it lacks chemicals that can penetrate the dermis and cause potential health issues.
The authors, who published their findings in Monday’s edition of the journal Nature Materials, explained that while most commercial sunblocks do a good job of providing protection from the sun’s rays, they can go beneath the surface and enter the blood stream. If and when they do, they could potentially even help cause the very skin cancers they intent to prevent.
Dr. Mark Saltzman, the Goizueta Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Yale, and his colleagues have developed an alternative that is made from bioadhesive nanoparticles. Their sunscreen remains on the surface of the skin and does not enter the bloodstream, as the particles used to make it are large enough to prevent entry through the surface of the epidermis.
Furthermore, their nanoparticles are large enough to prevent entry into the relatively more open hair follicles on the skin, they added. Using mouse models, they tested their product versus more traditional sunscreens, and found that the two worked equally well at preventing sunburn.
Less risk of skin cancer, sex hormone problems
“The idea for creating an improved sunblock came pretty quickly after we had discovered that we could make nanoparticles that were strongly adhesive to skin,” Dr. Saltzman told redOrbit via email. “In thinking about applications of skin-adhesive particles that would have a big worldwide impact, we arrived at sunblock.”
Why sunblock? It’s because when commercial sunscreens absorb UV light, a chemical change takes place that results in the creation of oxygen-carrying molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). If the ingredients of a sunscreen is able to penetrate the skin, this process could cause cellular damage and potentially cause a person to develop skin cancer.
Co-author Michael Girardi, a professor of dermatology at Yale Medical School who specializes in skin cancer development and progression, said that little research has been done involving the ingredients of sunscreen and the generation of ROS, but that it was an area of concern. However, studies have shown traces of sunblock chemicals in the blood, urine, and breast milk of users–chemicals linked to disruptions of the endocrine system and the blocking of sex hormones.
While there are safety concerns with current sunblocks, Dr. Saltzman told redOrbit that “the advantages of sunblock far outweigh the disadvantages of using even current formulations of sunblock, including the chemical sun blocking agents. Nonetheless, we have tried to increase the benefit to risk ratio through reformulation by taking advantages of the capacity of BNPs to prevent penetration of organic sunblock chemicals, and increase their substantivity.”
So when might this new-and-improved sunblock be available? He said that his team is “working on next steps, including testing in human volunteers” and that they were hopeful that it could be made available to the general public in the next few years.
BREAKING: NASA confirms evidence of liquid water on Mars
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
The speculation is over: NASA’s big discovery isn’t the discovery of alien life on Mars or a promotional tie-in with the upcoming Matt Damon movie The Martian. Rather, scientists at the US space agency have found evidence that liquid water is present on the Red Planet.
The discovery, detailed in a paper published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, was first reported by Bloomberg and The Telegraph and centers around the detection of hydrated salts that are caused by briny water. The findings explain unusual, long streaks that sometimes show up on the planet’s terrain – features that were initially detected by NASA back in 2010.
“Our findings strongly support the hypothesis that recurring slope lineae form as a result of contemporary water activity on Mars,” lead author Lujendra Ojha from Georgia Tech and his colleagues wrote. “The presence of liquid water on Mars today has astrobiological, geologic and hydrologic implications and may affect future human exploration.”
Chemical evidence of water found in hydrated salts
While the newly-published research all but confirms the existence of liquid water on Mars, they authors didn’t stumble across large flowing rivers or streams. Rather, the “recurring slope lineae” to which they refer are dark features of precipitated salt that can be up to five meters wide and as much as 100 meters long, Bloomberg and Wired explained.
Ojha and his fellow scientists had hypothesized that these features were produced by flowing H2O, but until recently, they lacked solid mineralogical evidence to support that notion. Every Martial summer, they monitored these slope lineae as they grew wider week-by-week, only to fade when winter came. The lineae formed exactly where and when the conditions would have been right for liquid water to exist, and salt on the surface kept it from boiling or freezing.
The authors are quick to emphasize that they have not actually observed water flowing on the Red Planet. Rather, they collected data from the CRISM instrument on the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter, which only observed the terrain every afternoon when conditions are at their hottest and driest. Any actual liquid water would have evaporated before the MRO could spot it.
As Ojha explained to Wired, though, the substance flowing on Mars “is hydrating the salt, and we’re seeing that hydration in the spectral signature.” An in-depth analysis of pixels from the CRISM instrument’s data revealed that the crystal structures of those salts (including magnesium perchlorate, magnesium chlorate, and sodium perchlorate) contained water molecules, which the website said was “pretty strong evidence that they were deposited by flowing water.”
‘Strongest evidence yet’ of liquid water on modern-day Mars
In a statement, NASA officials called the findings “the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars,” and John Grunsfeld, associate administrator at the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said that the research provides NASA with “convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected… it appears to confirm that water – albeit briny – is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”
“We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case, the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks,” added Ojha, who first noticed the features while studying as an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona five years ago.
Using both the MRO’s CRISM and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instruments, the scientists found signatures of hydrated salts at several RSL locations, but only at times when the dark features were relatively wide. No evidence of hydrated salt could be found when the RSL were less extensive, they added. These same hydrated salts can be found naturally produced in the deserts of Earth, and some are usable as rocket propellant, NASA said..
While these salts, called perchlorates have previously been seen on Mars, those featured in the new study are the first to be identified from orbit instead of by landers such as the Phoenix and Curiosity vehicles. Also, these perchlorates are in hydrated form, and can be found in different areas than those previously studied on the surface. The discovery, Ojha noted, “unambiguously supports our liquid water-formation hypotheses for RSL.”
UPDATE: NASA answers public’s questions on Reddit AMA
On if there could be Martian life in the water since it’s only at certain times during the year:
It’s possible. We know of forms of life that hibernate during dry seasons on Earth. The water that we’re seeing within the RSL (the seasonal dark streaks that we’re seeing on slopes on Mars) is salty. Salty water could be harmful to life.
Is an ad-free, subscription-based YouTube coming next month?
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
After a decade as a free service, YouTube is set to unveil a subscription based service that will give users ad-free access to video content and its music streaming service in a $10, two-for-one bundle set to launch by the end of next month.
According to Engadget and Re/code, the Google-owned media provider is sending an email to content providers telling them that they need to agree to new terms by October 22 or risk having their content be “no longer be available for public display or monetization” in the US.
In an email sent to content providers, YouTube said that it wanted “to ensure that fans who choose to pay for an ads-free experience can watch all the same videos that are available on the ads-supported experience.”
“If you haven’t signed by that date, your videos will no longer be available for public display or monetization in the United States. That outcome would be a loss for YouTube, a loss for the thriving presence you’ve built on the platform, and above all, a loss for your fans,” they wrote. “We believe these new terms will greatly strengthen our partnership for the future.”
