Negative spirituality is bad for your health

Written By: Eric Hopton

Published Date: September 24, 2015 Last Edited: September 24, 2015

Emily Bills

Believing in “Karma” or that your God is punishing you for being a bad person can ramp up your pain levels and make your general physical and mental health a whole lot worse. Scientists call this way of thinking “negative spiritual belief”, and a new study by University of Missouri (MU) researchers found it really was bad news for body and mind.

The MU team thinks this research could help in the development of “targeted interventions” to counteract such negative spiritual beliefs, lowering an individual’s pain and boosting their overall health.

Even the smallest degree of negative spirituality is bad for you

“In general, the more religious or spiritual you are, the healthier you are, which makes sense,” said Brick Johnstone, a neuropsychologist and professor of health psychology in the MU School of Health Professions. “But for some individuals, even if they have even the smallest degree of negative spirituality, basically, when individuals believe they’re ill because they’ve done something wrong and God is punishing them, their health is worse.”

Johnstone and his colleagues studied nearly 200 individuals to find out how their spiritual beliefs affected their health outcomes. Some participants in the study were in good health, but others suffered from a wide range of illnesses, including cancer, traumatic brain injury, and chronic pain.

Participants were split into two groups. The first “negative spirituality group” was made up of those who reported feeling abandoned or punished by a higher power. The second group reported no negative spirituality feelings.

All those taking part in the study answered questions about their emotional and physical health, including physical pain.

The negative spirituality group reported significantly worse pain as well as worse physical and mental health. The “positive spirituality” group reported better mental health. However, even if individuals reported positive spiritual beliefs, having any degree of negative spiritual belief contributed to poorer health outcomes.

“Previous research has shown that about 10 percent of people have negative spiritual beliefs; for example, believing that if they don’t do something right, God won’t love them,” Johnstone said. “That’s a negative aspect of religion when people believe, ‘God is not supportive of me. What kind of hope do I have?’ However, when people firmly believe God loves and forgives them despite their shortcomings, they had significantly better mental health.”

Individuals with negative spiritual beliefs participated less often in religious practices and had lower levels of positive spirituality and forgiveness.

Finding interventions to combat negative spiritual beliefs and promote positive spiritual beliefs could be a real benefit for some individuals, improving their pain and mental health, said Johnstone.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Science

How do the forces that hold everything together actually work?

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 24, 2015 Last Edited: September 24, 2015

Emily Bills

While making increasingly smaller electronic, medical and biological devices is convenient for consumers of such technology, it can be difficult for chemical engineers and materials scientists to predict nanoscale molecular interactions and ensure that such systems will work properly.

The reason for this, scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst explain, is that the physics of interactions at this level are difficult. However, they report in the latest edition of the journal Langmuir that they have developed a new computational and modeling software tool along with a database system that should make it easier for experts to work with nanoscale materials.

The open-source project is known as Gecko Hamaker, and according to UMass Amherst physics chair Adrian Parsegian, doctoral student Jaime Hopkins, and adjunct professor Rudolf Podgornik, it allows users to access a vast array of different nanometer-level interactions that will help them predict molecular organization and evaluate if new material combinations will actually work.

These calculations pertain to the intermolecular attractions known as van der Waals forces. Van der Waals forces occur between DNA, carbon nanotubes, proteins, and inorganic material, governing interactions that take place at the molecular level. The researchers believe their work may provide new insights into this realm that were previously inaccessible to materials scientists.

Data can benefit a wide array of applications, creators say

“Van der Waals forces are small, but dominant on the nanoscale,” Parsegian explained in a statement. “We have created a bridge between deep physics and the world of new materials. All miniaturization, all micro- and nano-designs are governed by these forces and interactions, as is behavior of biological macromolecules such as proteins and lipid membranes. These relationships define the stability of materials.”

“People can try putting all kinds of new materials together,” he added. “This new database and our calculations are going to be important to many different kinds of scientists interested in colloids, biomolecular engineering, those assembling molecular aggregates and working with virus-like nanoparticles, and to people working with membrane stability and stacking. It will be helpful in a broad range of other applications.”

Materials scientists, the physics chair pointed out, must know whether or not different molecules will stick together. This is a difficult task, so they have to turn to a variety of approaches in order to find out for certain. Gecko Hamaker includes experimental observations that, while apparently unrelated to the issue of interactions, still help evaluate the van der Waals forces’ magnitude.

“Our work is fundamentally different from other approaches, as we don’t talk only about forces but also about torques,” Podgornik said. “Our methodology allows us to address orientation, which is more difficult than simply describing van der Waals forces, because you have to add a lot more details to the calculations. It takes much more effort on the fundamental level to add in the orientational degrees of freedom.”

He added that this methodology enables Gecko Hamaker to address non-isotropic, non-spherical, or other complex molecular shapes. In these instances, he said, simply knowing the forces is not enough – scientists must be able to calculate how torque works on orientation. Their software is capable of providing detailed information on even the most difficult cases, Podgornik noted.

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Feature Image: UMass Amherst

Technology

Beam us up: You can now take a virtual tour of Star Trek’s Enterprise

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 24, 2015 Last Edited: September 24, 2015

Emily Bills

Fans of Star Trek know that the USS Enterprise-D, the ship captained by Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, is a massive spacecraft with more than 40 decks and enough room to house 1,000-plus crew members and their families. How cool would it be to explore it?

Well, now you can – virtually, at least – thanks to the Enterprise-D Construction Project, a new, Unreal Engine-based attempt to map the massive ship in its entirety. This project is currently being designed by an artist named Jason B, according to Engadget and AV Club reports published Tuesday.

While it’s still a work in progress, Jason B has released a video that allows viewers to embark on a virtual tour of the ship from Shuttlebay 01 to Ten Forward, the lounge where the crew went to kick back after a hard day of negotiating with Ferengi, batting Borg, or putting up with Q’s latest shenanigans. You can also explore the bridge, where Picard so frequently and famously said to “make it so.”

“While it’s not quite photorealistic, the attention to detail in this digital starship is already uncanny – the bridge, shuttle bay and other areas feel like lived-in spaces,” Engadget reported. “Jason is drawing on as much official material as he can to get things pixel-perfect, and he’s only taking creative liberties in those areas where there’s no canonical content.”

Game on the horizon?

While the project in its current state only covers a small portion of the Enterprise-D, Jason told the AV Club that he plans to create a full-scale replica of the entire vessel. Furthermore, he said that he plans to optimize the simulation for virtual reality devices such as the Oculus Rift.

While the project is currently just a hobby, Engadget said that the designer could expand it if things go smoothly. In fact, Jason is reportedly considering offering users the chance to explore the outsides of other Star Trek locations, and could even turn the virtual tour into a full-fledged video game – provided he can get the funding and permission to release his work.

The video currently released by Jason B is 12 minutes long, CNET said, and once he completes the ship itself, he hopes to add a full population of Federation residents and Starfleet members to wander and patrol its corridors and hallways. The project could also eventually include different galaxies and planetary systems, which users would be able to fully explore. We hope this project lives long and prospers.

You can follow the project’s progress on Jason’s official blog.

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Feature Image: Enterprise-D Construction Project

Health

How to become a better writer…with neuroscience!

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 23, 2015 Last Edited: September 23, 2015

Emily Bills

Writing often takes a lot of time and practice to master, but according to a new book by Yellowlees Douglas, an associate professor of management communication at the University of Florida, there are a few neuroscience-backed tips anyone can use to become a better wordsmith.

Douglas wrote the book after seeing her students become frustrated by previous writing guides, according to a report on Futurity.

“Here I was, teaching quantitative thinkers in the colleges of business and medicine, and every book I assigned had my students ready to tear their hair out,” she said, adding that the pupils wanted guides that “didn’t just tell my students to imitate Hemingway, as one of them put it.”

The solution: Douglas, remembering data that she had found interesting in the past, compiled it together in her own book, The Reader’s Brain: How Neuroscience Can Make You a Better Writer. The studies she looked at included those that tracked eye motions, imaged the brain using fMRI, and scanned it using EEGs.

The book has many ideas for how to improve your writing, providing insights on what conventions to keep (and chuck out)—for example, starting a sentence with “and” is A-Okay, by Douglas’ research. It also shows readers how to lay out information so they can remember the important items.

Help them remember

Cause and effect are very important to the human mind. For example, studies dating back to the 1940s found that participants described even the simplest animations—animated triangles and squares—in terms of cause and effect. Humans relate to this structure, so if sentences can be turned into narratives of causes and effects, the ideas contained within them are easier to read and remember.

But memory can be augmented in others ways. One of the most important steps to take is the old English teacher standby: Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them.

This wisdom actually relates to the psychology and neuroscience notion of priming. It’s well-established that even glancing at a list of random words can “prime” you to recall them later. Likewise, if you begin by presenting the purpose of whatever you’re writing, you bolster not only comprehension of the entire piece, but also help them to remember it later.

Meanwhile, telling them what you told them relates to the idea of recency, or the effect shown when items on a list come last. Items first on the list evoke the primacy effect; items that end the list evoke the recency effect; both show greatly improved recall.

Hide the bad stuff

If the first and last things you write are the things most remembered, you might want to hide uncomfortable information somewhere other than those two places. For example, telling someone they did not get a position they applied for should be buried in the middle of a paragraph or letter, so as to soften the blow.

This is backed by clinical studies, which have shown that when readers receive bad news in the first paragraph of a writing, they tend to react with hostility and resistance to the rest of the message. So, if delivering bad news, a neutral opening paragraph is a better idea.

Get active

That one English teacher who yelled at your for using the passive voice was unfortunately right. (Not that we’ll admit it to them.) If you can’t remember, passive voice is when the subject of a sentence receives the action of a verb. For example: “Bob was hit by a bat” uses the passive voice. In active terms, it would be: “A bat hit Bob.”

English itself is a language that tends towards the active voice, and readers expect it. Linguists refer to this as an “iconicity assumption”—we assume that sentences will form the order in which they occur in the real world.

So when something is in passive voice, this means readers must use more brainpower to comprehend them. In studies, readers’ brains showed more activity when reading in the passive voice. Likewise, reading speed slowed down, so even if your content is simple, using passive voice makes it harder to understand and remember.

Tell them what you told them

In light of the message of this article, we’d just like to give you a few reminders. If you want your work to be comprehensible and memorable, place important information first and last, bury the bad stuff, use active voice, and relate information in terms of cause-and-effect narratives. And, of course, never be afraid to start a sentence with “and”.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Space

Could we survive the dust storms and radiation on Mars?

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 23, 2015 Last Edited: September 23, 2015

Emily Bills

In the upcoming movie The Martian, Matt Damon’s character Mark Watney attempts to survive after being left behind, presumed dead, on Mars. But even if he somehow managed to obtain an adequate supply of food, water, and breathable air, would such a feat be possible?

According to CNN.com, Watney has to spend most of his time wearing his spacesuit in order to protect himself from the cold atmosphere, the lack of breathable air, and the dust on the planet. Odds are that current spacesuits would be up to the task, but the website reports that NASA is currently developing two prototypes that would “strike a balance between durability and flexibility.”

The reason that Watney is stranded in the first place is a massive dust storm that kicks up, and in the film the strong winds rip an antenna out of a piece of equipment, demolishing a portion of the astronauts’ camp. However, NASA said that it is “unlikely” that a dust storm could strand an astronaut, and with winds maxing out at 60 mph, damage to equipment would be minimal.

The lower atmospheric pressure also makes the wind speed less dangerous, but the space agency pointed out that the dust storms are not completely harmless. The individual particles of dust on the planet are small and somewhat electrostatic, meaning that they stick to surfaces similar to the way that Styrofoam packing peanuts do – a potential hazard for machines and solar panels.

Experts divided on the impact of Mars’ radiation

There’s also the issue of radiation, and the possibility that an astronaut could be caught in a solar storm. Radiation studies of the planet’s surface are in the early stages, Discovery News said on Monday, so the affects of long-term exposure are unknown. The Mars One project insists that radiation exposure for colonists would be “within space agencies’ astronaut career limits.”

Alex Young, the associate director for science in the heliophysics science division at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told Discovery News that a future mission would likely include a special telescope to allow astronauts to monitor the situation and retreat to radiation-resistant on an as-needed basis. Researchers are also investigating new protective materials, including nylon embedded with boron and nitrogen, for use on a mission to Mars.

John Logsdon, a former director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told The Guardian that the radiation would likely have a noticeable effect on Watney. He would likely “get very sick” after spending so much time on Mars. Were he fortunate enough to make it back to Earth, the odds are he would “die of cancer a year later,” Logsdon added.

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Feature Image: NASA

Health

Prostate cancer patients willing to become cyborgs to treat disease

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 23, 2015 Last Edited: September 23, 2015

Emily Bills

Would you be willing to become a cyborg if it meant protecting yourself from a potentially fatal disease? Apparently for many men, the answer is yes, researchers from the University of Stirling and the University of Edinburgh report in the latest edition of Science as Culture.

In the study, lead author Dr. Gill Haddow and her colleagues explained that males tend to have a surprisingly positive reaction to the idea of having cancer-detecting biosensors implanted in their bodies, essentially making them part man, part machine. These sensors assess the biological activity of cancers, and can autonomously aid in the repair and/or treatment of tissues.

“Inserting such technology into the human body creates cybernetic organisms; a cyborg that is a human–machine hybrid,” the study authors wrote, explaining that in interviews conducted with a dozen men, they found that guys seemed to prefer “the masculine cyborg status” of the biosensor system versus the “stigmatization” of being identified as “a ‘leaker and bleeder.’”

In science fiction, Haddow and her fellow investigators explained, cyborgs are typically views as emotionless machines. However, they’ve come up with a new term, “everyday cyborgs”, used to refer to regular people who just happen to have high-tech, life-saving devices implanted in them.