Surprised by decision to bundle services
The October 22 deadline to agree to the new terms does not necessarily indicate that the ad-free subscription service will launch shortly thereafter, Engadget noted. Re/code added that YouTube has “never publicly committed to a timeline,” but previously told content providers it was hoping for a mid-summer launch. The launch could potentially slip to 2016.
YouTube, which initially hinted at a subscription service late last year, planned to charge $10 a month for just its music service, which soft-launched as YouTube Music Key in the fall of 2014, the media outlets indicate. The video subscription service was to be a separate offering, but plans have apparently changed since then, based on reports surfacing over the weekend.
Re/code noted that it was not certain how YouTube planned to parlay a profit out of the bundled service, given the cut due to the music labels and other copyright holders. Factor in the difficulty the service had in securing deals for its ad-free model earlier this year, the website added, and “it’s hard to imagine how YouTube will make money at that pricing.”
Mark Zuckerberg: Let’s give everybody internet by 2020
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny
Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of the largest social media website on Earth, and a group of other prominent figures associated with the online world have launched a new campaign with the goal of making Internet access available to everybody on Earth by 2020.
The Connect the World campaign, which has also garnered the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, entrepreneur Richard Branson, media mogul Arianna Huffington and others, believes that bringing people online could combat global ills by making people more likely to share knowledge and by creating new opportunities.
“A ‘like’ or a post won’t stop a tank or a bullet, but when people are connected, we have a chance to build a common global community with a shared understanding,” Zuckerberg said at a United Nations luncheon over the weekend, according to Reuters. “That’s a powerful force.”
Zuckerberg’s call to action, VentureBeat added, is an attempt to raise awareness of the Global Goal initiative adopted by the 193 member nations of the UN last week. Among the goals listed in that so-called global to-do list, the website said, is one demanding Internet access for all parts of the world (including the least-developed nations) within the next five years.
Zuckerberg also plans to bring refugee camps online
Organizers of the Connect the World campaign claim that there are roughly four billion people worldwide who currently do not have Internet access, and Zuckerberg and his colleagues hope to put pressure on governments, businesses, inventors and others to rectify that situation.
In a Saturday speech at the UN, the Facebook head said that his website would team up with the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees to bring web access to refugee camps around the world. “The Internet is a vital enabler of jobs, growth and opportunity,” he said, “and research tells us that for every 10 people connected to the internet, about 1 is lifted out of poverty.”
“Internet access is a catalyst for creating a world of greater freedom, fairness and dignity for all peoples, everywhere,” added Jamie Drummond, co-founder and global executive director of the poverty-fighting group one ONE. “Every country must now agree an urgent plan to implement the Global Goals, and mission-critical within those strategies is connectivity for all.”
Scientists discover key to mapping mitochondria pathways
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Brian Galloway
Mitochondriaare parts of cells that provide the body with energy (among other things), but despite their obvious importance, we are far from knowing everything about them—especially how certain molecules manage to get inside the mitochrondria. Scientists from Monash University have discovered a new technique that allows them to see how any channel protein works, and this could revolutionize medicine as we know it.
Mitochondria have a somewhat complicated structure, including two membranes that surround them and prohibit most kinds of molecules from entering. These membranes are bridged by proteins that help specific molecules get inside the mitochondrion—complexes known as TIM (found on the inside membrane) and TOM (found on the outer membrane).
TOM and TIM control the content and amount of what is allowed through the membrane. Scientists didn’t fully grasp how they worked because of their complex function. Normally, a technology like x-ray crystallography would allow scientists to see the exact shape of the molecule, which in turn would allow them to figure out how it functions. But the mitochondrial membrane proteins have resisted all attempts to be mapped.
Without this information, scientists haven’t been able to figure out which molecules TOM or TIM let in, and under what circumstances—but thanks to the Monash team, one of the complexes, known as TOM40, is no longer a mystery.
Peering into the cell
As reported in Science, the team modified the TOM40 complexes within yeast, injecting a new kind of amino acid into their structure. These amino acids, known as probes, show a somewhat unique interaction with UV light. When a burst of UV is flashed onto the TOM40 complex, these probes reflect the light onto nearby structures—which electron microscopes capture. By moving the amino acids and capturing countless images, the scientists were finally able to assemble a picture of the protein structure—like the world’s hardest 3D jigsaw puzzle made of microscopic pieces.
“How large molecules like proteins get in and out of membranes has long been a mystery,” said lead researcher Professor Trevor Lithgow. “We have shown that this technology can be applied to solve the atomic scale details for all sorts of fundamental pathways going on in cells, opening the way to direct applications for medical research.”
If scientists know how a protein complex like TOM selectively permits over 1000 different kinds of proteins to enter a mitochondrion, they might be able to create drugs that can enter the mitochondrion as needed to help with various diseases. Further, the technique can be used all over the cell, not just in mitochondria—in other key but not fully understood parts.
Someday, we may even be able to directly regulate metabolic disorders, diabetes, processes like DNA damage and repair, or cancer.
“This new technology has revealed what has been a major unknown in biology, and other cellular mysteries are now ripe for the picking,” said Lithgow.
For those in the know
In case you have a background in cellular biology, here’s a general view of how TOM40 works. As the substrate (preproteins) for the complex approaches, an N-terminal segment of the TOM40 channel passes from the cytosol through the channel. Once it reaches the intermembrane space, it recruits chaperones located there. These chaperones guide the transfer of preproteins from the cytosol through the channel and into the intermembrane space.
TOM40 itself contains three β-barrel channels sandwiched between a central α-helical TOM22 receptor cluster and external regulatory TOM proteins. The coupling of chaperones, β-barrel channels, and α-helical receptors is what allows TOM to selectively transport around 1000 different proteins.
School-provided lunches have always been a source of controversy (like when the federal government tried to count condiments as vegetables), and sadly it seems there’s another issue being thrown into the mix: BPA exposure.
A new study out of Stanford University has found that school meals may contain unsafe levels of bisphenol A (BPA)—a chemical often found in canned goods and plastic packaging that is toxic to many areas of the body, but especially the reproductive system. BPA weakly mimics estrogen, causing disruptions in human hormones, and has been linked to a wide range of other issues such as cancer.
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of BPA, as their organ systems are not yet fully developed. The potential hormone disruptions can cause serious health problems.
“Sometimes only small changes in hormone activity during development can cause permanently adverse effects,” wrote the authors.
Prepackaged cornucopia
“During school site visits, I was shocked to see that virtually everything in school meals came from a can or plastic packaging,” saidJennifer Hartle, a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. “Meat came frozen, pre-packaged, pre-cooked, and pre-seasoned. Salads were pre-cut and pre-bagged. Corn, peaches, and green beans came in cans. The only items not packaged in plastic were oranges, apples, and bananas.”
According to the study, which is published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, plastic packaging has become increasingly popular lately. Schools are not only looking to streamline the food preparation process, but also aim to reduce costs—all while trying to meet federal nutrition standards. Pre-packed meals are the easy solution, especially for low-income schools.