Cyborg status less of a threat to masculinity than cancer

During their interviews, the researchers found that the implants were well-received by the men, and that they believed the biosensors could be used as a long-term warning system. The potential risk of the device malfunctioning was seen to be an improvement over the potential loss of masculine identity sometimes associated with prostate cancer, Haddow said.

The research also found that having cancer made an individual more willing to try anything, even going through life with a robotic implant, in order to overcome the disease. In this light, cyborgs go from being robotic sci-fi movie monsters to being people using implanted devices as a way to try and save their lives.

“Men recovering from prostate cancer are extremely willing to have a biosensor inserted; to become cyborgs every day,” Haddow’s team wrote. “Furthermore, participants assumed, indeed wanted, the biosensor to have a longer term functionality beyond that originally envisaged… Our participants did not self-identify as a cyborg. Yet, as a consequence of being permanently implanted and monitored, a cyborg status would be created for these men.”

“What the everyday cyborg adds to previous versions then is a recognition that a willingness to become cyborg is contextually dependent, for example, to avoid cancer. The present data suggest that prostate cancer threatens masculinity in a way that existence as a cyborg… which offers action and control, does not.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Technology

New AI system would probably do better than you on the math SAT

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 23, 2015 Last Edited: September 23, 2015

Christopher Pilny

A team of researchers from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2) and the University of Washington have developed an AI system that could theoretically pass the SAT tests, and that can complete geometry problems every bit as well as the average US 11th grade student.

The system is known as GeoS, and as the inventors explained in research presented recently at the 2015 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing in Lisbon, Portugal, it was able to interpret diagrams and process language well enough to correctly solve 49 percent of SAT geometry questions.

GeoS had to solve unaltered test questions which it had never previously encountered, and which required it to have an understanding of implicit relationships, ambiguous references and the links between diagrams and natural-language text, the researchers explained in a statement Monday.

Were the results extrapolated over the entire Math SAT, the AI system would have scored a 500 out of 800 – the average test score for 2015, AI2 CEO Oren Etzioni, UW assistant professor of computer science and engineering Ali Farhadi, and their co-authors added.

Developers looking to expand its areas of expertise

GeoS is said to be the first complete system capable of solving SAT plan geometry problems, doing so initially by interpreting a question using the diagram and text to come up with the best possible logical expression of each problem. Once that is completed, it sends that information to a geometric problem solver to come up with a solution, then compares it to the multiple choice options presented within the context of the test.

On questions it was confident enough to answer, the AI technology had an accuracy rate of 96 percent. Currently, GeoS is only able to solve plane geometry questions, but AI2 officials report that they are attempting to expand its knowledge base so that GeoS will be able to solve the full set of SAT math questions within the next three years.

“Unlike the Turing Test,” Etzioni said, “standardized tests such as the SAT provide us today with a way to measure a machine’s ability to reason and to compare its abilities with that of a human.Much of what we understand from text and graphics is not explicitly stated, and requires far more knowledge than we appreciate. Creating a system to be able to successfully take these tests is challenging, and we are proud to achieve these unprecedented results.”

Farhadi added that the research team was “excited about GeoS’s performance on real-world tasks. Our biggest challenge was converting the question to a computer-understandable language. One needs to go beyond standard pattern-matching approaches for problems like solving geometry questions that require in-depth understanding of text, diagram and reasoning.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

British bar serves liquid nitrogen drink, destroys a woman’s stomach

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 23, 2015 Last Edited: September 23, 2015

Emily Bills

A British establishment has been fined £100,000 (approximately $155,000) for serving a drink containing liquid nitrogen to a teenager after the explosive cocktail punctured her stomach and forced doctors to remove the organ to save her life.

According to BBC News and The Telegraph, now 20-year-old Gaby Scanlon was with a group of friends at Oscar’s Wine Bar and Bistro in Lancaster in 2012, celebrating her 18th birthday (the legal drinking age in the UK), when she was given a shot of Nitro-Jagermeister for free.

Testifying at Preston Crown Court, Scanlon said that she was assured by the bartender that the drink was safe to consume, but immediately after drinking the beverage, she said that she began to feel “agonizing pain” and had smoke billowing out of her nose and mouth. She was rushed to Lancaster Royal Infirmary, where a CT scan revealed a large perforation in her stomach.

Scanlon had to spend three weeks in the hospital and underwent surgery to have her stomach removed and her esophagus connected directly to her small intestines. She told the court that the experience had “completely changed” her life, as she now experiences spells of intense agony, is forced to avoid certain foods and no longer enjoys eating.

Establishment failed to ensure customer safety, prosecutor said

The Nitro-Jagermeister contained liquid nitrogen in order to create a cloud of smoke in the glass, and while BBC News explained that the science-inspired concoction is not illegal, physicists say that the liquid must completely evaporate before the beverage is safe for human consumption.

Scanlon testified that she received no such warning, and one of her friends claimed the bartender told her to “drink it while it’s still smoking.” Upon consuming the liquid nitrogen, internal tissues in her stomach were destroyed and the lining was perforated.

The bar pleaded guilty to one count of failing in the duty of an employer to ensure the safety of persons not in its employment, and admitted that it had failed to ensure that the cocktail was safe for human consumption. Training notes indicate that staff members had been advised to wait 10 seconds before letting customers drink the beverage, though that was called a “loose” rule.

Judge Pamela Badley said the establishment’s actions “fell very far short of standards,” and the case’s prosecutor, Barry Berlin, said that the investigation “uncovered serious systematic failings by this company… They failed to ensure the safety of its customers. They served liquid nitrogen shots in cocktails without considering any suitable risk assessment. The serious injuries suffered show a failure by the company to ensure her safety.”

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Feature Image: Joh_9343/Flickr

Science

Scientists identify new hadrosaur species found in Alaska

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 23, 2015 Last Edited: September 23, 2015

Christopher Pilny

A new type of duck-billed dinosaur that had hundreds of individual teeth and was apparently really good at chewing has been identified by experts from the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North and described in the latest edition of the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

The creature, Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, was a species of hadrosaur that grew up to 30 feet long, lived in herds in the North Slope of Alaska, could thrive in darkness for several months at a time and probably even encountered snow at some point in its lifetime, the researchers explained.

Most of the bones used to identify the new hadrosaur came from the Liscomb Bone Bed, a fossil-rich layer along a river in the Prince Creek Formation (a group of rocks deposited on the Arctic flood plain nearly 70 million years ago), earth sciences curator Pat Druckenmiller and his fellow researchers said. It’s name translates as “ancient grazer.”

New species were northern-most to live in the Cretaceous period

According to Druckenmiller, while the remains were found in the modern-day polar latitudes, the Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis would have lived even further north during the Cretaceous period – in fact, he added, they were likely “the northern-most dinosaurs to have lived” during this era.

Co-author Gregory Erickson, a Florida State University researcher specializing in the use of bone and tooth histology to interpret dinosaur paleobiology, said that the discovery of a hadrosaur this far north “challenges everything we thought about a dinosaur’s physiology. It creates this natural question. How did they survive up here?”

More than 6,000 bones from the new species have been discovered at the Colville River site, primarily from juveniles believed to be approximately nine feet long and three feet tall at their hips, the study authors reported. Druckenmiller believes that the bones belonged to a herd of young hadrosaurs that had been wiped out suddenly and unexpectedly.

“Ugrunaaluk is far and away the most complete dinosaur yet found in the Arctic or any polar region. We have multiple elements of every single bone in the body,” he said, adding that the discovery “provides further evidence that the dinosaurs living in polar latitudes in what is now Alaska were not the same species found from the same time periods in lower latitudes.”

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Feature Image: This original painting by James Havens of Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis, the new species of duck-billed dinosaur described in research published today in the international journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, illustrates a scene from ancient Alaska during the Cretaceous Period. (Credit: James Havens)

Health

A unique poo cloud follows you around everywhere you go

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Emily Bills

The Cloud seems to be everywhere these days: On your computer, phones, and now, your very own body. Well, sort of—because according to research out of the University of Oregon, every human possesses their own microbial cloud. (Sorry, germophobes.)

As it turns out, every human gives off millions of bacteria into the air every day, and this “aura” is unique to each person. The researchers demonstrated this after studying the air around 11 subjects, according to a press release.

The participants sat alone inside a sanitized chamber, each emitting a unique combination of bacteria. Most of the subjects could be identified by their cloud within four hours, specifically by several groups of bacteria: Streptococcus (usually found in the mouth), Propionibacterium (found on skin), and Corynebacterium (also skin). All participants had these bacteria, but the various combinations served to distinguish each person.

The cloud bacteria were analyzed via short-read 16S sequencing—an analysis of bacterial genes in order to identify different bacteria types, used in this case to identify entire bacterial communities in lieu of specific pathogens. More than 14 million gene sequences were run, spread out between 312 air and dust samples.

Your mom was right: You are unique!

“We expected that we would be able to detect the human microbiome in the air around a person, but we were surprised to find that we could identify most of the occupants just by sampling their microbial cloud,” said lead author James F. Meadow, a postdoctoral researcher formerly from the Biology and the Built Environment Center at the University of Oregon.

“[O]ur study suggests that bacterial emissions from a relatively inactive person, sitting at a desk for instance, have a strong influence on the bacteria circulating in an enclosed space and on surrounding surfaces.”

This information—although from a small sample size—sheds a new light on how an individual’s microbiome (bacteria) can spread to the surrounding environment. This means we may have a new mechanism for understanding the spread of infectious diseases, and may even have forensic applications by allowing scientists to trace where someone has been.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

Breakthrough: Lab-grown kidneys work in animals

Written By: Brett Smith

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Emily Bills

A team of scientists has successfully transplanted lab-grown kidneys into pigs and rats, according to a new report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The transplanted kidneys were able to successfully pass urine without issue, while past attempts had been hampered by the organ retaining urine and swelling under the added pressure. The study team bypassed this problem by building extra plumbing within the kidneys.

While human trials of lab-grown kidneys are still years away, the study marks the jumping of a key hurdle.

“This is an interesting step forward,” Chris Mason, an expert in stem cells and regenerative medicine at University College London, told BBC News. “The science looks strong and they have good data in animals.”

The future for lab grown organs

“But that’s not to say this will work in humans,” added Mason, who was not directly involved in the study. “We are still years off that. It’s very much mechanistic. It moves us closer to understanding how the plumbing might work.”

“At least with kidneys, we can dialyze patients for a while so there would be time to grow kidneys if that becomes possible,” he said.

In the study, researchers built their kidneys from stem cells. Rather than just growing a kidney for the host animal, the team also grew a drainage tube, as well as a bladder to gather and keep urine. When the team linked up the lab-grown system, urine passed from the transplanted kidney into the transplanted bladder and into the rat bladder. At eight weeks, the transplant was still working well.

Finally, the team duplicated the procedure on a pig, achieving exactly the same results.

In addition to using stem cells to create whole organs for transplant, researchers are also using stem cells to grow organs for diagnostic purposes. According to a report published earlier this year, cancer researchers are using stem cells to grow mini organs to develop personalized cancer treatments.

In the study, the researchers grew miniature tumors similar from cancer patients’ original tumors on miniature organs grow from the patients’ stem cells. The team was able to determine which drugs would be most effective at fighting cancer in each individual.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

Drug price goes up 5000% overnight

Written By: John Hopton

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Emily Bills

A former hedge fund manager and now boss of a start-up pharmaceutical company has defended the staggering rise in cost of a drug used to treat life-threatening infections.

The drug, Daraprim, is part of the standard first treatment for toxoplasmosis, a parasite infection that can cause serious problems for babies born to women who become infected during pregnancy, and for people with weakened immune systems such as AIDS and cancer patients.

Daraprim was acquired in August by Turing Pharmaceuticals, which immediately raised the price from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet.

The defense

Defending the rise, Martin Shkreli, the former financier and now chief executive of Turing, claimed the drug is so rarely used that the impact on the health system would be small. He also said Turing would use the money it earns to develop better treatments for toxoplasmosis, with fewer side effects.

“This isn’t the greedy drug company trying to gouge patients, it is us trying to stay in business,” Shkreli said, quoted in The New York Times’ report on the story. He added that many patients use the drug for much less than a year and that the price was now more in line with those of other drugs for rare diseases.

“This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world,” he continued. “It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.”

Dr. Rima McLeod, medical director of the toxoplasmosis center at the University of Chicago, also said that Turing had delivered drugs quickly to patients, sometimes without charge.

“They have jumped every time I’ve called,” she explained, and suggested that despite the price increase the situation seemed workable.

Outcry from specialists

However, plenty of other health care professionals have been quick to protest the increase. Dr. Judith Aberg of Mount Sinai said the major hospital was continuing to use the drug, but each use now required a special review.

“This seems to be all profit-driven for somebody,” she said, “and I just think it’s a very dangerous process. What is it that they are doing differently that has led to this dramatic increase?”

Meanwhile, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association sent a joint letter to Turing earlier this month calling the price increase for Daraprim “unjustifiable for the medically vulnerable patient population” and “unsustainable for the health care system.”

Despite his protest against complaints, this is not the first time Shkreli has been accused of putting profit before propriety. His former company Retrophin also acquired old, neglected drugs and then sharply raised their prices. Retrophin’s board recently fired him, claiming he had been using Retrophin as a way to pay back angry investors in his hedge fund. (He denied the accusations and has filed for arbitration against his old company).

Shkreli also started the hedge fund company MSMB Capital, and was accused of urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) not to approve certain drugs made by companies whose stock he was shorting.

Can the drug still be obtained reasonably?

The New York Times explained that federal rules will still allow Medicaid and certain hospitals to get Daraprim inexpensively. But private insurers, Medicare, and hospitalized patients will have to pay an amount closer to the list price.

The drug was approved by the FDA way back in 1953, and the patent is long expired. There is therefore the possibility that other companies could make their own, generic versions, but they are limited by distribution restrictions which make it difficult for them to get the samples they need for the required testing.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Space

Astronauts get exclusive screening of ‘The Martian’…in space!

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Emily Bills

What better venue could there be to enjoy a movie about space than space itself? Over this past weekend, that’s exactly what the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) did as they were treated to an early screening of the upcoming sci-fi film The Martian.

The Martian, which is based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name, stars Matt Damon as an astronaut who is presumed dead during a journey to Mars and left behind on the Red Planet. The film shows his struggles to stay alive with the hopes that he will ultimately be rescued.

While the film, which co-stars Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, and Kate Mara, is not due out until next month, the ISS crew were able to get an early sneak peek while in zero gravity.

According to Entertainment Weekly, astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren took to social media to share photos of their fellow crew members watching the film, and Lindgren tweeted out that it was a treat to watch the movie and “see reflections of our own journey to Mars!”

Thumbs up or thumbs down?

In the movie, Damon’s character attempts to survive on Mars for four years in a habitat which was only designed to support him for a month, according to CNET. Kelly, who is in the middle of a one-year mission in space, is participating in a series of experiments to see how the human body and mind might respond to an actual mission to Mars.

While neither Kelly nor Lindgren, who had the opportunity to speak to Damon via phone as the actor toured NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California last month, publicly shared their reviews of the movie, they appeared to enjoy the experience. Both of the astronauts previously said they liked the book and were looking forward to the movie.

The Martian is not the first movie that the ISS astronauts have been able to see in zero gravity. In fact, it isn’t even the first depicting a space-related mishap, as the crew of the orbiting laboratory previously viewed the Oscar-winning film Gravity, Philly.com said. As for those of us stuck here on Earth, we will get our first chance to see The Martian when it comes out in the US on October 2.

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Feature Image: Scott Kelly/Twitter

Health

Guevedoces: The boys who don’t grow a penis until age 12

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Emily Bills

Typically, when a person changes gender they make a conscious choice to do so, but not in the unusual case of the “Guevedoces”, a group of children who live in the Dominican Republic and appear to start out life as girls before growing a penis during puberty.

This condition affects one out of every 90 boys in the area, Dr. Michael Mosley, who presented a documentary on the condition that aired Monday night in the UK, wrote in a companion story for the Telegraph. At birth, these boys are born with no testes and what appears to be a vagina, but when they near puberty, their penis grows and testicles descend, he explained.

The children are called “Guevedoces”, which literally translates to “penis at twelve”, as well as by the alternate name “machihembras”, meaning “first a woman, then a man.” As unusual as the transition may sound, Dr. Mosley said that once it happens, the boys are able to live out normal lives as men, although they tend to have small prostates and other less-developed features.

In his article, he also documented the case of Johnny, who was previously known as Felicita and lived as a girl until he began to change at the age of seven. Now an adult, Johnny said that he had stated wanting to play with boys and toy guns instead of girls, adding that he had been teased at school because “it is hard to imagine a girl that is now is a boy.”

What causes this to happen?

Among the first scientists to investigate the unusual transformation taking place in this part of the world was a Cornell University endocrinologist named Dr. Julianne Imperato, who started traveling to the affected part of the Dominican Republic four decades ago after hearing rumors of girls changing into boys.

What Dr. Imperato eventually discovered is that Guavadoces lack male genitalia at birth because they deficient in 5-α-reductase, an enzyme which converts testosterone into dihydro-testosterone. Thus, they appear to be female when they are born, but around the time puberty hits, their bodies produce another surge of testosterone, causing the development of a penis and testes.

Dr. Imperato’s research was eventually picked up by US pharmaceutical company Merck, which used it to developed a drug known as finasteride that which blocks the action of 5-α-reductase. It is now used to treat enlarged prostate and male pattern baldness throughout the world, according to Dr. Mosley.

“In addition to the Dominican Republic, cases of 5-alpha reductase deficiency have been found in Papua New Guinea, Turkey and Egypt,” Live Science reported. The website added that these boys are not technically classified as transgender because they identify with their biological sex, despite being raised as girls at an early age.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Technology

Professor: US-Mexico border wall is ‘nonsense’

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Christopher Pilny

The idea of building a massive wall between the US and Mexico is ridiculous, and the best way to handle the issue of immigration would be to simply open the border, one expert on the issue argues in a new book.

Robert F. Barsky, a professor of French, English, and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University and author of the book Undocumented Immigrants in an Era of Arbitrary Law: The Flight and the Plight of People Deemed Illegal, came to that conclusion after spending more than a decade interviewing lawyers, interpreters, law enforcement offices, migrants, and others.

Despite recent claims from some presidential candidates, Barsky said that he found no evidence to suggest that immigrants from Mexico were responsible for a higher percentage of crime in the US than the domestic population. In fact, he said, given the risks inherent in crossing the border and the odds of being caught, criminals trying to enter the country do so at their own risk.

Furthermore, Barsky believes that opening borders would make them even easier to police, as a greater number of people would enter the country legally instead of attempting to sneak in with the help of smugglers or human traffickers – the latter of which often ends in tragedy.

Open borders would be safer, better for businesses

In regards to safety issues, the professor said immigration laws themselves keep undocumented men and women living in the shadows. Undocumented immigrants are far less likely to call the police if and when they see a crime being committed, he explained, since those same police could potentially be their adversaries and force them out of the country.

Barsky also said that it was unlikely that the US would be overrun with Mexicans if the borders were open, due to ties that people have this their families and their communities in the countries which they were born in. He also asserts that open borders would be beneficial to businesses, as companies would not have to worry about deliveries or the possible detainment of employees.

Europe, the author explained, should serve as an example to the US: “Who could have possibly imagined that just 75 years after World War II there would be free movement, and people in France would legally work in Germany and people in Germany would legally work in France?”

Open borders would also enable people to come to the States temporarily and then return home rather than getting stuck in a foreign land against their will, and would also spell the end of the “ripping apart of families.” It would allow children to “stay with their parents” and “be educated in the host country legally,” Barsky added. “It means bringing people out of the shadows.”

Science

UK scientists request permission to edit human embryo DNA

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Christopher Pilny

Scientists at the UK’s Francis Crick Institute have petitioned the government for permission to genetically modify human embryos for the first time as part of a series of experiments designed to learn more about infertility and the early stages of human development.

According to BBC News, lead investigator and stem cell scientist Dr. Kathy Niakan said that the goal was to study the genes which human embryos need to successfully develop, and that in line with British regulations, the embryos would be destroyed and not used following the study.

Dr. Niakan emphasized that she had no intention of genetically altering babies for reproductive purposes, Reuters reported. In a statement, she said that the knowledge gained by modifying the donated embryos “may improve embryo development after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and might provide better clinical treatments for infertility.”

The Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed that it had received an application to use the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique in a licensed research project, and said that the request would be considered in due time. No ruling is expected for at least several weeks, possibly even months, BBC News said.

Research has ‘tremendous scientific potential,’ experts say

The request comes months after a team of Chinese scientists announced that they had genetically modified human embryos, sparking a global outcry among those who believe such research may ultimately lead to the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 technique to create designer babies.

The US has imposed a moratorium on federally-funded research in this area, but in the UK, such experiments can be conducted for research purposes, provided scientists obtain a license. Edited embryos cannot be used in IVF treatments, though – something that Francis Crick Institute head Professor Robin Lovell-Badge told the BBC would be “foolish” at this point anyway.

“While I am certain that people in other countries will be paying close attention to both how the HFEA handle this license application and, if it is granted, how the research progresses, it does not really warrant this attention,” Lovell-Badge told Scientific American. “The use of genome-editing techniques in this context is really the same as using any other method on an embryo that is not going to be implanted into a woman, and which will be destroyed after a few days.”

Dr. Sarah Chan from Edinburgh University’s Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics said the request for HFEA permission “should be cause for confidence, not concern,” telling Reuters, “Genome editing research undeniably has tremendous scientific potential, and UK scientists are poised to make a world-leading contribution to this exciting field.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Space

So…Mercury could one day collide with Earth

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 22, 2015 Last Edited: September 22, 2015

Christopher Pilny

Doomsday theories have long suggested that a giant asteroid could crash into the Earth, and that such an impact would have a devastating impact on the planet. But what if an asteroid wasn’t the space rock that humanity needed to be most concerned about?

According to Science, there exists an apocalyptic scenario suggesting that Mercury could one day collide with the Earth, wiping out all life on the planet. Fortunately, newly published work led by University of Hawaii, Manoa physicist Richard Zeebe, has revealed that such a possibility is far less likely than previously believed.

As part of his research, which appeared in the September 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal, Zeebe used a Cray supercomputer that had just been purchased by his university to run a total of 1,600 simulations of our solar system’s future – each with Mercury in a different position.

None of those simulations ended with the two planets colliding over a span of five billion years, the study author explained. He concluded that our planet’s orbit is highly stable over that period of time, and that the odds of another world crashing into Earth are, shall we say, astronomical.

Earth may (or may) not be safe, but Mercury could be in trouble

However, not everyone agrees that mankind and breathe easy. Jacques Laskar, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory would previously was part of a team that conducted a greater number of computer simulations (over 2,500) and found that Earth may be susceptible to massive collisions, said that Zeebe did not run enough simulations to discover such a rare occurrence.

“It’s like if someone was in a lake, he fished for two hours, he says, ‘I don’t find any fish, so there are no fish in this lake,’ ” Laskar told Science. In response Zeebe said that while he conducted less simulations, his more effectively tracked Mercury while it was moving at high speed, as happens when the planet is in an elongated orbit that brings it closer to the sun, the website said.

One point the two scientists do apparently agree on is that Mercury faces an uncertain future. In about one percent of both Laskar and Zeebe’s simulations, the planet ultimately acquires a highly elliptical orbit. In three instances, it wound up colliding with the sun, and in seven others, it hit Venus. While that event produced no adverse effects for Earth, “it would be quite a spectacle,” the University of hawaii physicist told Science.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

How healthy is eating liquid meal replacements for an entire year?

Written By: Mari-Chris Savage, MS, RD, LD, ACE

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

Nutritional company Huel is offering 35,000 euros (approximately $40,000 in US dollars) if participants do not put one piece of food in their mouth for 365 days. What is the company asking them to eat?
What they are asking them to drink is the better question. Huel is a liquid meal replacement that was formulated by registered dietitian Julian Hearn. The goal of Huel, a powder formula, is to provide 100% of the macronutrients (carbs, protein, and fat) and 100% of micronutrients (vitamins & minerals) needed to function. Simply mix the powder with water and voilà! Dinner is served. But is this safe to do for an entire year?
What’s in it?
From a pathophysiological standpoint, Huel would be completely safe to consume solely for an entire year. The body has a list of essential ingredients that one must get from natural compounds to support biological function. Peas and brown rice are the main sources of protein supplying 150 grams per day. (Whether this is too much protein is up for another discussion.) Vitamin B12 is added to balance the vegetarian source of protein.
For the fatty acid needs, flaxseed oil, coconut MCT powder (medium chain triglycerides), and sunflower lecithin are mixed in to provide an optimum ratio of omega 6 to omega 3s of approximately 1:1.
While carbohydrates are not necessarily essential, many individuals cannot function on a diet less of than 20 to 40%. Thus, oat flour is included at a ratio of 40% of the total caloric content. The oat flour also adds much needed fiber to help with digestion and health of the GI track.
The complete array of recommended vitamins and minerals were added to meet all governmental guidelines. The sources of all these ingredients are claimed to be from a natural source; however, the actual sourcing of each ingredient is left off the company’s website, leaving room for interpretation.
While Huel consumers going for the prize may only be allowed to eye the vat of wings covered with barbecue sauce on game day, they may be gaining back in other ways. Food cost, time management, and environmental factors could possibly negate the loss of such simple pleasures. The company’s mission “is to make a nutritionally complete, universally affordable food, with minimum impact on the environment.” And, this is the essence of the challenge: to fully understand the role of food outside of the pathophysiological workings.
So, the questions are still out: Will life be bearable without a daily pumpkin spiced latte? Will friendships crash over no happy hours? We shall soon find out.
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Feature Image: Huel

Health

What exactly is gout?

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

Gout used to be something associated with the rich, but now that many of us have greater access to different foods, it has become much more ubiquitous. So what is gout? Does it just happen when you eat too much?

First and foremost, gout is a form of arthritis—and one of the most painful forms at that. It occurs when a substance known as uric acid builds up inside your body. Uric acid is a normal byproduct of your body breaking down certain kinds of DNA components known as purines. Because purines are a component of DNA, they reside in all of your body’s tissues and in most foods you eat, but are especially prevalent in foods like liver, dried beans and peas, and anchovies.

Under normal circumstances, uric acid just dissolves into the blood, and later is filtered by your kidneys to leave your body in urine. But if uric acid builds up too much in the blood, it can form crystals that gather in the joints. After the crystals form, gout doesn’t stay forever—it tends to have flare-ups known as attacks.

But how does uric acid build up in the blood?

There are generally three ways: First, your body starts producing more of it on its own; second, your kidneys lose some of their ability to filter it normally; and third, when you eat too many foods high in purines.

A high level of uric acid does not always lead to gout, but if the crystals begin to form, the big toes are usually affected first. The gout attack is painful and sudden enough that people are awoken from sleep—and the weight of even a sheet on the toe can feel excruciating once this happens.

From there, it can spread to other areas—the insteps, ankles, heels, knees, wrists, fingers, and elbows. These regions can become painful, swollen, red, hot to the touch, and stiff. Attacks tend to get better in three to ten days, and can be spread apart by years—but stress, alcohol, drugs, and other illnesses can trigger them again.