Unfortunately, the main way humans absorb BPA is through the consumption of food and drinks that have contacted BPA-contaminated containers—like water in certain kinds of plastic bottles, or pre-made foods in plastic bags.
How much is too much?
In order to figure out just how much BPA the children were consuming, the researchers interviewed food service personnel and visited school kitchens and cafeterias in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Not so shockingly, BPA amounts vary depending on what the children eat. For example, a student who consumed pizza, milk, and fresh fruit and vegetables received only minimal amounts of BPA, while the same meal with canned fruits and vegetables delivered up to 1.19 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight.
Rodent experiments showed toxicity occurring at levels of 2 micrograms/kilogram, but this doesn’t mean children are in the safe range of BPA exposure.
“With endocrine-disrupting chemicals particularly, there is so much uncertainty,” said Robert Lawrence, M.D., one of the study’s authors. “We can’t tie a specific dose to a specific response like we can with lead. But we know BPA is impacting human health. Animal models are showing there can be a whole range of health effects. This research shows we should take a precautionary approach.”
Moreover, while the U.S. EPA defined the safe total amount per kilogram per day as 50 micrograms in 1988, science has advanced leaps and bounds beyond what we knew at the time. The European Food Safety Authority recently lowered the recognized safe amount of BPA to only 4 micrograms.
“Even a dose of one extra microgram per day could be a big deal,” Hartle said. “If this is an avoidable exposure, do we need to risk it? If we can easily cut it out, why wouldn’t we?”
The solution to this problem is not to just select packages that are labeled as BPA-free, however; according to the researchers, the chemicals that replace BPA may end up being just as toxic. The only viable option is probably the hardest one, especially for low-income schools.
“The bottom line is more fresh fruits and vegetables. There is a movement for more fresh veggies to be included in school meals, and I think this paper supports that.”
This car hopes to break land speed records at 1000 MPH
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
After eight years of hard work, the inventors of a supersonic car designed to travel at speeds of up to 1,000 mph have unveiled the would-be record setter to the world during an event held Thursday at Canary Wharf in London.
According to NBC News and The Verge, the 44-foot long, pencil-shaped, 7.5-ton Bloodhound SSC is capable of producing a theoretical 135,000 brake horsepower (bhp) and accelerating from zero to 1,000 mph in just 55 seconds. While it has yet to be fully tested, the jet engine is said to be capable of propelling the vehicle one mile in a mere 3.6 seconds at its top speed.
Once it maxes out its speed, the Bloodhound SSC will take another 65 seconds to decelerate. The car will generate 2G of sustained acceleration as it accelerates and 3G as it begins to decelerate – the force equivalent to going from 60 mph to 0 mph in one second, media reports indicate. It will produce seven times the thrust of all Formula 1 cars combined, said NBC.
Car will attempt to hit 800mph next October
After the Bloodhound is complete, it will undergo low-speed testing in the UK, and if successful in those trials, it will attempt to reach 800 mph and set a new land-speed record in October 2016. For that event, British Royal Air Force fighter pilot Andy Green will drive the vehicle at a special track being built at Hakskeen Pan in South Africa’s Northern Cape.
In order to set a new land-speed record, Wired explained, the Bloodhound will have to complete a full mile in one direction, and then turn around and complete a mile in the opposite direction no more than one-hour later. The average speed of both runs will be recorded and used to determine if the car set a new record. The goal is to try for 1,000 mph during the first half of 2017.
This week marked the first time that the supersonic car had been shown in the configuration that will be used in that record-setting attempt, the Bloodhound team said in a statement. Among the noteworthy features is a two-meter high tail fin for stability, and the removal of the carbon fiber panels from one side to give the public a look at the vehicle’s engine and other technology.
The Bloodhound SSC has three separate braking systems and has been outfitted with twice as many sensors (500) as a Formula One car. This will enable engineers to measure its performance throughout each high speed run. The car also has been equipped with seven fire extinguishers as well as 12 built-in cameras, including two newly-added ones inside the car’s cockpit.
Music lovers and industry experts have long debated the distinction of the most iconic song of all time, but now, thanks to in-depth computer analysis and the efforts of a Goldsmiths, University of London researcher, we may finally have a definitive answer (probably not, though).
According to NBC News and the Daily Mail, computer scientist and musician Dr. Mick Grierson combined “best-of” lists from top music publications as well as a program that analyzed various elements of the songs, such as their keys, lyrical content, and chord variety.
In the end, Nirvana’s 1991 smash hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” came out on top, besting John Lennon’s “Imagine” and U2’s “One” to win the title of most iconic song ever recorded. “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson and “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen rounded out the top five.
Other songs that made the top 10 include: “Hey Jude” by The Beatles; “Like A Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan; “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones; “God Save The Queen” by the Sex Pistols; and “Sweet Child O’Mine” by Guns N’ Roses.
‘Varied, dynamic’ sound helped define the top tunes
Dr. Grierson examined seven “all-time best” lists produced by such leading music media outlets as Rolling Stone, VH-1, NME, and Q magazine, as well as those compiled by newspapers. He then used analytical software to find out what it was about these songs that made them special, focusing on elements such as beats per minute.
“We looked at a range of measures for each song and compared them to see if there were similarities in these recordings which occur less in other songs,” he told the Daily Mail. “We found the most significant thing these songs have in common is that most of them use sound in a very varied, dynamic way when compared to other records.”
“This makes the sound of the record exciting, holding the listeners attention. By the same token, the sounds these songs use and the way they are combined is highly unique in each case,” added Dr. Grierson, whose research was commissioned by automotive manufacturer Fiat, who hoped to use the results to identify a memorable tune for use in ads featuring the Fiat 500.
The study also revealed other interesting facts. For instance, 80 percent of the 50 songs that most often appeared in the greatest ever lists were in a major key, and most were in A, E, C, or G. The average tempo was 125 beats per minute, while 40 percent had around 120 beats per minute and most averaged approximately 500 beats for the song’s duration.
“Ultimately there is no ‘formula’ for this, other than to make your song sound as different, diverse and exciting as possible,” said Dr. Grierson “Even by applying scientific process, what is considered iconic is ultimately up to the individual… If you want a formula for creating great music, there is one: you just have to make something that sounds great.”
How can this whale protein help produce synthetic blood?
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway
The same proteins that allow whales to dive without breathing for up to two hours could be harnessed by medical experts to develop useful synthetic blood, according to research published this week in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
The quest to develop synthetic blood for use in human trauma patients has been two decades in the making, but now Rice University biochemist John Olson and his colleagues have found that deep-diving mammals have a more stable version of myoglobin, a protein that holds oxygen for use inside muscle cells.
This allows whales to produce larger amounts of myoglobin than humans, Olson explained in a statement. In fact, the creatures can pack 10 to 20 times more of this protein into their muscles than a human. This allows them to “download” oxygen directly into their skeletal muscles and stay active, even when they are holding their breath at great depths, he added.
“Whale meat is so dark because it’s filled with myoglobin that is capable of holding oxygen. But when the myoglobin is newly made, it does not yet contain heme, an iron-filled compound that forms the nonprotein part of hemoglobin,” said Olson. “We found that the stability of heme-free myoglobin is the key factor that allows cells to produce high amounts of the protein.”
Olson has spent 20 years studying hemoglobin, a larger and more complex oxygen-transporting protein found in blood, with the goal of creating synthetic blood for use in transfusions. He wants to create a strain of bacteria capable of generating massive amounts of this protein, and now he is one step closer to that goal thanks to this new discovery.
Myoglobin stability is the key, researchers find
Currently, hospitals and emergency rooms are forced to depend upon donated blood, which tends to be in short supply and can only be stored for a limited amount of time. In order to make longer lasting and more readily available synthetic blood, Olson and his fellow researchers hope to max out the amount of hemoglobin that bacteria can express.
“Our results confirm that protein stability is the key,” he said. His team “developed an in-vitro method for testing myoglobin expression outside of living cells. That allowed us to carefully control all the variables. We found that the amount of fully active myoglobin expressed was directly and strongly dependent on the stability of the protein before it bound the heme group.”
The globin family of proteins are shaped like the pocket of a baseball glove, opening and closing in order to trap and release oxygen, the study authors explained. The more stable that the heme-free type of myoglobin they could produce, the greater amount of the final product they could create.
During their experiments, the researchers compared the stability and cell-free expression level of myoglobins from humans, pigs, gray seals and several types of whales, confirming that stability of the heme-free version directly correlated with expression levels. Olson said that the discovery was “very important for our projects on synthetic blood substitutes.”
According to National Geographic, the newest pictures reveal a rough, scalloped texture which NASA scientists say is reminiscent of dragon scales or tree bark, and in addition to the apparent sauce-filled craters, the US space agency also discovered pits that resemble Triton’s cantaloupe terrain and mountains that look as if they’re bleeding, the website said.
“It’s a unique and perplexing landscape stretching over hundreds of miles,” William McKinnon, the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team deputy lead from Washington University in St. Louis, said of the unusual dragon-scale terrain. He added that it could be “some combination of internal tectonic forces and ice sublimation driven by Pluto’s faint sunlight.”
This newly-released “color extended” image show a region of Pluto roughly 330 miles across along the dwarf planet’s day-night divide, according toMashable. It was captured on July 14, during the probe’s closest approach to Pluto, and also depicts dune-like features, what appears to be the shoreline of a shrinking glacial ice lake, and fractured ice mountains with sheer cliffs.
Data reveals unusual methane patterns across the planet
The pictures, which were originally taken by New Horizons’ wide-angle Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) and downlinked to Earth on September 19, reveals the dwarf planet’s unusually rich color palette, GGI deputy lead John Spencer from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado said in a statement.
The team used MVIC’s infrared channel “to extend our spectral view of Pluto,” he said. Then they enhanced Pluto’s surface colors “to reveal subtle details in a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a wonderfully complex geological and climatological story that we have only just begun to decode.”
“With these just-downlinked images and maps, we’ve turned a new page in the study of Pluto, beginning to reveal the planet at high resolution in both color and composition,” added SwRI’s Alan Stern, principal investigator on the New Horizons mission. “I wish Pluto’s discoverer Clyde Tombaugh had lived to see this day.”
Data sent back to Earth by the probe also included methane maps that showed that while the region of the planet known as Sputnik Plaum has an abundance of methane, there is none of the gas in the relatively dark patch known as Cthulhu Regio. Thus far, methane been found on crater rims and in icy planes, but none has yet been detected in the middle of those craters, nor has there been any sign of the substance in the dwarf planet’s dark regions.
“It’s like the classic chicken-or-egg problem,” said New Horizons scientist Will Grundy. “We’re unsure why this is so, but the cool thing is that New Horizons has the ability to make exquisite compositional maps across the surface of Pluto, and that’ll be crucial to resolving how enigmatic Pluto works.”
It’s a familiar scene on TV: A character, newly empty wine glass in hand, stares angrily at their Facebook while going on a jealous rant about the new person showing up in their ex’s profile picture. We’re willing to bet that you’ve done the same thing, too. Well, thanks to scientists from Ohio State University, Columbus, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, we now have a quantitatively-derived answer for what drives such “Facebook stalking”: Distress.
The study, which is published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, had 431 participants complete an online survey. The survey aimed to evaluate the relationship between factors like attachment, investment in the relationship, level of commitment, responsibility for termination of the relationship, emotional distress after the breakup, and seeking relationship alternatives and level of interpersonal electronic surveillance (the more scientific phrase for Facebook stalking).
A messy breakup means more stalking
The duo discovered that the one key factor related to how much “surveillance” went on—level of distress caused by a breakup, according to a release. Those who experienced more distress were those who were more invested in their relationship, more committed, and often were on the receiving end of the breakup. Naturally, those who were more distressed were found to monitor an ex’s Facebook much more frequently than those less affected.
This behavior could make it harder to recover from the breakup. “Given their affordances, social media are discussed as potentially unhealthy enablers for online surveillance after relationship termination,” wrote the authors.
“Since stress may trigger problematic internet use, psychologists may wish to assess for increased usage by their patients during periods of stress, such as a relationship’s dissolution,” said Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN, and the Editor-in-Chief of Cyberpsychology.
In other words, the people who aren’t quite over their relationship yet are more likely to prolong their pain using social media—so couples who have split may also want to “break up” online. (It’s probably for the best.)
Archaeologists discover 2,400 year-old pre-Roman tomb in Pompeii
Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills
Pompeii wasn’t built in a day, but it was certainly destroyed in one. On August 24, 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius erupted, incasing nearby Pompeii with almost 20 feet of ash and debris. The city lay perfectly preserved—and mostly forgotten—for the next 1500 years. But now a team of French archaeologists have made the discovery of a lifetime: A fully-intact tomb predating Roman Pompeii by over 300 years.
The city of Pompeii was ruled over by three known groups of Italic peoples: the Osci, the Samnites, and the Romans. The Osci are believed to have built it around 800 BCE, and they occupied the city for around 200 years. At that time (around the 5th century BCE), the Oscan people were conquered by a tribe known as the Samnites—which is where this tomb fits into the picture.
“It is an exceptional find for Pompeii because it throws light on the pre-Roman city about which we know so very little,” archaeological superintendent of Pompeii Massimo Osanna told The Local, Italy.
The Romans themselves didn’t take possession of the town until 80 BCE, reigning for less time than the Osci.
One rare, miracle discovery
The tomb dates back to around the 4th century BCE, making it about 2,400 years old. This is an extremely rare discovery, as many tombs of such age have often been looted or damaged before archaeologists can work on them. It contains the remains of a 35-40 year-old woman, who was presumably a Samnite.