Happily, there are simple treatments for gout. For prevention, monitoring diet, alcohol intake, and a healthy weight can help prevent attacks. (Be careful not to lose weight very quickly, however—that can trigger an attack.) While experiencing a flare-up, NSAIDs (like ibuprofen) are given to help manage pain, while corticosteroids (like prednisone) help manage swelling and pain as well. Further, the medication colchicine is specifically indicated for usage in gout, and is used to both help with an attack and to prevent future ones. So if you are concerned about your health, please consult a doctor.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Technology

ManiMatch app lets you try on nail polish virtually

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

It’s a common problem: A nail polish looks amazing in the bottle, but when you finally apply it at home, your nails look like your dog puked on them. Happily, Sally Hansen has a solution: An iPhone app that lets you virtually try on nail polish.

“When we look at the nail environment in retail right now in the U.S., there’s no way for consumers to try nail polish on at the shelf,” Kristen D’Arcy, global digital vice president of Coty Inc., which manufacturers Sally Hansen products, told Mashable.

“What we saw that was happening was a lot of people would grab the bottles and paint the wall, paint the signage, paint directly on the nail polish they already have on, just because they really wanted to see what would the shade look like on their nail.”

Save the manis!

So Sally Hansen came up with a “handy” (we’re not sorry) solution: ManiMatch. This app uses an augmented reality approach—as in, the app scans your hand using your camera live. You can use this in a few different ways. First, if you like a color you see in a store, you can scan the barcode and your hand to “try it on”—as in, it will overlay the color onto your nails on your phone screen.

Or, if you want to get personalized recommendations, the app can just scan your hand and give color options best suited for your skin tone. Once this step is complete, you can choose one of the recommended colors to try on.

“Everyone of course has different undertones and contrasts with the colors, so it’s important to be able to try it on,” said Madeline Poole, Sally Hansen’s global color ambassador and trend expert. “You might try on a shirt. It looks amazing on a rack, but when you try it on, it washes you out, or it doesn’t bring out the color of your eyes or your hair or whatever, so it’s the same kind of concept.”

You aren’t bound just by the suggested colors, however. There are over 200 shades you can browse through and try, or you can search through specific product lines, like gel polishes. In the future, nail art tutorials will be added to the app, and you’ll be able to try on nail art, too.

Currently, if you’re struck by a color, you can buy it through ManiMatch—but only if you have an iPhone. The Android version won’t be out for a few months yet.

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Feature Image: ManiMatch

Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia: Managing the Mysterious Pain

Written By: admin

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

admin

Dealing with the never ceasing pain that comes with suffering from fibromyalgia is a life-long struggle. While sufferers can’t make the pain stop, there are techniques for managing that pain so sufferers lead more normal lives.

Space

Black hole collision could be happen sooner than expected

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

A collision of two supermassive black holes in a far-off galaxy originally predicted by a team of Caltech astronomers last year is not only going to happen, but could even be taking place sooner than originally anticipated, new research led by Columbia University has discovered.

According to CNET and the New York Times, the two enormous and distant regions of spacetime are on a collision course with one another, and while they may be in a galaxy located roughly 3.5 billion light-years away, their impact is expected to release over 100 quintillion Earths filled with TNT – and the new study has moved up the timetable for this cosmic car wreck.

Previous observations have revealed that these black holes are spiraling around each other in slow-motion at a distance of just one-light week. Writing last Wednesday in the journal Nature, the authors reported that their calculations predict that the event will occur in just 100,000 years, not in more than a million years as had been previously predicted.

The good news is that this slow-motion collision is taking place in the Virgo constellation, and the impact is unlikely to have an impact on our solar system. However, the collision will likely result in the destruction of the galaxy, creating gravitational waves (violent ripples in space-time) strong enough to fling stars out of the galaxy and send ripples throughout the universe.

Black holes are closer than previously thought

Lead author Daniel D’Orazio and his colleagues found that the majority of the light being given off by the quasar at the center of the galaxy, PG 1302-102, was coming from a large disc of gas surrounding the smaller of the two black holes. As it and its larger companion travel around one another at high speeds, that light will be enhanced through a Doppler boost.

A Doppler boost is a series of relativistic effect similar in nature to the way in which a noisy siren grows louder and higher in pitch as it draws nearer. As a result, the galaxy would appear brighter every five years, and the Columbia astronomers used both the Hubble and Galex telescopes to find that this variation is up to three times larger in ultraviolet light.

Using this data, they developed a model suggesting that the two black holes are actually orbiting each other at a distance of just 200 billion miles, or less than one-tenth of a light-year. At such a distance, the black holes would be rapidly losing energy by radiating gravitational waves, which means that they could collide in as little as 100,000 years, depending upon their masses.

“This is the closest we’ve come to observing two black holes on their way to a massive collision,” senior author Zoltan Haiman said, according to CNET.

“Watching this process reach its culmination can tell us whether black holes and galaxies grow at the same rate, and ultimately test a fundamental property of space-time: its ability to carry vibrations called gravitational waves, produced in the last, most violent, stage of the merger.”

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Feature Image: P. Marenfeld/NOAO/AURA/NSF

Science

5,000-year-old throne discovered in Turkey

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

Remnants of what is believed to be part of an 5,000-year-old throne made from adobe have been discovered by archaeologists working at an excavation site in eastern Turkey, and the find could help establish when governmental powers became secularized in that nation.

The base of this purported throne was unearthed during excavations in Aslantepe in the Turkish province of Malatya. According to Discovery News, it consists of a platform made from earth and organic material that was raised by three steps above the surface. Burnt wooden pieces were found on top of the structure as well.

“The burnt wooden fragments are likely the remains of a chair or throne,” Marcella Frangipane from La Sapienza University in Rome, the director of the ongoing excavation, explained. “It’s the world’s first evidence of a real palace and it is extremely well preserved, with walls standing two meters high.”

Frangipane and her colleagues believe that the complex, which includes a pair of temples along with storage rooms, several other buildings, and a large entrance corridor, dates back to between 3350 to 3100 AC (fourth millennium BC). Some of the walls in the complex are decorated with black and red motifs and have geometrical impressed patterns.

Evidence of a shift in power from church to state

“In the past two campaigns we found a large courtyard which can be reached through the corridor. On the courtyard stands a monumental building,” said Frangipane said. It was inside this building that she found the adobe platform, standing within a small room that opened out into the courtyard.

The archaeologists believe that the discovery represents one of the earliest pieces of evidence of the birth of the state-led political system, and that the king or chief would have appeared in this throne room to give an audience to members of the public who had gathered in the courtyard.

A pair of low, small adobe platforms were also discovered in front of the platform believed to be where the throne stood, and the team believes that these were constructed for people to stand on while appearing before the king. These remains, Frangipane told Discovery News, are the first evidence of a transition in power from the church to a secular government.

“This reception courtyard and building were not a temple complex, they rather appear as the heart of the palace. We do not have religious rites here, but a ceremony showing the power of the ‘king’ and the state,” she explained. “The state governing system was already in progress here.”

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Feature Image: Marcella Frangipane

Space

Can we extract water from asteroids using extreme heat?

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

In what is being called a potential “game changer” for the proposed use of asteroids as a way to gather resources for space exploration, one company is developing a new technique of gathering water and other valuable minerals out of interstellar rocks using light and heat.

According to Space.com, the technique is known as “optical mining.” Supporters believe that the method would allow large quantities of asteroid water to be collected and used to help create a less expensive, more accessible propellant for shuttles and probes traveling through space.

Known as the Asteroid Provided In-Situ Supplies (Apis) plan, the patent-pending, NASA-funded technique could significantly reduce the cost of spaceflight. Apis team scientists presented their NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC)-funded concept earlier this month at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ (AIAA) Space 2015 meeting.

Apis is funded in part by an NIAC fellowship and grant, and principal investigator Joel Sercel, founder and principal engineer at ICS Associates Inc. and TransAstra, told Space.com that they are in the process of “putting together a business model… that moves reusability into space and more commercial methods and practices into deep space.”

Sercel, who formerly worked at the US space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and helped create the NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) ion propulsion system used on the Dawn spacecraft, said Apis could support space exploration by offering consumables and propellant for forthcoming missions to the moon and Mars.

But does it actually work?

The goal of the Apis optical mining method, Sercel told Space.com, is to excavate carbonaceous chondrite asteroid surfaces, forcing water and other volatile substances out of excavated material and into an inflatable bag – and doing it all without the need for complex robotic machines.

His team proposes harvesting up to 100 metric tons of water from a near-Earth asteroid, and then taking the collected material to a depot location (possibly in orbit around the moon) using a lone SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. Sercel said that he and his colleagues have already conducted a series of simulations and experiments to find out how the approach would work in space.

The Apis team is using the large solar furnace at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as part of their experiments, and by the end of next month, he said that they will conduct a series of proof-of-concept experiments in which they will superheat mock asteroids, using mirrors to simulate reflected and concentrated sunlight.

The ultimate goal is to use a process called spalling, in which miniature but explosive pops of expanding gas force out particles and other gases, from which water and other volatiles could be harvested. Sercel told Space.com that he hopes the upcoming experiments demonstrate that the materials can be excavated using highly-concentrated beams of optical energy.

“It actually digs holes and tunnels into the rock,” he said. “The heat goes in, is absorbed in thin layers and drives out the volatiles in tiny, explosive-like pops that eject material in a controllable way. We believe that highly concentrated sunlight can drill holes, excavate, disrupt, and shape an asteroid while the asteroid is enclosed in a containment bag.”

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Feature Image: NASA

Story Image: TransAstra

Health

Report: 95 percent of deceased NFL players had brain disease

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 21, 2015 Last Edited: September 21, 2015

Emily Bills

Eighty-seven out of 91 deceased former National Football League (NFL) players tested positive for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease linked to concussions, a new study published Friday by Frontline has revealed.

The research, which was carried out by doctors at Boston University and the US Department of Veterans Affairs, also identified CTE in 79 percent (131 of 165) of all football players analyzed, ESPN and CBS Sports reported. The results also indicated that 40 percent of the positive tests came from the brains of offensive or defensive linemen.

Dr. Ann McKee, chief of neuropathology at the VA Boston Healthcare System, explained that the findings indicate that CTE is a “very real disease. People think that we’re blowing this out of proportion, that this is a very rare disease and that we’re sensationalizing it… [from] where I sit, this is a very real disease. We have had no problem identifying it in hundreds of players.”

While concussions are one of the likely causes of the condition, recent studies have shown that minor head trauma occurring regularly during the course of a football game poses as much of a risk (if not more) than periodic and more violent collisions. The disease can cause memory loss, depression, and dementia, scientists have discovered.

Pro football ‘has never been safer,’ NFL doctor claims

In recent years, three former players who committed suicide (Dave Duerson, Ray Easterling, and Junior Seau) were all found to have CTE, and in 2010, the NFL gave a $1 million donation to the same brain bank that helped carry out the new study.

While the authors said that the high percentage of CTE cases should concern the league, they did caution that their findings were somewhat skewed, as many of the brains which has been donated to the lab came from former players who already believed that they had the condition. Currently, CTE can only be definitively diagnosed post-mortem, but doctors are using brain scans to try and detect signs of the disease in living athletes.

In a statement, the NFL said that it is “dedicated to making football safer and continue to take steps to protect players, including rule changes, advanced sideline technology, and expanded medical resources. We continue to make significant investments in independent research through our gifts to Boston University, the [National Institutes of Health] and other efforts to accelerate the science and understanding of these issues.”

Dr. Joseph Maroon, a neurosurgeon with the Pittsburgh Steelers who advises the NFL on head, neck, and spine injuries, downplayed the risk of CTE earlier this year, according to ESPN.com. Dr. Maroon said that the game “has never been safer.”

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Feature Image: Erik Drost/Flickr

Technology

What makes a successful internet advocacy campaign?

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

Internet campaigns about humanitarian crises seem to be the new alternative to Sarah McLaughlin making you want to curl in a ball for a few days, and they can be extremely popular (remember KONY 2012?). But what elements are necessary to make such campaigns successful? Dr. Martin Scott of the University of East Anglia decided to find out.

The study, which was published in the International Communication Gazette, involved 52 UK internet users. They were monitored over two months and were asked to complete tasks such as finding out more about issues in developing countries, and to discuss their online experiences in group meetings.

Martin defined a successful campaign as one that promotes a greater understanding of a crisis and encourages people to become more involved, whether by donating money, singing a petition, volunteering, or making changing consumption habits so as to be more ethical. And as it turns out, there are two major elements that seem to make internet campaigns more legitimate and successful: Novelty and surprise.

The smaller, the better

Participants reacted much more positively to campaigns from organizations they didn’t recognize, like Charity Navigator (a resource that helps people decide where to give donations). The more well-known groups, like Christian Aid and Save the Children, led to more dismissive attitudes, especially toward traditional campaigns and appeals.

“The reasons why people might dismiss a television appeal seem to be simply transferred or modified for online campaigns,” explained Scott. “For example, they feel they are being manipulated or that they are not being told the whole truth. The key implication is that campaigns – both online and offline – often have to be surprising in order to be effective. When the participants in this study did respond positively, it was when they were unfamiliar with the organization or not sure how to deal with the information they were getting. Campaigns that don’t challenge well-established patterns of avoidance are less likely to succeed.”

Further, campaigns that required a lot of time in order to find and search through online material—or that relay their information via non-news sources like blogs and social media—tended to discourage the participants.

Scott added, “We can’t respond to every humanitarian appeal we see on television or online. So I’m interested in why we respond to some appeals and campaigns and not others, and in particular, whether there is anything special about the internet which makes people more or less likely to engage with a campaign. These results suggest that there isn’t.”

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Science

Urination duration, unboiled egg research ‘honored’ at Ig Nobel awards

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

A study which determined that most mammals take about the same amount of time to pee and the development of a chemical formula to partially unboil an egg were two of the 10 big winners of the 2015 Ig Noble awards, a parody of the world’s top scientific honors.