Found with her were multiple vases and clay storage jars known as amphorae, which likely contained food, wine, and cosmetics (although the tests have not yet been conducted). According to the researchers, these jars had been made in other parts of Italy, which indicates the Samnites had strong trade ties with various other Italic peoples. The other items interred with the woman will also help to elucidate Samnite culture.
“The burial objects will show us much about the role of women in Samnite society and can provide us with a useful social insight,” Osanna told The Local.
The tomb was found by researchers from the Jean Bèrard Center near the Herculaneum Gate—next to the famous Villa of the Mysteries. Interestingly, it appears the Romans living in Pompeii knew of the tomb’s existence, as they left it undisturbed and didn’t build over it. Even more remarkable, however, is that after millennia of avoiding looters and the like, it wasn’t destroyed in World War II.
As it turns out, the area in which the tomb was found was heavily shelled by the Allies. Other tombs may exist nearby, but none so far have been found, and they are likely to show some damage from the bombings.
“It’s a miracle that this has survived,” said Osanna.
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Feature Image: Archeological site of Pompeii press office
On this episode of CSI: New software sorts through ‘murky’ DNA mixtures
Written By: Abbey Hull
Christopher Pilny
Has your DNA ever showed up at the scene of a murder but you had nothing to do with it? We hope not, but if so, you can now breathe a little easier as new forensic software will help track genetic evidence to protect the innocent from false accusations.
Appearing in the journal Forensic Science International: Genetics in May, Catherine Grgicak, assistant professor of biomedical forensic sciences at Boston University, and collaborators at Rutgers University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed NOCIt and MATCHit—forensic software to assist in identification the possible number of contributors through DNA.
NOCIt (NOC = number of contributors), uses statistical analysis to analyze and estimate the number of people whose DNA is included in the evidence, stating a probability from between one to five contributors.
MATCHit software compares DNA evidence to DNA from the suspect to create a match statistic, or “likelihood ratio,” to assign now much this person’s genetic makeup was found at the crime scene.
Grgicak’s team hopes to combine the two forensic lab softwares into a single tool by 2017.
How does the NOCIt software work?
Since the rise of DNA forensic science during the 1980s, tests have slowly become more sensitive in testing not only blood, but skin cells, too.
“Mixture analysis is a murky part of DNA forensics,” stated Greg Hampikian, a forensic biologist at Boise State University in Idaho. “Errors in DNA forensics can be multiplied in the justice system,” often leading to weak evidence being backed by science. The results? The increased possibility of false accusations.
Seeing NOCIt’s potential, the Department of Defense contracted out Grgicak’s lab to turn their once NOCIt prototype into something that can be utilized nationwide.
“There are no national guidelines or standards saying that labs have to meet some critical threshold of a match statistic,” to conclude that a possible suspect had been at a crime scene, explained Grgicak.
This is where the new software comes into play: In testing mock evidence, NOCIt may find that one genetic mixture is 99.9 percent likely to have two contributors, while another may have a 35 percent likelihood of three contributors. These percentages help identify the possible number of contributors to the crime—something vital in determining a guilty party.
The future of MATCHit and the judicial system
The goal for Grgicak’s team through forensic software is to increase the certainty of identifying a suspect’s DNA at the crime scene. While MATCHit is still a work in progress, Grgicak hopes it will become an important tool in all forensic labs.
In terms of its algorithm, MATCHit works with the number of contributors and commonality of DNA variations in the general population in the hopes of providing a match statistic. Then, going further as a software, MATCHit provides a “p value,” a common statistical measure to indicate how likely it would be for a random person’s DNA to match more strongly than the current suspect’s. In testing the software with one, two, and three people so far, Grgicak’s team has seen positive results.
But with the new software advances in DNA analysis spewing out numbers, one question is left on everyone’s minds: how far will forensic labs go in interpreting this data and these probabilities?
“We know, at least from our own early tests of MATCHit, that we have not falsely included individuals using that threshold,” concludes Grgicak, “and that’s the most important thing.”
Backed by funding from the US Department of Justice and Department of Defense, the rest of the nation is hopeful that with these new softwares, forensic teams will be able to find the guilty party and protect those who were innocent out from behind bars.
Vulcan mind meld? Researchers create brain-to-brain connection
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
What on the surface appeared to be a simple question-and-answer game was actually the first successful attempt by scientists to create a technology-assisted Vulcan mind meld, allowing the brains of two individuals to send and receive signals to one another over the Internet.
This feat of science-based mind-reading was made possible by researchers from the University of Washington, who used a direct brain-to-brain connection, allowing the game’s participants to accurately guess what the other one was thinking of at any given time.
Andrea Stocco, lead author of a paper detailing the research that was published in the latest issue of PLOS One, called it “the most complex brain-to-brain experiment… done to date in humans. It uses conscious experiences through signals that are experienced visually,” the assistant professor of psychology added, “and it requires two people to collaborate.”
One heck of a “Guess Who” game
Stocco, who is also a researcher at the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, explained in a statement that the experiments required one participant (the respondent) to wear a cap that had been connected to an electroencephalography (EEG) machine that records brain activity.
That individual is then shown an object on a computer screen, while the second participant (the inquirer) is presented with a list of possible objects and associated questions. The inquirer sends a question to the respondent, who then answered “yes” or “no” by focusing on one of two flashing LED light attached to the monitor, each of which flashed at different frequencies.
While both answers send a signal to the inquirer via the Internet, activating a magnetic coil placed behind this individual’s head, only an affirmative answer was able to generate an intense enough response for the visual cortex to be stimulated. This allowed the inquirer to see a flash of light called a phosphene created through a brief disruption in the visual field. Using this system, the inquirer was ultimately able to identify which object the other person was looking at.
The experiments were conducted in dark rooms located in two labs nearly one mile apart, Stocco and her colleagues explained. Five pairs of participants each played 20 rounds of the Q&A game, each of which involved eight objects and three questions that would provide the solution if they were answered correctly. The researchers also said that they “took many steps to make sure that people were not cheating,” including using earplug to limit what inquirers could hear.
Objects correctly identified nearly 3/4 of the time
Participants were able to correctly guess the object in 72 percent of the games, compared to just 18 percent in similar, control games. The UW researchers said that incorrect guesses could have been due to several factors, including uncertainty about whether or not a phosphene had actually appeared, or by a brain signal transmissions being interrupted by hardware failure.
“They have to interpret something they’re seeing with their brains. It’s not something they’ve ever seen before,” said co-author Chantel Prat, an associate professor of psychology at UW as well as a member of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. “While the flashing lights are signals that we’re putting into the brain, those parts of the brain are doing a million other things at any given time too.”
“Evolution has spent a colossal amount of time to find ways for us and other animals to take information out of our brains and communicate it to other animals in the forms of behavior, speech and so on, But it requires a translation,” Stocco added. “What we are doing is kind of reversing the process a step at a time by opening up this box and taking signals from the brain and with minimal translation, putting them back in another person’s brain.”