Patricia Yang, a PhD student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, and her colleagues won the physics prize for modeling the fluid dynamics involved in the urination process and revealing that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in about 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds).

They tested a variety of different creatures, included rats, goats, cows and elephants, and found that all mammals weighing more than 3kg empty their bladders in roughly the same amount of time – although they did discover that smaller animals break this rule. For instance, Yang’s team found that rats can urinate completely in less than a second, according to BBC News.

Colin Raston from Flinders University and his colleagues earned the top prize in chemistry for creating the vortex fluidic device, which unravels proteins or “unboils” an egg, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The device has already been used to improve the delivery of carboplatin, a drug commonly used to treat ovarian and lung cancers.

Benefits of kissing, chickens that walk like dinosaurs also awarded

Other studies that were recognized that the awards ceremony, which is held each year at Harvard University, include a study that found the word “huh?” or its equivalent in every human language (literature prize), one that found many business leaders started liking to take risks after emerging unscathed from natural disasters (management prize) and two teams that were jointly honored for looking at the health benefits or consequences of intense kissing (medicine prize).

New reports revealing that the Bangkok Metropolitan Police department paid officers extra cash for refusing to take bribes (economics prize), a study which tried to use mathematical methods to determine if and how a former Moroccan emperor managed to father 888 children (mathematics prize) and research which found that attaching a weighted stick to a chicken’s hindquarters made it walk in a manner similar to that associated with dinosaurs (biology prize) were also honored.

Rounding out the honorees were studies determining that acute appendicitis can be accurately diagnosed by the amount of pain experienced by a patient when driven over speed bumps (diagnostic medicine prize), and two probing which type of insect stings cause the most pain and which parts of the body hurt the worst after being stung – the latter of which involved a scientist willingly getting stung by bees for the cause of science (physiology and entomology prize).

The Ig Nobel awards, which are run by the folks behind the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, are not meant to be mean spirited, according to the organizers. Instead, they are designed to “celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative – and spur people’s interest in science, medicine, and technology.”

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Health

Has a French startup created the first ‘test tube’ sperm?

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

We may have found long sought-after breakthrough in infertility treatment, as a French company claims that its scientists, along with researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), have developed in-vitro human sperm.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the biotech startup Kallistem had announced their discovery previously, but obtained a patent for their process after they and CNRS laboratory workers detailed how it worked for the first time at a Thursday press conference. Officials at CNRS confirmed the success of their research in a September 17 press release.

To pull off the feat, the scientists developed sperm from spermatogonial cells, immature cells that are present in all males, including pre-pubescent boys, the AP said. Ordinarily, these cells develop into sperm cells at the start of puberty. They used chitosan, a substance present in the cell walls of fungi, to design a bioreactor which make in-vitro sperm generation possible.

The team had been trying for 15 years to produce male reproductive cells outside of the body, finally succeeding at the end of 2014. In June 2015, they published a patent for what they are calling the “Artistem” system. The next step, the AP said, is for the technology to be clinically tested – a process which is always difficult when it comes to reproductive aids.

Men likely to welcome this new infertility treatment

“This breakthrough opens the way for therapeutic avenues that have been eagerly awaited by clinicians for many years,” the CNRS said. “No treatment is currently available to preserve the fertility of young, prepubertal boys undergoing gonadotoxic treatments, such as certain types of chemotherapy. Yet more than 15,000 young cancer patients are affected throughout the world.”

“Nor is there any solution for the 120,000 adult men who suffer from infertility that cannot be treated using existing technologies… Through the Artistem technique, Kallistem hopes to meet the needs of these two patient groups,” they added. The research was conducted by Kallistem’s scientific director Philippe Durand and CNRS researcher Marie-Hélène Perrard.

Durand told the AP that the interior of the testicle is the origin of most male fertility issues, so he and his colleagues first attempted to replicate the male gonad in the lab. Using their bioreactor, the researchers reproduced the conditions found within the human body, then started by using rat cells (then monkey cells, and finally human one) to recreate the sperm development process.

According to statistics attributed to the Mayo Clinic, up to 15 percent of couples are infertile. Men and women each account for approximately 30 percent of all infertility cases, they said, while a combination of factors are responsible for the other 40 percent.

“As a culture we presume that when a couple is infertile it’s a woman’s problem,” Liberty Barnes, a research associate at the University of Cambridge and the author of a book on male infertility who was not associated with the French research, told the AP. “Infertile men are disappointed that there aren’t more options for them,” but this new breakthrough could change that.

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Technology

Sharp to release first-ever 8K TV in October

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

HDTV? A relic from the past. 4K television sets? Yesterday’s news. The big news in the TV industry is the soon-to-be-released 8K or Super Hi-Vision sets Sharp is reportedly planning to release next month – but if you want one, you’d better have a six-digit checking account.

According to Fortune and CBS News, the new televisions will have a resolution of 7,680 pixels by 4,320 pixels – 16 times that of today’s high-definition sets and four times that of 4K models (and better than most movie theaters, reports indicate).

The TVs will be released on October 30, but will only be offered initially to broadcasters and to video production companies, since no content is currently being aired or streamed in 8K. Even if the Super Hi-Vision sets were released to the general public, however, very few people would be likely to purchase one, given their 16,000,000 yen ($125,000 to $133,000) price tag.

Advances coming ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Prototype 8K televisions were demonstrated by Sharp, as well as by LG and Samsung, during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas back in January. Sharp also plans to show off a model at the Ceatec Japan 2015 electronics expo in early October, but media outlets indicate that it will likely be until at least 2018 before consumer versions hit store shelves.

Engadget reports Sharp’s TV will feature an 85-inch LCD, and likely won’t be widely available for another four to five years. Before then, upgrades will need to be made to the broadcasting infrastructure so that 8K content can be aired. These upgrades include new cameras to film the content, computers capable of processing and storing it, and enhanced transmission systems.

The announcement is part of an initiative by Japanese companies to increase the quality of TV broadcasts in time for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, according to reports. Public station NHK, which already has placed an order for the Super Hi-Vision hardware, is in the process of testing long-distance 8K television broadcasts, NBC News reported on Wednesday.

“Most companies are only just discussing 4K. BT Sport, a UK bundle of television channels, broadcast a soccer match this year in 4K and has one ultra-HD channel that shows matches occasionally,” they added. “Netflix and Amazon both have a small amount of content in 4K… [and] earlier this month, Samsung unveiled its first ultra-HD Blu-ray player.”

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Health

Could 3D printing help repair damaged nerves?

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

Regenerating nerves is a complex—and usually impossible—process, but a new study published in Advanced Functional Materials shows the potential to heal nerve damage using one of the most versatile inventions of our time: 3D printing.

Outside of the central nervous system, hundreds of neural “telephone wires” known as axons travel long distances in the body together, in bundles known as nerves. Naturally, damaging this bundle often results in permanent damage to the body, because reconnecting hundreds of microscopic cells is generally impossible. In the course of one year, 200,000 Americans will experience nerve injuries or disease; many will never fully recover.

But a collaboration between the University of Minnesota, Virginia Tech, the University of Maryland, Princeton University, and Johns Hopkins University has successfully managed to combine 3D imaging with 3D printing has created a sort of cast for nerve bundles that helps them to reconnect and heal.

Scanning and printing

The researchers first scanned the shape of rats’ sciatic nerves—the Y-shaped bundles responsible for feeling and moving the legs of both rats and humans. From this scan, they created a silicone guide imbued with biochemical signals for nerve regeneration. The nerves were cut, leaving the rats unable to walk or feel their legs.

The guides were surgically implanted, with the nerve endings grafted inside. After 10 to 12 weeks, the rats’ ability to walk had improved—whereas normally, they would have remained paralyzed.

“This represents an important proof of concept of the 3D printing of custom nerve guides for the regeneration of complex nerve injuries,” said University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor Michael McAlpine, the study’s lead researcher. “Someday we hope that we could have a 3D scanner and printer right at the hospital to create custom nerve guides right on site to restore nerve function.”

Previous studies have regrown nerves before, but never anything as complex as the sciatic nerve—which has both sensory (“feeling”) and motor (“moving”) branches. The custom guide is unique as well, and scanning the nerve shape and printing the cast takes only about an hour. In the future, McAlpine believes medical practitioners cold create a library if scanned nerves to speed up this process. Of course, another important move must be made before that can happen.

“The exciting next step would be to implant these guides in humans rather than rats,” McAlpine said.

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Science

Researchers sequence the ‘living fossil’ brachiopod genome

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

Once referred to as a “living fossil” by Darwin due to it apparently unchanging nature, a new analysis of the lingulid brachiopod genome has revealed that the organisms have been rapidly evolving and possess considerable diversity in their chemical structures.

Writing in the latest edition of the journal Nature Communications, scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), Nagoya University, and the University of Tokyo report that they have successfully decoded the first brachiopod genome, from Lingula anatina collected from the Amami Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

They found more than 34,000 genes comprising the L. anatina genome, and discovered that unlike their fellow “living fossils” the coelacanths, these creatures have apparently undergone morphological changes, despite the fact that their appearance has not changed much over the years. The authors also found “significant” changes in its genomic structure.

Similarities to mollusks, vertebrates investigated

Lingulid brachiopods, marine invertebrates with external shells and a stalk, bear an external resemblance to mollusks, but have shells on the top and bottom of their bodies instead of on the sides, the researchers explained. They earned the nickname “living fossils” because they have changed little in terms of physical appearance over the past 400 million years.

The evolutionary history of brachiopods and how they relate to other species remains unclear, but the phylogenetic analysis of the Lingula genome indicates that they are closely related to mollusks and are distant cousins of segmented worms. Additional research will be required to determine their relationship to other lophotrochozoans, however, the authors noted.

“At the molecular level, brachiopods are very similar to mollusks,” said first author Yi-Jyun Luo. “Both are protostomes – their embryos form mouths first and anuses thereafter. However, brachiopod embryonic development is very different from that of mollusks: it resembles that of deuterostomes, in which embryos form anuses first and mouths second.”

“The results of the Lingula genome project will help future research of these differences and the roles that specific genes play in development of various brachiopod body structures,” added Luo. The study also revealed that vertebrates and Lingula, both of which use calcium phosphate and collagen fibers for biomineralization, evolved different mechanisms for doing so independently.

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Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Space

Scale model of the solar system built in Nevada lakebed

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 20, 2015 Last Edited: September 20, 2015

Brian Galloway

Remember how hard it was to make that tiny model of the solar system for your grade school’s science fair? Imagine making a diorama on the scale of miles instead of centimeters and creating a scale version of the solar system large enough to cover a seven mile stretch of desert.

According to Wired and Popular Science, that’s exactly what a pair of men named Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet did as part of a new project called To Scale: The Solar System. In order to fully explain just how massive our local neighborhood of planets, comets and other objects really is, the two men went to a dry lakebed in Nevada to construct their massive model. Check out the clip here.

The project took more than 36 hours and required them to build their model over a seven mile stretch of flat ground, but ultimately they were able to construct a model of the inner planets to a scale of 1 astronomical unit (AU, or the distances from the Earth to the Sun) to 176 meters, then did likewise with the outer planets, putting the scope of the solar system into perspective.

Afterwards, Gorosh and Overstreet drove around the orbits of the planets at night using lights to reveal the scale of each planet’s revolution around the sun. They recorded their efforts along the way, and their work can be viewed in a seven minute video posted online here (and embedded above).

To give a better idea of the scope of their project, Gorosh and Overstreet created a scale model of the planet Mercury which was 224 feet away from the mock sun, while Venus and Earth were 447 feet and 579 feet away, respectively, Fox News reported Friday. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were 0.57 miles, 1.1 miles, 2.1 miles and 3.5 miles away from the sun, the website added.

Oh, and they used a marble to represent Earth.

Kind of makes you feel rather insignificant, doesn’t it?

“What the project really gets at is just how important scale is,” io9 explained. “In order to make a diagram of our solar system easy to read, one with to-scale orbits has inflated planet size. Only with a model [like Overstreet’s and Gorosh’s]… can you see just how massive the distances are.”

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Image Credit: Screenshot/Vimeo

Health

Human organs age differently from one another

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Emily Bills

When we think about aging, we generally think about it as a whole-body process; wrinkles form, hearing gets harder, muscles get weaker—everything happens at once. But a new study out of the Salk Institute has revealed that age affects organs differently at the molecular level.

“Our study showed that organs have different aging mechanisms and that aging is largely driven by changes in protein production and turnover,” explained Martin Hetzer, Salk professor and co-senior author of the paper published in Cell Systems.

Two kinds of “omics”

Aging leads to progressive degeneration of the functions of organs, cells, and proteins, but it wasn’t entirely clear how aging affect proteins, or whether these effects vary across different organs.

So to study this, the team took a unique approach that combined genomics and proteomics—the studies of the structure and function of DNA and proteins, respectively.

They analyzed various changes in protein creation, modification, and levels in the brains and livers of young and old rats, and found multiple differences between the two age groups. For example, there were 468 differences in the amounts of different types of proteins.

In another 130 proteins, age affected where they were located within a cell, or how they were modified (via phosphorylation and splicing, in these cases)—changes which affect the activity level and function of those proteins.

“Our work significantly expands the list of proteins that are affected by chronological age in mammals,” said senior author Martin Beck of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. “In most cases, individual datasets would not have been sufficient to extrapolate these networks, highlighting the complexity of the effects of chronological age on the proteome and the benefits of our integrative approach.”

However, the even bigger discovery was that protein aging was much more prevalent in the brains than in the livers. Protein aging tends to correspond with an organ’s properties, like how often cells get replaced.

Liver cells have frequent turnover rates, meaning the organ can replenish its proteins frequently. Brains, however, are much more static—most neurons must survive for the lifetime of an organism. The proteins within brains don’t get replaced as often or as easily, and so are much more vulnerable to the accumulation of damage or to loss of function as the brain ages.

This means that a larger fraction of brain proteins are affected by aging, as compared to liver proteins. In particular, the rats showed changes in proteins necessary for neuronal plasticity (roughly, the ability for cells to adapt) and memory formation.

There were important changes in the liver as well, though—proteins involved in metabolic networks were changed.

“Based on our findings, we would define aging as an organ-specific deterioration of the cellular proteome,” said Hetzer. In other words: Aging changes the numbers and functions of different types of proteins in your organs, making them less able to perform all their duties.

This is an important understanding, because it could mean new treatments for various diseases.

“This research may shed new light on the molecular mechanisms underlying age-related diseases, enabling the identification of risk factors to predict which individuals are most susceptible based on their genetic makeup,” Beck said. “In the end, a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of aging could lead to the development of novel therapies to prevent or treat a range of age-related diseases.”

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Feature Image: Hey Paul Studios/Flickr

Health

Why do popes make weird hand gestures?

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Emily Bills

Pope Francis’ first visit to the U.S. is about a week away, but while we’re waiting for his arrival, we don’t have to wait any more for an answer to one of the great questions of our time: Why do popes use such a weird hand gesture for benedictions?

Dr. Bennett Futterman, an anatomy professor at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine and former orthopedic surgeon, claims he has figured out why. After a scientific analysis paired with studies of art, history, and religious practices, he has concluded that the hand of benediction—which is like a high five, but with the pinky and ring fingers curled against the palm—came about thanks to a nerve injury.

He believes that the first pope, Saint Peter, had an injury to his ulnar nerve. This flies directly in the face of previous sources, which claimed the injury involved his median nerve.

Controversy behind the blessing

“There’s always a controversy about this because some sources say one thing and others say another – the students always ask questions about it,” said Futterman in a press release. “I think it has to change.”

The ulnar nerve runs from the elbow to the pinky side of the hand, and is responsible for controlling certain motions of the ring and pinky fingers, including the stretching of these fingers. Meanwhile, the median nerve does sort of the opposite—it curls the middle and pointer fingers into the palm.

By saying a medial nerve injury resulted in this gesture, others have assumed St. Peter was trying to make a fist, and couldn’t curl in his index and pointer fingers thanks to the injury. However, after much research, Futterman believes it’s much more likely that he was trying to give a blessing with an open hand.

“A fist has always been a symbol of war – it’s never a positive position,” says Futterman. “No holy man would ever bless the faithful, a crowd, or followers, by making a fist.”

“The way that Jewish high priests blessed the people is what most would recognize as the Vulcan or ‘Spock’ gesture,” he added. “Later, Peter was trying to do that – he would have blessed people the way he knew. But if you have an ulnar nerve injury, you can’t spread your fingers and you can’t extend your pinky and ring finger.”

As to what caused the damage, Futterman believes sources point to one disease in particular. “There’s some evidence beginning to emerge that this may have been a leprosy infection affecting the ulnar nerve,” he said.

Pope Frances himself does not use this benediction gesture, instead opting for his hands being fully open. But many past popes—including those depicted in 1000-year-old frescoes and sculptures—followed in this tradition.

“Peter, the first pope, had an ulnar nerve injury and everyone copied him,” said Futterman. “Imitation is a great form of flattery. Out of respect for St. Peter, the other popes followed with that same pattern.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Space

Stunning Pluto panorama shows off Earth-like weather cycle

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Emily Bills

At first glance, the latest panoramic images of Pluto returned by NASA’s New Horizons probe are just gorgeous shots of a far-off world, but closer analysis reveals something surprising – the presence of an Earth-like weather cycle on the increasingly fascinating dwarf planet.

The backlit panorama shows what the US space agency refers to as “breathtaking views” of the “majestic icy mountains, streams of frozen nitrogen, and haunting low-lying hazes” which can be found on Pluto’s surface, but it also captures a landscape not that different from the arctic.

Taken by New Horizons’ wide-angle Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14 and downlinked to Earth on September 13, these new photos show the landscapes of the dwarf planet with backlighting from the sun. They show the world’s various terrains as well as its atmosphere, capturing a 780 mile (1,250 kilometer) long slice of Pluto’s surface.

“This image really makes you feel you are there, at Pluto, surveying the landscape for yourself,” New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Colorado, explained in a statement. “But this image is also a scientific bonanza, revealing new details about Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains, glaciers and plains.”

Scientists find evidence of nitrogen-based glacial cycle

Among the new revelations provided by the MVIC image are new details about the hazes that can be found throughout the dwarf planet’s nitrogen atmosphere. More than a dozen thin layers of haze are shown, extending from near-ground level to at least 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface. It also reveals at least one bank of low-lying, fog-like haze, NASA said.

The newfound hazes “hint at the weather changing from day to day on Pluto, just like it does here on Earth,” said Will Grundy, head of the New Horizons Composition team at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. When combined with other images the spacecraft recently sent back, they provide strong evidence that Pluto has a “hydrological” cycle similar to that found on our homeplanet, but with soft, exotic ices instead of traditional water ice.

Located to the east of the ice plain known as Sputnik Planum is a region that has apparently been covered by these same ices. Scientists believe they originally evaporated from the surface of the plains and were redeposited to the east. Images also reveal glaciers flowing back into Sputnik Planum from this area, much like the frozen streams found on the ice caps of Greenland.

“We did not expect to find hints of a nitrogen-based glacial cycle on Pluto operating in the frigid conditions of the outer solar system,” said Alan Howard, a member of the mission’s Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team from the University of Virginia. “Driven by dim sunlight, this would be directly comparable to the hydrological cycle that feeds ice caps on Earth, where water is evaporated from the oceans, falls as snow, and returns to the seas through glacial flow.”

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Feature Image: NASA

Science

Oldest pre-reptile ever walked on four legs like a dog

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Emily Bills

Unlike most other creatures of its era, which were sprawlers that had legs jutting out of the side of their bodies, a pre-reptile known as Bunostegos akokanensis stood upright and walked on all four limbs like a hippo or cow, according to a new Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology study.

This discovery marks the first time that upright posture has been found in a creature this old, said lead author Morgan Turner, a graduate student at Brown University who analyzed the remains of the creature while working at the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

Turner told redOrbit that her team was “very surprised” to find that Bunostegos walked on all fours. “All the four-legged land animals that lived at the time have been shown to be sprawlers, with the legs coming out of the side of the body,” she said. “We don’t see upright posture, with the legs underneath the body, in both the forelimb and the hind limb in a single animal until much later, in mammals and in dinosaurs.”

Bunostegos would have lived 260 million years ago on the supercontinent Pangea. The pre-reptile was “a large, herbivorous, cow-sized animal” that had “boney armor running down along its back,” and it (along with its closest relatives) were some of “the first large-bodied animals on land.”

Finding could alter understanding of posture evolution

Turner and her colleagues looked at the skeletons of several individual specimens of Bunostegos, and made four observations that allowed them to conclude that the creature walked upright, with its legs entirely beneath its body. The shoulder joint, humerus, knee-like elbow hinge and longer ulna combined to convince the researchers that the pre-reptile was not a sprawler.

The shoulder joint faced down so that the humerus (the bone running from shoulder to elbow) would be vertically oriented underneath, preventing this bone from sticking out to the side, they explained. The humerus is not twisted like those in sprawlers, suggesting that the food would only be able to touch the ground if its elbow and shoulders aligned beneath the body.

In addition, the Bunostegos had a more limited elbow joint compared to sprawling pareiasaurs, which tend to have greater mobility at the elbow. Its forearms bones combined with the humerus to form a hinge-like joint that limited the forearm to a back-and-forth movement like the human knee. Finally, the ulna is longer than the humerus – a trait which is common in non-sprawlers.

“Bunostegos is much further back on the evolutionary tree than anything else that exhibits this posture,” Turner told redOrbit. “This new finding is surprising and perhaps hints at a larger story about posture and locomotion evolution. Posture, from sprawling to upright, is not black or white, but instead is a gradient of forms. There are many complexities about the evolution of posture and locomotion many scientists are working to better understand every day. The anatomy of Bunostegos is unexpected, illuminating, and tells us we still have much to learn.”

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Feature Image: Megan Turner

Space

Astronauts could live in this cool 3D-printed bubble house on Mars

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Christopher Pilny

If you’re going to spend upwards of 300 days to fly to Mars, you want to have a nice crib to kick back in once you get there! That’s exactly what one team of French researchers is attempting to provide with a bubble-shaped habitat that can be 3D printed on the Red Planet.

According to Space.com and Discovery News, the design is known as the Sfero Bubble House and it was designed by a group of scientists or engineers brought together under the umbrella of additive manufacturing company, Fabulous. It was made for NASA’s 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge, but didn’t make the cut, possibly because the design was not submitted in time.

The Sfero house would include both an internal and an external dome, with a “protective pocket of water” between the two, architecture publication Dezeen explained. A lone corridor would be on the planet’s surface, allowing access into the two-tiered interior. The upper workstations and the lower sleeping quarters would being connected by a spiral staircase, the website added.

Construction would begin with the placement of a long central pole that would drill into the ground and extend a pair of robotic arms, one of which would collect and sort material from the surface while the other would use the material to 3D print the internal and external domes.

Made completely of Martian materials

The Sfero Bubble House would be manufactured completely out of Martian soil, and reports indicate that the habitat itself would be partially buried beneath the surface so that just the top floor is on the ground. It would be spherical in shape in order to provide adequate resistance to the low atmospheric density of Mars, and would also contain an indoor garden.

Ideally, the habitat would be built in Gale crater, which is known to be home to a large amount of iron deposits. The design would use the iron oxide as raw materials for the 3D printing process, fusing together powdered iron particles using lasers, and the arms would search for permafrost to melt down for the water pocket, which would protect astronauts from radiation.

“With Sfero, we are pushing the idea that a habitat should adapt itself to its surroundings, to the native and available resources,” said Fabulous founder Arnault Coulet, according to 3Ders.org. “The value our project is to show that there is a French expertise in space research and in 3D printing. We want to show that these techniques are also achievable for fabrication emergency shelters [on Earth].”

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Feature Image: Fabulous

Technology

Yer a wizard, Berkeley: Ultra-thin invisibility cloak conforms to object’s shape

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Christopher Pilny

Experts are getting ever closer to making real-life Harry Potter-style invisibility cloaks, and in the latest breakthrough, scientists have reportedly developed an ultra-thin skin that can conform to an object’s shape while concealing it from detection in visible light.

This new technology, which was developed by researchers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California, Berkeley, is just microscopic in size at this point, but the principles behind it could be scaled up for use on larger items as well.

As Xiang Zhang, director of the Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, and his colleagues explained in the latest edition of the journal Science, they took blocks of gold nanoantennas and created a “skin cloak” that was about 80 nanometers thick. They then wrapped this cloak around a three-dimensional object roughly the same size as a handful of biological cells.

The object had been arbitrarily shaped with multiple bumps and dents, the researchers explained, and the cloak’s surface had been meta-engineered in order to redirect reflected light waves, thus rendering the object invisible to optical detection as long as the cloak had been activated.

Objects cannot be seen, even using phase-sensitive detection

According to Zhang, who is corresponding author of the study as well as a member of the Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute at Berkeley, this represents “the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light. Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat. It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects.”

Ordinarily, objects can be observed due to the scattering of light as it interacts with the matter, but this can be circumvented in metamaterials that have optical properties due to their physical structure and not their chemical composition, the study authors explained. Zhang and his group have been conducting experiments involving these interactions for over a decade.

Previously, they have been able to curve the path of light, bend it backwards, and render objects optically undetectable. Their previous attempts to build an invisibility cloak were bulky and hard to scale-up, the researchers said, but their new technique is smaller and reflects light in much the same way as a flat mirror, making objects undetectable to even phase-sensitive detection.

“A phase shift provided by each individual nanoantenna fully restores both the wavefront and the phase of the scattered light so that the object remains perfectly hidden,” explained co-lead author Zi Jing Wong, who is a member of Zhang’s research group. Their work could also result in a new class of high resolution optical microscopes and superfast optical computers, the author said.

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Feature Image: A 3D illustration of a metasurface skin cloak made from an ultrathin layer of nanoantennas (gold blocks) covering an arbitrarily shaped object. Light reflects off the cloak (red arrows) as if it were reflecting off a flat mirror. (Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Health

Coffee prevents sleep by disrupting circadian rhythms

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 18, 2015 Last Edited: September 18, 2015

Christopher Pilny

It’s not just the caffeine that keeps you from falling asleep after a cup of coffee, according to a new study published this week in the journal Science Translation Medicine – it’s the effect that the beverage has on your circadian rhythms that prevent you from napping after a latte.

In fact, drinking a double espresso can shift a person’s internal clock, which tells the body when to go to sleep and what time to wake up, by an average of 40 minutes, researchers from Harvard Medical School, the University of Colorado and elsewhere reported in their new study.

Furthermore, the effect is worse when combined with bright light, according to NBC News. A three-hour period of exposure to light prior to bedtime can shift a person’s sleep cycle by nearly 1.5 hours, and adding coffee into the mix throws the body clock off by one hour, 45 minutes.

“This is the first study to show that caffeine, the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, has an influence on the human circadian clock,” Kenneth Wright from the University of Colorado Department of Integrative Physiology, explained. “It also provides new and exciting insights into the effects of caffeine on human physiology.”

So what time should be “last call” for coffee drinkers?

Wright and his colleagues recruited five individuals, and over a period of seven weeks, they exposed these volunteers to bright light and dim light, and gave them caffeine or placebos to learn what impact these would have on sleep rhythms. Participants agreed not to drink alcohol, consume caffeine to take any drugs on their own during the 49-day study.

Analysis of saliva, blood and cells taken from the volunteers found that caffeine blocks the cell receptors that grant entry to adenosine, a neutrotransmitter carrying chemical signals which are used by a person’s system to promote sleep. The findings, they said, could explain why coffee drinkers tend to stay up late, and could led to new ways to use the beverage to fight jet lag.