Star with largest known magnetosphere caught devouring X-rays
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
The massive magnetosphere around one extremely hot and bright star contains stellar winds and dense plasma capable of consuming X-rays before they can escape into space, new research from astronomers at the Florida Institute of Technology has revealed.
Thanks to observations of the O-type known as NGC 1624-2 made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, FIT assistant professor Véronique Petit and her colleagues found that the star has stellar winds three to five times faster and at least 100,000 times more dense than the sun.
NGC 1624-2’s magnetosphere, which is larger than any other star in its class, traps gases trying to escape from the star, and those gases in turn absorb their own X-rays. The stellar winds clash with the magnetic field, and the trapped particles create a large aura of hot, dense plasma around NGC 1624-2, the authors wrote in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Magnetic field rare for stars of this size
“The magnetic field isn’t letting its stellar wind get away from the star,” Petit, a member of the team that originally discovered the star in 2012, explained in a statement. “So you get these big flows that are forced to collide head on at the magnetic equator, creating gas shock-heated to 10 million Kelvin and plenty of X-rays.”
However, she added, “the magnetosphere is so large that nearly 80 percent of these X-rays get absorbed before being able to escape into free space and reach the Chandra telescope.” She and her colleagues hope to gain more information about this unusual star next month, when they are expecting to receive new data on its stellar winds from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The magnetic field found at the surface of NGC 1624-2 is 20,000 times stronger than that found on the surface of our sun, the study authors explained. If this star was at the center of our solar system instead of the sun, the loops of hot, dense plasma it gives off would almost make it all the way to the orbit of the planet Venus, they added.
Just 10 percent of these massive starts have magnetospheres like this. While smaller stars (again, like the sun) have an internal dynamo used to generate magnetic fields, those existing in massive stars are remnants left over from a collision with another star or another event from an earlier point in the life of said star.
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Feature Image: Florida Institute of Technology
Kids would rather game on their phones than an actual console
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Don’t bother installing Minecraft on the desktop or hooking up the Xbox 360 to the TV! Kids increasingly want to play their video game on smartphones and tablets, according to a new report released earlier this week by researchers from the NPD Group.
According to Engadget, the report found that 63 percent of children between the ages of 2 and 17 were using mobile devices or tablets to game, while just 60 percent were playing on consoles like the Sony PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Wii U (a decrease of seven percent in just two years).
The popularity of PC gaming experienced an even more drastic decrease, falling from 67 percent in 2013 to just 45 percent this year. The decline in computer gaming was most pronounced in the 2 to 5 year old age bracket, VentureBeat said. Kids were also found to spend a greater amount of time gaming on smartphones and tablets, averaging six hours of playtime per week.
“The largest and most surprising shift in the 2015 gaming ecosystem was kids’ move away from the computer,” NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said in a statement. “In the past, the computer was considered the entry point for gaming for most kids, but the game has changed now.”
It’s all about portability these days
Callahan and his colleagues are not positive why this shift away from computers and consoles and towards mobile devices is happening, but he said that it may be “related to a change in the behavior of parents… utilizing mobile devices for tasks that were once reserved for computers.”
Engadget also pointed out that smartphones and devices allow children to play while their moms and dads check out Facebook or watch Netflix on other devices, and also enable young gamers to play their favorite titles while they’re not at home. VentureBeat also suggests that the “easier and more intuitive” nature of Android and iOS games make them attractive to young kids.
CNET also reported that the NPD Group study found an increase in the amount of money spent on digital games over the past three months, from $5 to $13. Twenty percent of gamers said that they spend more on microtranscations than they did a year ago, and the study found that boys are spending more for games on average than girls ($54 compared to $36).
Here’s what (allegedly) happens to your body after you eat a Big Mac
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
For many, those two all-beef patties with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions on a sesame seed bun served by McDonalds are a guilty pleasure. However, once you get a look at the new infographic from website Fast Food Menu Price, you might decide to kick the habit.
The infographic, which has made headlines at Yahoo Health, in the New York Daily News and elsewhere, breaks down what the Big Mac (allegedly) does to a person’s system in the hour after he or she consumes the popular fast-food offering – and, well, let’s just say it isn’t pretty.
According to the infographic, the 540 calorie sandwich causes a person’s blood sugar levels to spike to abnormal levels within the first 10 minutes of eating it. Like other types of junk food, it also triggers the brain’s reward system by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine, increasing a person’s likelihood of eating compulsively and mimicking the effects of illicit drugs.
Within 30 minutes, the 970 milligrams of sodium in the burger can cause dehydration. Since the kidneys have trouble eliminating all of that salt and the heart has to work double-time so that it can pump blood through the body, eating Big Macs can eventually lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, the infographic explains.
Forty minutes after finishing a Big Mac, a person can begin to feel hungry again, according to the infographic. This is because the high-calorie meal triggers an insulin response to lower blood glucose levels, and the quick absorption of the high-fructose corn syrup in the burger can result in insulin spikes that purportedly can create the desire to eat again. Gross… but is it scientifically accurate?
McDonald’s UK disputes the claims made by the infographic, telling The Indepedent, “We do not recognize the ingredients or nutritional information within this graphic. The so-called facts in this image are misleading and bear no resemblance to the Big Mac available to customers in the UK. We have been displaying nutritional information for all of our menu items for over 30 years so it is a shame to see such inaccurate figures and information being circulated.”
Certified dietitian nutritionist Lisa Moskovitz, CEO of NewYork Nutrition Group, told Yahoo that every person would have a different reaction to eating a Big Mac, and that the information contained in the graphic was accurate but “somewhat exaggerated.” For instance, she said that it was not 100 percent accurate to say that a person’s blood sugar would spike to “abnormal levels” because each person has a unique blood sugar and insulin response.
Moskovitz also said that the fat content of the sandwich could slow down the conversion of the carbohydrate content into glucose that travels through the blood, and that its ability to cause a person to become dehydrated varied on other factors, including exercise habits, medical history, and the amount of water currently in his or her system.
Dr. Rebecca Blake, director of clinical nutrition at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, told the Daily News that the Big Mac isn’t something that a person should eat every day for health reasons, but noted that the infographic contained “generalizations that I don’t think are very science based – they have little snippets of science truth in them, but I think this is designed as a scare tactic.”
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Featured Image: Frederic Bisson/Flickr
Story Image: Fast Food Menu Price
Stevia is the newest no calorie sweetener on the market. Fans of the white powder claim it to be a great alternative to the host of artificial sweeteners available. But is it truly safer than market heavy weight Splenda?
Splenda, a trademarked product owned by Johnson & Johnson, is one of the most popular artificial sweeteners holding approximately 45% of the market share. Splenda, or its chemical name sucralose, is produced by the chlorination of sucrose (natural sugar molecule). In essence, chlorine atoms replace hydrogen-oxygen atoms in the natural sugar molecule.