So when should a person stop drinking coffee? One of the study authors, Dr. John O’Neill from the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, told BBC News that it would be “complete speculation” to establish a cut-off time – adding that he personally did not ever drink the beverage himself after 17:00 (or 5:00pm local time).

“Individuals differ in their sensitivity to caffeine, and if coffee drinkers experience problems with falling asleep, they may try to avoid drinking coffee in the afternoon and evening,” added Professor Derk-Jan Dijk, from the University of Surrey, who said that the findings indicate that caffeine intake is “part of the reason why we sleep so late.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

Scientists use sound waves to control brain cells for first time

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Emily Bills

Optogenetics is still a new technology with a perhaps not fully-realized potential, but it may have already gotten its first big upgrade. Whereas optogenetics relies on light, a study out of the Salk Institute has claimed to successfully replace light with sound.

Optogenetics involves modifying an organism’s genetic code so that targeted brain cells are activated (or deactivated) by light being shone upon them. When this technique was developed, it was revolutionary. It allows scientists to study regions and cells of the brain in a way that never could have been done before, and may provide therapy by activating tissues affected by disease—but it has a limitation.

If the cells need light to be controlled, the deep regions of the brain can’t be activated without surgery to implant a fiber optic cable into those areas.

Replacing light with sound

This process is costly, and may potentially cause permanent damage to the neurons the cable must pass through. So this is where the Salk Institute came in—aiming to replace light with ultrasound waves.

“In contrast to light, low-frequency ultrasound can travel through the body without any scattering,” said Sreekanth Chalasani, an assistant professor in Salk’s Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory and senior author of the study.

“This could be a big advantage when you want to stimulate a region deep in the brain without affecting other regions,” added Stuart Ibsen, a postdoctoral fellow in the Chalasani lab and co-author of the paper.

According to the study, which is published in Nature Communications, the team worked with the nematode C. elegans to try to discover a way to replace light with sound. First, they had to make sure the waves could be conveyed inside the worms, and they discovered microbubbles of gas outside of the nematodes were necessary to do this.

“The microbubbles grow and shrink in tune with the ultrasound pressure waves,” explained Ibsen. “These oscillations can then propagate noninvasively into the worm.”

Then, they discovered a membrane ion channel known as TRP-4, which opens when exposed to sound waves and activates the cell. They implanted these channels into neurons that don’t normally have them, and found that they still were reactive to ultrasound.

Wider applications

TRP-4 was only manipulated in C. elegans so far, but it could be added to any organism via genetic manipulation. If microbubbles are then injected into the bloodstream, this could allow the ultrasound waves to be transmitted into the tissue, bringing it to the neurons of interest. From there, TRP-4 would activate.

TRP-4 itself works with calcium ions, which means that its application is not limited to the brain—many other cells in the body are activated by calcium entering the cell, like in muscle tissue. However, its biggest impact will still probably be on neuroscience.

“The real prize will be to see whether this could work in a mammalian brain,” Chalasani said. (His team has already begun a study using this approach in mice.) “When we make the leap into therapies for humans, I think we have a better shot with noninvasive sonogenetics approaches than with optogenetics.”

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Feature Image: Salk Institute

Science

Archaeologists unearth oldest known alphabet in Iron Age temple

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Emily Bills

Markings carved into a stone slab found last month beneath an Iron Age temple in Grakliani, Georgia may be the oldest example of a native alphabet ever discovered in the region between the European and Asian borders known as the Caucasus, experts are claiming.

These markings, which were discovered by archaeologists at Ivane Javakashvili Tbilisi State University (TSU), did not show animals or people, nor were they random decorative elements, according to National Geographic. Rather, they appeared to be letters, which would make them 1,000 years older than any previously-discovered indigenous writing.

The inscriptions were carved into a stone slab discovered beneath the collapsed alter at an Iron Age temple in Grakliani, and the 31 inch by 3 inch portion that has already been excavated has at least five curved shapes hollowed out deep within the stone. The script itself is unique, but bears some similarities to letters in ancient Greek and Aramaic.

Vakhtang Licheli, head of the TSU archaeology institute and leader of excavations at Grakliani over the past eight years, said that the discovery was “important for the history of Georgia,” and for the “history of the development of writing” as well. Based on the lack of repetition found in the markings, he told National Geographic that there was no doubt they were part of an alphabet.

Markings believed to date back to the 7th century BC

In addition, Licheli pointed out that the inscriptions were very smooth, indicating that the person who carved them was “very comfortable” doing so, and that this individual had probably worked on similar characters before. Since the temple has been dated to the seventh century BC, he said that the writing is likely just as old, which would drastically change the region’s history.

Pottery fragments recovered at the site resemble those from others of a similar age recovered in other parts of Georgia, particularly in terms of color, material, and design, Licheli explained. The discovery would be the first signs of literacy in this part of the world (an area that the Greeks and Romans had called Iberia) during the Iron Age, and he hopes to find even more inscriptions.

Previous work led by the TSU archaeologist discovered a multitude of other artifacts at the site, including children’s toys carved out of stone, imitation Persian pottery, a stone temple from the fifth-century BC which blended ancient Persian Zoroastrian altar architecture with ram sculptures representing Caucasian folk gods, and even an Egyptian scarab beetle.

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Feature Image: Wikimedia Commons

Health

Nutritionist: Is intermittent fasting the magic diet pill?

Written By: Mari-Chris Savage, MS, RD, LD, ACE

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Christopher Pilny

Popular bloggers, podcast nutritional stars, and fitness gurus have recently all endorsed their support of intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting (IF) is an age-old practice of restricting food for specific periods of time. New age supporters urge that IF increases lifespan, reduces risk of disease, improves immune system, and cuts cancer potential. Popular health gurus have been known to get caught on fad concepts before the evidence based methods have been developed. Is this the case for IF?

The majority of scientific evidence supporting IF have come from animal (mostly mice) studies. These report positive impacts on insulin control, weight management, nervous system, and lifespan. Human studies, conducted on very small scales and with shady methodology, have shown potential benefits for asthma, blood pressure, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, and inflammatory markers.

A meta-analysis, published by Horne et al. (2015), found only 3 randomized controlled trials reviewing IF in humans. All 3 models found individuals who practiced regular IF showed reduction in body fat, triglycerides, LDL cholesterol, and C-reactive protein (inflammatory marker). Only 2 models showed the further ability to reduce risk for diabetes and increased human growth hormone.

Let’s take a step back for a second

To analyze how IF works, one must look at a theory for different states of the human body: fed versus fasted. In a typical fed state, the body has consumed enough macronutrients to begin the digestion process. During the four to five hours after eating, insulin is increased to signal absorption and/or storage of nutrients. It is very difficult to burn fat during a fed state. A fasting state generally occurs eight to 12 hours after eating. The body’s insulin level is low enough to transfer energy production from carbohydrates to fat stores. Thus, in the fasting mode the body will, in theory, be burning fat.

With this theory explained, is IF just another way of reaching a caloric deficit? Or, in other words, is it the same as starving yourself skinny? The answer is yes. Not eating for 16 hours out of the 24-hour day, or not eating for 24 hours of a 48-hour period is a strategical way to reduce input. Reducing input will hopefully reduce the waist line. Benefits from losing weight have been well documents for decades. Thus, most of the benefits from IF could actually come from fat loss.

Nonetheless, losing weight is a good thing in a person who has a few pounds to shed. If you do not have time to prep and eat 3 to 6 small, square meals in a day, IF could be your answer. The cautionary tone is coming here: There are no large scale, well-designed studies for long term effects of IF. Thus, until better evidence is out there, the ability as healthcare professional to recommend IF is limited. But, definitely worth experimenting more!

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Science

Scientists used yeast to produce marijuana ingredient THC

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Emily Bills

Only a month after scientists announced they had genetically engineered yeast to produce the painkilling medication hydrocodone, researchers have again hacked the organism, and this time they have turned it into the main psychoactive compound of marijuana.

Yes, according to Gizmodo and the New York Times, biochemists at Hyasynth Bio have used their talents to produce the key components of pot, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient that activates the pleasure center of the brain when a person uses cannabis.

This breakthrough wasn’t done with recreational uses in mind, however. Synthetic versions of THC are already available in pill form, and are currently used to treat nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by HIV infection or chemotherapy treatment in cancer patients. By modifying yeast, researchers could potentially produce the substance more easily and less expensively.

Hyasynth Bio chief executive told the Times that the discovery “could literally change the lives of millions of people.” The new method, which uses precursor molecules to produce small amounts of THC, could also help scientists better understand how the substance works, Gizmodo added.

More to come from yeast

According to the Times, researchers have been attempting to coax yeast into synthesizing this psychoactive compound for more than eight years. Early attempts, however, were frustrated by the fact that scientists did not know all of the enzymes used by the marijuana plant to produce THC. Cheaper, faster DNA analysis tools have solved that issue in recent years.

University of British Columbia adjunct professor Dr. Jonathan Page, who assisted with the gene sequencing efforts, has established a company of his own (Anandia Laboratories) with the hopes that he will also be able to reproduce the components of cannabis using yeast. Both Anadia Labs and Hyasynth Bio are awaiting approval from the Canadian government to begin production.

Dr. Page’s company is also planning to use yeast to synthesize chemicals found in trace amounts of cannabis that have produced promising early results as potential medical treatments. These substances include cannabidivarin, which in preliminary rodent studies has been found to prevent seizures, and the potential anti-inflammatory tetrahydrocannabivarin.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

How Biblical interpretation alters political beliefs

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Emily Bills

How a person interprets the Bible could have a drastic impact on his or her political ideologies, and now University of Cincinnati researchers have devised a new, more accurate way to measure how religion impacts an individual’s views on government-related issues.

In research presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Andrew Lewis and Stephen Mockabee of UC’s McMicken College of Arts & Sciences proposed a new strategy to gather better and more nuanced measures of the religious beliefs of voters that will lead to more accurate results than previous methods.

Furthermore, they claim that their technique will also give those men and women being surveyed greater confidence that their viewpoints are being accurately reflected by research and the media, improving their overall satisfaction with the democratic process as a whole – which will be of the utmost importance in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

“As the media stories focus on conservative Protestants or evangelical Christians in Iowa, South Carolina, and other early primary states, it truly matters how these individuals are classified,” said Lewis. “The implications for our improved measurement strategy are quite important for how we write and talk about religion and politics – particularly conservative religion and politics.”

Literal/not literal issue doesn’t delve far enough, authors said

Many current surveys typically ask one basic question about the Bible, the authors said in a statement. Responders were able to classify their interpretation of the religious text in one of three ways: the word of God to be interpreted literally; the inspired world of God (but not a text to be taken literally, word for word); or a book written by people that is not divinely inspired.

However, Lewis and Mockabee argue that such limited questioning does not provide a sufficient representation of the viewpoints of survey responders. For that reason, they came up with a way to explore people’s interpretations of the Bible by asking a series of questions that compared the traditional Bible items with what they refer to as functional interpretive exercises.

In July 2014, they sent a experimental version of their survey to 1,850 individuals who had been recruited online. Participants were asked to rate the accuracy of a randomly chosen Hebrew Bible passage, to measure how much they agreed with a random religion leader’s interpretation of the passage, to discuss how they would describe those leaders, and to give their own interpretation of the passage. They were also asked about the Constitution and other political variables.

They used the survey data to compare the interpretive styles of responders across biblical and constitutional contexts, and found a large degree of consistency between both domains. Lewis and Mockabee also continued their research this summer, developing follow-up questions that they sent to 1,200 evangelical Christians in order to explore different aspects of interpretation.

The answers to these more detailed, multi-context questions provided deeper insight into how a person’s religiosity relates to their political beliefs, the researchers said. Standard questions that only looked at whether a person viewed the Bible literally or not “[were] obscuring the different considerations people have in mind when they form an answer,” Mockabee explained.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Science

Apes know a good thriller when they see one

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Emily Bills

Anyone who’s ever seen the iconic shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller Psycho knows that every time they see the events of the movie unfold, things aren’t going to end well for Janet Leigh. And as it turns out, humans aren’t the only ones able to remember such thrilling scenes.

In new research published today in the journal Current Biology, Fumihiro Kano of Kyoto University revealed that great apes also have the capacity to recall shocking events that they’ve seen on the silver screen. Furthermore, the study found that the creatures can anticipate when such events are about to happen, even if they’ve only seen them once before.

On a side note, here’s our favorite chimp, Koko, watching a sad movie:

“When you watch a shocking, emotional event in a movie, you remember the event well, and later on, when you watch the same movie, you anticipate the event,” Kano said in a statement. “Thanks to a recent advance of state-of-the-art eye-tracking technologies, we could examine event anticipation by great apes while watching a movie by means of ‘anticipatory looks’ to the impending events.”

Previous research also already demonstrated that apes possess exceptional long-term memory skills when it comes to food-hiding tests, in which they see a tasty treat being hidden and later retrieve the desired snack.

Chimps and bonobos are film connoisseurs

In order to test the apes’ ability to remember events by watching them in other contexts, Kano’s team stepped into the role of actor and director. They made a pair of short films which they then showed to six chimpanzees and six bonobos while tracking the animals’ eye movements.

In one of the films, an aggressive individual wearing an ape suit emerged from one of two doors that were identical in appearance. In the other, a human actor picked up one of two objects, then used it to attack the ape-like character. By tracking the eye movement, the authors found that the apes anticipated what they were about to see even after they had only seen each movie once.

Upon watching the first movie for the second time, the apes focused their attention on the door through which they knew the person dressed like an ape would emerge. Similarly, upon seeing the second film again, they looked at the object they know was about to be used as a weapon to attack the ape-creature, even if it was place in a different location than it had been before.