The chlorine replacement has two costly effects on the body. The first being its perceived inability to be absorbed in the body, and thus its “no calorie” profile. In the FAQ section of the official Splenda website, the company elaborates on the process of digestion. “After it [Splenda] is ingested, most (about 85%) is not absorbed and passes through the body unchanged in the stool. Of the small amount that is absorbed, most leaves the body unchanged in the urine within 24 hours.”
To speak the obvious, chlorine atoms left in the gut or blood stream for 24 hours at a time are not a good thing. Most studies suggest this only causes a problem when massive qualities are consumed. Ponder the scenario of a person consuming five to 10 packets of Splenda per day, every single day. The massive quantity suggested in most studies is in reality not that great. Buildup of these toxic chlorine atoms in gut is linked to gas, bloating, DNA damage, and increased cancer risk.
The second effect of chlorination is the intense sweetness–3,200 to 10,000x as sweet as table sugar. On the surface, this issue is the goal of the product and should not be problematic. However, when examining why the brain and tongue perceive something as sweet, the problem comes to light. The brain craves the sensation of sweet when energy is needed in the body. When a person consumes sugar, say in the form of fruit, the GI tract breaks the sugar down and releases energy for the body. The brain is satisfied. When consuming something that is extremely sweet but non-caloric, such as sucralose, the brain does not receive its reward in the form of energy. Thus, sugar cravings continue to flood the thoughts and the eventual effect is weight gain. This phenomenon has been largely studied with diet soda. And in the opposite corner…
One of the fastest newcomers in the sugar substitute marketplace is stevia. The all-natural stevia is derived from the South American stevia leaf. Stevia (in the raw) has been consumed for 1500 years by the Guarani people. Glycosides, including stevioside and rebaudioside A, are the two compounds that contribute to its sweet profile.
When considering stevia products, one question is imperative: Is this product an extracted glycoside, usually rebaudioside A, combined with other chemically altered compounds? Or is this a whole-leaf stevia product with no other additives?
Due to increasing popularity, food manufactures have engineered the natural extract with harmful additives such as a chemically altered erythritol or more ubiquitous components as natural flavorings. These additives have much of the same harmful effects on the gut as Splenda. In contrast, whole-leaf stevia has been shown to have no negative impact on gut health.
One issue remains with whole-leaf stevia: intense sweetness. The same problematic cycle occurs as does with Splenda. The brain reads the body taking in sugar but does not receive the corresponding energy. And so, the hunger pains continue.
Ultimately, Splenda is a chemically-altered sugar that has been proven to have negative effects on the gut, brain, and waist-line. Stevia is a great alternative for the consumer when in the whole-leaf form and acknowledged for its potential candy crush.
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Breakthrough: Paralyzed man regains ability to walk using direct brain control
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny
Given recent advances in technology, it isn’t unusual for a previously paralyzed man or woman regaining the ability to walk thanks to manually-controlled robotic limbs, but now University of California-Irvine researchers have accomplished the feat without such aids.
In a preliminary proof-of-concept study, Dr. An Do, Dr. Zoran Nenadic and colleagues showed that it is possible to use direct brain control to allow a spinal cord injury patient to use his or her own legs to walk again without having to rely upon mechanical aids for locomotion.
The research, which was published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, is said to mark the first time that direct brain control has enabled a person to walk without use of robotic devices following complete paralysis in both legs following a spinal cord injury.
The individual had been a paraplegic for five years, and thanks to an EEG-based brain control system, he was able to walk along a 3.66m long course 30 times over a 19 week span, the study authors said. Periods of mental training and physical conditioning were required, they added.
Dr. Nenadic, the senior lead researcher of the study and an associate professor in the UC-Irvine Department of Biomedical Engineering, told redOrbit that the study “is a culmination of a five-year work that started with able-bodied subjects learning to operate a brain-computer interface (BCI) system,” using brain waves to control the movement of a virtual-reality avatar. Initial research could lead to fully-implantable BCI units
He and his colleagues then recruited people with paraplegia due to spinal cord injuries, and demonstrated that they could compete the VR tasks as well if not better than able-bodied men and women. Encouraged by those results, he explained that they decided to test the function of the BCI system in a real-world environment.
They started by demonstrating that a paralyzed subject could successfully walk on a treadmill using a BCI-controlled robotic leg orthosis. Following that successful experiment, they took the BCI system and integrated it with an electrical muscle stimulator. Eventually, this set-up allowed the subject to walk across a room, stopping at designed points along a course, by controlling the entire system using only his brain waves, Dr. Nenadic explained in an email to redOrbit.
On the heels of this successful proof-of-concept test, he said that he and his colleagues plan to test the system with additional individuals suffering from paraplegia due to spinal cord injuries. He noted that they are currently “in the process of developing a simplified, more portable and more practical version of the system. Ideally, we would want to test the function of this new system in multiple subjects with paraplegia.”
Based on the success of their initial tests, “we expect the system to work at the population level,” Dr. Nenadic added. “Given the success of the current non-invasive system, one of our research trusts is to pursue the development of invasive (fully implantable) BCI system.”
“This would circumvent some of the impracticalities of the current system, such as putting the electrodes on and off, or being dependent on external electronics,” he concluded. “The invasive system would also yield brain waves of higher quality, which would likely translate into more accurate control. Finally, the implant could also be used to deliver sensory feedback to the subjects and allow them to feel their legs as they are walking.”
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Feature Image: University of California, Irvine
US scientists shatter quantum data teleportation record
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have established a new record by “teleporting” or transferring quantum data carried in light particles over more than 63 miles (100 kilometers) of optical fibers – four times farther than the previous record.
The scientists teleported packets of light known as photos across the fiber optic cables – a feat in and of itself, according to Engadget, as 99 percent of those photons would be unable to complete the journey. The accomplishment was due to advanced detectors capable of picking up very faint signals from individual light particles, and could lead to improved encryption efforts.
According to Live Science, quantum teleportation has been around since 1998, and involves the capturing of an object’s “quantum states” and the instantaneous transmission of that information from one place to another. At its heart is the unusual nature of quantum physics, which purports that the fundamental building blocks of the universe can exist in two places at the same time.
The findings, which were detailed Tuesday in research published online by the journal Optica, could open the door for the development of a so-called “quantum Internet” which allows users to send messages more securely, lead author Hiroki Takesue and his colleagues explained.
A ‘stepping stone’ to quantum Internet
In a statement, the NIST team said that the experiments confirmed that quantum communication is feasible over long distances, and while other research teams have teleported data over longer distances in free space, pulling this off using garden-variety fiber optic cables provides additional flexibility when it comes to network design.
While most people tend to think of Star Trek when they hear about teleportation, the researchers note that the quantum teleportation process is actually quite different. Their experiments centered around the remote reconstruction of information encoded in quantum states of matter or light and used those quantum states to indicate when in a sequence of time slots a lone photon arrived.
NIST scientists said that the teleportation technique they used was “novel” in that four of their photons were positioned to filter out specific quantum states. Using superconducting nanowires made of molybdenum silicide, the detectors were capable of recording 80 percent of all photons that arrived, determining their arrival time using slots that were each just one nanosecond long.
Using this technique, the researchers could develop devices known as quantum repeaters, which could resend data periodically in order to extend a network’s reach – a stepping stone to quantum Internet. Before now, experts believed that these quantum repeaters would need to rely on atoms or other forms of matter instead of light, which would have slowed transmission speeds.
Due to the experiment’s focus on “a limited combination of quantum states,” the NIST said that teleportation could only be successful in at most one-fourth of transmissions. Because of the new detectors, however, the “desired quantum state” was teleported in “83 percent of the maximum possible successful transmissions.” Overall, their work “exceeded the mathematically significant 66.7 percent threshold for proving the quantum nature of the teleportation process.”
Scientists have effectively isolated human muscle stem cells, revealing that the cells could robustly duplicate and fix impaired muscles when attached onto an injured location, according to a new paper published in Stem Cell Reports.
The laboratory discovery makes way for prospective therapy for patients with significant muscle injury, paralysis, or genetic disorders like muscular dystrophy.
“We’ve shown definitively that these are bona-fide stem cells that can self-renew, proliferate, and respond to injury,” said Dr. Jason Pomerantz, an assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at University of California San Francisco.
When muscles are injured or diseased, they can suffer a loss of the existing stem cells needed to heal properly, which has posed a significant obstacle for treating patients impaired by muscle injury and paralysis, Pomerantz said.
Doctors have had exceptional success repairing nerves in damaged muscles, but if the treatment takes too much time, the available stem cells and ability to regenerate is lost. This results in damaged muscles not reconnecting with nerve tissue and a loss of ability.
“This is partly why we haven’t had major progress in treating these patients in 30 years,” Pomerantz said in a news release. “We know we can get the axons there, but we need the stem cells for there to be recovery.”
Cells on the boundaries of muscle fibers were known to behave as stem cells in mice, adding to muscle growth and repair. Until recently, however, it wasn’t apparent if human satellite cells performed the same way, and researchers didn’t know how to separate them from human tissue and modify them to help care for individuals with muscle damage. Fixing damaged tissues
In the new study, researchers acquired surgical biopsies of muscles and used antibody discoloration to indicate that human satellite cells can be recognized by their co-expression of a transcription factor and two particular exterior proteins.
This discovery allowed the study team to segregate populations of human satellite cells and graft them onto the damaged muscles of mice. Inside of five weeks, the human cells effectively incorporated into the muscles and split to create families of daughter stem cells, restoring the stem cell niche and mending the damaged tissue.
“This gives us hope that we will be able to extract healthy stem cells from other muscles in the patient’s body and transplant them at the site of injury,” Pomerantz said. “If replenishing a healthy muscle stem cell pool facilitates reinnervation and recovery, it would be a significant leap forward.”
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We like to imagine a future in which Transformers exist, and scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have certainly achieved an interesting step in this direction. Using special polymers and a 3D printer, they have created a flat sheet that “transforms” itself into a box when exposed to heat, as reported by Futurity.
The researchers used what are known as smart shape-memory polymers (SMPs), which have the ability to hold two shapes: an initial, unheated one, and another following an increase in temperature. Each SMP responds to heat at a different rate, so by applying different kinds of these polymers at special areas throughout one object, the object changed its shape in a controlled sequence until the desired structure formed.
“We have exploited the ability to 3D-print smart polymers and integrate as many as ten different materials precisely into a 3D structure,” added co-author Martin L. Dunn, a professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design.
Swap it like it’s hot
According to the paper in Scientific Reports, the heat required to morph a flat sheet into a box is uniformly distributed by submerging the sheet in water—an advancement from prior experiments.
“Previous efforts to create sequential shape changing components involved placing multiple heaters at specific regions in a component and then controlling the on-and-off time of individual heaters,” explained author Jerry Qi, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. “This earlier approach essentially requires controlling the heat applied throughout the component in both space and time and is complicated.”
“We turned this approach around and used a spatially uniform temperature which is easier to apply and then exploited the ability of different materials to internally control their rate of shape change through their molecular design,” he added.
The team demonstrated this approach not only through boxes, but through other designs as well. For example, they were able to get a flat strip to lock into itself by having a key end bend and thread itself through an attached keyhole.
The next frontier
Obviously, the potential applications for this technology are endless. The box the team designed is intended to simulate a postal mailer, but as these SMPs could react to many different kinds of stimuli beyond temperature, like moisture or light, they may someday be found ubiquitously across the world.
The components could be transported in flat sheets, be rolled into shipment tubes, or could even just have a full initial shape that changes at a key time—like in space structures, medical devices, toys, and robots. The team even indicated that the SMPs could find their way into drones, allowing them to change their shape from one suitable for cruising into one better for making a dive.
If elected, Jeb Bush promises to repeal Net Neutrality laws
Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is not a fan of the Net Neutrality laws established by the Obama administration earlier this year, and has gone on record stating that if he is elected, he will work to appeal regulations designed to ensure ISPs treat all types of data equally.
According to Engadget and Ars Technica, the former Florida governor argues in a new post that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy classifying all Internet service providers (ISPs) as “public utilities” subjects them to “antiquated ‘common carrier’ regulation.”
“Rather than enhancing consumer welfare,” his team explained, “these rules prohibit one group of companies (ISPs) from charging another group of companies (content companies) the full cost for using their services.” Bush also noted that some smaller broadband providers testified under that the law forced them to “cut back” on efforts to “upgrade and expand their networks.”
If elected president, Bush could appoint a new FCC chairperson who would work to overturn the Net Neutrality laws, which passed 3-2 by a Democrat-led majority back in February. Or he could push for Congress to pass a bill to limit or overturn the Commission’s regulations.
Trump, Fiorina, Carson, and Rubio also oppose the regulations
Under the FCC regulations, ISPs are prohibited from blocking or throttling Web traffic, or giving priority to any specific online service in exchange for payments, Ars Technica said. Trade groups representing the nation’s largest telecom companies, wireless carriers, and cable service providers have sued the FCC to block the rules.
Bush is not the only GOP candidate to come out against Net Neutrality laws, as Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, and Marco Rubio have all criticized the regulation. Democrats such as Hillary Clinton “generally” support the FCC policy, the website said. Under Bush’s brother, former president George W. Bush, Internet access was regulated as an “information service.”
“No one, whether government or corporate, should control free and open access to the Internet. The Internet is too important to allow broadband providers to make the rules,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in February. The new rules, he added, were “no more a [secret government] plan to regulate the Internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech.”
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