According to Kano’s team, the findings indicate that great apes were able to encode what they observed in each film into their long-term memories, and were also able to use that information later on to anticipate events that were about to happen. In addition, the researchers said that the apes also appeared to enjoy the movies, forgoing a juice drink while watching the videos.

No word, however, as to whether or not chimps and bonobos like butter on their popcorn.

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Feature Image: Fumihiro Kano et al/Current Biology

Health

Healthy eating could help prevent depression, study finds

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 17, 2015 Last Edited: September 17, 2015

Emily Bills

A diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and nuts, with minimal processed meats, not only helps you get in better shape physically, but it could also help prevent the onset of depression, according to new research published in the journal BMC Medicine.

In their study, Almudena Sanchez-Villegas from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and her colleagues compared three different kinds of eating plans – the Mediterranean Diet, the Pro-vegetarian Dietary Pattern, and Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 – in more than 15,000 participants, all of whom were free of depression at the start of the study.

Participants used a scoring system to measure how well they were adhering to their selected diet, with higher scores indicating stricter adherence, and thus a more nutritious diet. Meat and sweets were scored negatively, since they are a source of saturated and trans fats, while fruits, nuts, and veggies scored positively as sources of vitamins, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids.

The researchers said that they wanted to investigate the impact that specific dietary patterns could have on a person’s mind, and that the three diet plans they selected had already been associated with positive physical health benefits. The results of their research indicate that the nutritional properties of these diets could also help reduce the risk of depression.

Say no to meat and sugary drinks

Sanchez-Villegas and her colleagues found that the Alternative Healthy Eating Index-2010 was associated with the greatest reduction in depression risk, but that it shared many of its benefits with the Mediterranean Diet. Both eating plans involve intake of omega-3 fatty acids, legumes, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and moderate alcohol intake, the study authors explained.

Sanchez-Villegas told redOrbit that she was not surprised by the findings, as recent research has found multiple links between nutritional quality and mental health. In fact, her team had already explored the effect of the Mediterranean Diet on depression risk in previous work, findings that it had a “protective effect” while fast-food and fatty acids were found to be “detrimental.”

“There are many reasons to support the biological plausibility that cardio-protective food patterns are also protective against major depression,” she said. “In this line of thought, a wide body of clinical and epidemiological evidence supports a strong mutual link between depression and cardiovascular disease. Finally, all the patterns analyzed in the present study have been related to lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease in many epidemiological studies.”

The nutritionist noted that even a moderate adherence to these three healthier dietary plans was associated with a decreased risk of developing depression. Based on their findings, she and her colleagues recommend diets that are high in fruits, vegetables, legumes, olive oil, tree nuts, fish, and whole grains, and low in meats, meat products, commercial bakery goods, trans-fats, and sugary desserts and drinks for optimal mental health.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

Found: Part of brain that decides punishment

Written By: Susanna Pilny

Published Date: September 16, 2015 Last Edited: September 16, 2015

Emily Bills

Among social animals, humans are unique in their willingness to punish the deserving, even at a personal cost. And thanks to a new study published today in Neuron, we have a better idea of where our sense of justice comes from—specifically, a brain area known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

“Despite the centrality of such third-party punishment decisions to modern institutions of justice, we don’t know very much about how the brain combines evidence of intentionality and harm,” said study co-author Joshua Buckholtz of Harvard University. “Our study provides new insight into how humans make these judgments.”

What we knew before is that the success of the human species often relies on our ability to cooperate together on a large scale, which requires us to establish and enforce social norms. The DLPFC is one of the most recently evolved areas of the brain, and it would make sense that it would have evolved to fit the new need to punish norm-breakers—so the team from Vanderbilt and Harvard decided to test it for this function.

Brain Law and Order

The researchers studied 66 men and women as they were asked to rate the blameworthiness or the amount of punishment deserved for various hypothetical situations. The situations ranged from assault to murder, with potentially mitigating factors like duress and psychosis thrown in.

While making these decisions, half of the group had the activity in their DLPFCs disrupted via repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)—a noninvasive and targeted method to stimulate specific brain areas using magnetic fields. The other half had a sham or placebo rTMS done on them.

For the 33 who had their DLPFCs interrupted by the magnetic fields, the ratings of blameworthiness were entirely unaffected, but the level of punishment dropped. Closer analysis revealed that rTMS seemed to cause the subjects to base punishment decisions more on the consequences of the crime rather than on the criminal’s intentions—so punishment ratings were lowered only when a deliberate crime resulted in minimal damage.

In a separate experiment, the team imaged the brains of the subjects using an fMRI as they rated either blameworthiness or punishments. The DLPFC lit up more during punishment decisions, and showed sensitivity to culpability in terms of punishment (but not blameworthiness).

This suggests that the DLPFC weighs and balances information regarding intent and harm in order to reach an appropriate punishment—but receives this information from other brain regions.

“We were able to significantly change the chain of decision-making and reduce punishment for crimes without affecting blameworthiness,” said René Marois, professor and chair of psychology at Vanderbilt and co-principal author of the study. “This strengthens evidence that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex integrates information from other parts of the brain to determine punishment and shows a clear neural dissociation between punishment decisions and moral responsibility judgements.”

Does this mean we’re going to have changes in courtrooms?

The study may have implications in regards to the legal system: “This research gives us deeper insights into how people make decisions relevant to law, and particularly how different parts of the brain contribute to decisions about crime and punishment. We hope that these insights will help to build a foundation for better understanding, and perhaps one day better combatting, decision-making biases in the legal system,” said co-author Owen Jones, professor of law and biological sciences at Vanderbilt and director of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience.

However, it probably won’t change much for the time being.

“While this study does provide new insight into how human brains make decisions of the kind that judges and jurors make daily, the effects that we report are modest in size, and it’s unclear how they would generalize to trial courts. The value of this study lies in its ability to reveal the basic mechanisms of norm-enforcement decisions,” said Marois. “Magnetic brain stimulation will not be coming to a courtroom near you anytime soon.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Science

What is love? Birds reveal why being picky with love is important

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 16, 2015 Last Edited: September 16, 2015

Emily Bills

When it comes to finding a potential mate, humans are notoriously picky, carefully screening a number of potential candidates through dates and online match-making websites, seeking someone we could start a family with.

As it turns out, we are not alone when it comes to our desire to find true love, and new research published Monday in the journal PLOS Biology indicates that there may be an evolutionary advantage to the practice of selecting a mate that meets rigorous standards.

In their study, Drs. Malika Ihle, Bart Kempenaers, and Wolfgang Forstmeier of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany did a sort of cost/benefit analysis of love versus the simple act of going out and procreating in terms of evolutionary benefits. However, they studied zebra finches instead of people, as like humans they tend to mate monogamously for life and typically evenly share the burden of raising their offspring with their partners.

They studied a population of 160 birds and set-up a speed-dating session involving groups of 20 female finches and 20 males. After the birds selected their desired mates, half of the new couples were allowed to live together, while the authors intervened with the remaining birds and forced them into pairs with other birds away from their partners of choice.

Mate preferences have fitness consequences, study found

Each of the couples were left to breed, and the research team assessed their behavior, as well as the number and paternity of dead embryos, deceased chicks, and surviving offspring. The number of surviving chicks were 37 percent higher for individuals in chosen pairs than non-chosen ones, while the nests of non-chose pairs had nearly three times more unfertilized eggs.

While non-chosen males paid the same amount of attention to their partners as the chosen ones, the non-chosen females were found to be far less receptive to the advances of those males and tended to copulate less frequently. The non-chosen males were also more likely to be unfaithful to their partners as time went on, while females roamed less later on in the relationship.

Dr. Ihle, who called studying mate choice in these birds “a passion… because of their similarities to humans,” told redOrbit that the study shows that they “vary in their preferences and that these idiosyncratic preferences do lead to fitness consequences. Our results also show that this came about behavioral compatibility advantages but had nothing to do with genetic compatibility.”

“Our exploratory analyses… suggest that birds were not necessarily more coordinated in their activities but were more committed to their relationships,” the behavioral ecologist explained via email.

“We observed higher female within-pair responsiveness, lower male extra-pair courtship rate, and higher male nest attendance. Therefore it seems that chosen pairs… invested more into reproduction, were more committed, more faithful, and more motivated to raise their family.”

Why do fools fall in love? Sensory stimulation, apparently

Dr. Ihle also said that the experiments found that those birds that agreed to breed with a partner assigned to them did not invest as much in the reproductive process as those who selected their own mate, and were less committed to one another despite forming a pair bond (albeit by force) with their partner. They simply were not as stimulated by their assigned partner.

The researchers reported that female finches selected their mates in a way that is specific to each one of them, and there appeared to be little consensus as to what made a male appealing. So what is it that causes one bird to, for lack of a better term, fall in love with another?

Dr. Ihle believes it may be a “stimulation” such as a song that meets “the specific sensory biases” of a partner which in turn “activates a physiological mechanism” that makes them invest more into reproduction.

“Our results could raise awareness of behavioral and phenotypic compatibility aspects in many species. In monogamous bi-parental care species,” the biologist added, “behavioral compatibility could play a role both in terms of personality matching/coordination of activities and in terms of ‘idiosyncratic stimulation.’ Since partners stay a long time together to raise their family, it gives many opportunities for this phenomenon to take place.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Yale lab finds new ways to synthesize HIV inhibitor

Written By: Chuck Bednar

Published Date: September 16, 2015 Last Edited: September 7, 2018

John

A team of chemists from Yale University have discovered a new way to synthesize an organic compound capable of inhibiting HIV, and their technique could save time by streamlining the entire process, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The new method, which was developed by Yale chemistry professor Seth Herzon, postdoctoral associate Brendan Parr, and graduate student Christos Economou, manufactures nitrogen-based alkaloids without requiring the typical tempering of the element’s reactive tendencies.

“In this approach we start from stable (aromatic) nitrogen precursors, which are inexpensive, easy to manipulate, and readily-converted to the desired compound,” Herzon told redOrbit via email. “Prior approaches to these types of alkaloids employed non-aromatic nitrogen precursors and required many more steps to reach the final compound.”

Technique could be adapted to cancer-fighting compounds

Using a new type of starting materials, the Yale team was able to unmask nitrogen in the final step of the process to use a new approach that speeds up the synthesizing process. The result is a manufactured version of batzelladine B, an anti-HIV chemical naturally found in red sponges in the Caribbean.

Batzelladine B has shown promise as an inhibitor of HIV viral entry, one of the first steps in the development of infections involving the AIDS-causing virus, the study authors explained. Using a less reactive material called aromatic nitrogen heterocycles as a launch point, they were able to pursue multiple complex reactions in just one single step of the process.

Furthermore, Herzon said that the process could also be adapted to synthesize other compounds, including anti-cancer, anti-microbial, and other anti-HIV compounds. He told redOrbit that there are at least 12 distinct alkaloids he could easily access using this approach and that they are currently in the process of adapting the technique to do just that.

“Natural products are an excellent starting point for drug development,” Herzon said. “Over a third of all drugs approved from 1990-2011 were natural product-based, but their structural complexity usually renders their synthesis rate-limiting. My laboratory aims to overcome this by developing innovative, efficient, and generalizable strategies to prepare natural product targets.”

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Feature Image: Yale

Health

This popular diet for autistic children doesn’t actually work

Written By: Abbey Hull

Published Date: September 16, 2015 Last Edited: September 16, 2015

Emily Bills

A current popular diet that complements treatments for children with autism spectrum disorder is gluten-free and casein-free meals, or in other words a no wheat, rye, barley, and/or milk diet. At least, until now.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, researchers sought to answer parents’ questions about dietary intervention with the most controlled dietary intervention and autism study to date. The results? Specialty diets that eliminate these foods had absolutely no effect on a child’s behavior, sleep, or bowel patterns.

“These diets have been very popular for many years as potential treatments for autism spectrum disorder, but we have found no evidence that they are effective,” said Susan Hyman, lead author of the study and chief of the Division of Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

A challenging (but tasty) study

Following a group of children between the ages of 2.5 and 5.5 without any allergies or gastrointestinal disorders, researchers placed each child on a four-to-six week phase-in plan, where families implemented a gluten and casein-free diet and behavioral intervention program.

For twelve weeks, each child was provided snacks containing gluten, casein, both, or none as a placebo, all provided in a randomized order by a medical prep kitchen which ensured each snack tasted the exact same despite the ingredients. Gluten was hidden in snacks such as banana bread, brownies, and cookies, while casein hid within pudding, yogurt, and smoothies—all of which a small child would enjoy.

No one observing the study knew whether the snack provided contained any of the ingredients while tracking the children’s attention, activity, sleep patterns, and even bowel movements (that’s dedication). After the study, each child had received three of each food challenge, and were observed for another twelve weeks.

The hardest part of the study remained in maintaining their research group, says Tristram Smith, Hyman’s colleague and professor of neurodevelopmental and behavioral pediatrics. Originally, 22 children enrolled in the study, but only 14 made it all the way through the 30-week program due to its strict requirements.

“One reason that studies like this haven’t been done in the past is that it requires a tremendous amount of effort to control for all the potentially confounding factors,” Smith continued. To maintain control, researchers also ensured that each child received the same kind and amount of stimulation in the way of behavioral interventions and treatments to guarantee that any changes were limited to dietary causes.

Talk to a doctor first

It’s important to note that researchers found no significant changes in children between each of the test snacks provided during the study. However, Hyman continues to warn against the use of these diets without talking to a dietician or doctor first.

“A GFCF diet can meet a child’s nutritional needs, but families may benefit from professional advice regarding provision of adequate calcium and vitamin D, for example,” Hyman explained.

“Though we didn’t find any effectiveness for GFCF diets, there are many potentially positive effects that diet can have on children with autism,” Hyman concluded. “The link between nutrition and behavior needs to be investigated further so families can make informed decisions.”

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