Health

What is COPD?

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills

 

You’ve probably seen the commercials—under-inflated balloons, wheezy wolves, an elephant sitting on some poor schmuck’s chest—but what is COPD? And why does it make it hard to breathe?

COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (meaning a continuous disease that blocks up the lungs) but it actually consists of two component diseases. Those with COPD actually suffer from chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. COPD gets worse over time, making it harder and harder to breathe and eventually leads to disability in many. If the disease progresses too far, death is a result, and because there is no cure, this has led COPD to become the third leading cause of death in the U.S.

COPD affects different parts of the lungs: either the bronchial tubes (the airways) and/or the alveoli (tiny air sacs responsible for putting oxygen into the blood). The most common way to develop COPD is through smoking cigarettes, although long-term exposure to other lung irritants (like pollution, dust, or chemical fumes) may also contribute to its development.

These various lung irritants can cause damage in two different ways. First, they can cause the airways to become irritated and inflamed, causing the lining of the airways to thicken and causing mucus to be produced. A tighter airway makes it physically harder to breathe air in, which is, in fact, the definition of chronic bronchitis, one of the two possible component diseases.

In emphysema, the air sacs themselves are damaged, causing them to become floppy or even destroying them entirely. This means that there are fewer parts of the lungs giving air to the body, making each breath less efficient.

COPD is a progressive disease, so at first you many have no symptoms. Over time, however, people with COPD often develop mucus-producing coughs, shortness of breath, wheezing, and a sensation of tightness in the chest. While there is no cure, there are treatments to lessen the severity of symptoms, ranging from medications, oxygen therapy, and lung transplants to simply avoid the lung irritant in the first place. There are many clinical trials that may offer treatment through new or unusual methods, and a list can be found here.

Health

Coke funds scientists, says: ‘Exercise key for weight loss’

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills

 

It seems like the admonitions of John Bohannon, the man who tricked the world about chocolate promoting weight loss might hold true today: Reader beware, especially when it comes to diet science—because according to The New York Times, it appears that Coca-Cola is indirectly spreading a controversial message that to lose weight, the food and beverages you consume don’t matter so much as long as you exercise.

According to the Times report, Coca-Cola has teamed up with scientists who are spreading the notion that exercise is more important for weight loss across various platforms: medical journals, conferences, and social media, among others. Further, to help these scientists spread the gospel (so to speak), the company has given $1.5 million to a new nonprofit organization known as Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), which shares views quite similar to those of Coke.

According to their website, the mission of GEBN is: “To connect and engage multi-disciplinary scientists and other experts around the globe dedicated to applying and advancing the science of energy balance to achieve healthier living.” By “science of energy balance,” they more or less are referring to the common notion of monitoring calories in vs. calories out—how much you eat vs. how much you use up.

Coke: Soda doesn’t make you fat

However, GEBN is placing an emphasis on the latter half of the “balance” equation: “Most of the focus in the popular media and in the scientific press is, ‘Oh, they’re eating too much, eating too much, eating too much’—blaming fast food, blaming sugary drinks, and so on,” said the organization’s vice president, Steven N. Blair, in a video announcing the group. “And there’s really virtually no compelling evidence that in fact is the cause.”

That’s a lot of qualifiers. Despite Dr. Blair being a highly-published and oft-cited scientist, others are taking issue with his new message, citing a myriad of studies that point to diet being extremely important for weight loss, usually more so than exercise.

“The group’s emphasis on physical activity is misleading based on what the data shows. There’s no data to support saying if you exercise for 30 minutes three times a week that this will take care of the problem. We have data refuting that,” Charlotte Markey, a diet and behavior expert from Rutgers University, told Scientific American. “In reality, we need people to stop drinking sugary beverages like soda. Soda is the one consumable beverage that is repeatedly cited as having the biggest impact on obesity rates.”

For example, recent research do not back GEBN’s claims. A review of previous studies examining energy balance found that exercise only produced modest weight loss results, because calorie intake wasn’t controlled. Plus, as Markey told Scientific American, “Exercise increases appetite, and most people just make up for whatever they exercised off”—and exercise burns fewer calories than people normally believe.

Think about it: If one were in perfect energy balance and drank the equivalent of, say, a 16 ounce bottle of cola’s worth of calories (182, according to the USDA) in order to tip the scales of their “energy balance” back to neutral, the USDA estimates one would have to walk about 40 minutes for just one soda. If your calorie input is higher—like if you ate a doughnut or a plate of French fries that day—the amount you would have to exercise could end up being astronomical.

Coke attempting to mislead public to drive sales

When taken into consider with a 2013 PLOS ONE study—which found that studies funded by certain soda companies (including Coca-Cola) were five times more likely to find no link between sugary beverages and weight gain than those that weren’t—many public health experts are growing concerned that the Coca-Cola is attempting to mislead the public to stop the decline of their sales.

“The Global Energy Balance Network is nothing but a front group for Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s agenda here is very clear: Get these researchers to confuse the science and deflect attention from dietary intake,” Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and the author of Soda Politics, told the Times.

For example, in the aforementioned video, Blair acknowledges that weight gain comes from people eating more than they burn, then adds, “But maybe the reason they’re eating more calories than they need is because they’re not burning many.”

This statement is at least partially true, but not in the way he seems to be implying; people aren’t eating more calories than they need because they aren’t exercising enough. They’re eating more calories than they need because they’re, you know, eating too much food. Exercise can take a dent out of this imbalance, but without a moderated diet, exercise alone probably won’t be enough.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Science

What the words in every State of the Union tell us about American history

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

America’s entry into World War I was a watershed moment in the history of political thought in the US, marking the beginning of the modern era of diplomatic, bureaucratic and civil discourse, researchers from Columbia University and the LSIS-INRA reported in a new study.

As the authors explained in this week’s edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they conducted a computer analysis of presidential State of the Union addresses since 1790, and found that the hallmarks of modern political thought such as funding of infrastructure, the regulation of business and nation building clearly began to emerge after 1917.

“1917 was the first year that political understandings resembled our own more than those of the country’s founders,” lead author Alix Rule, a graduate student at Columbia, explained to redOrbit via email. “It marks a fundamental shift from 19th century to modern categories of political thought. During this ‘modern’ period, post-1917, the pace at which particular objects pass through the lens of political discourse also picks up.”

Rule and her colleagues developed algorithms to analyze the more than 1.7 million words used by US presidents in their various State of the Union addresses, starting with the 1790 original by George Washington through current president Barack Obama’s latest remarks in 2014. The goal was to find specific trends or word clusters to find what topics dominated the social and political discourse of each moment in time.

Focus on Navy ends, welfare state emerges after 1917, study finds

The researchers found that, while discussions of industry, finance, and foreign policy tended to be topics featured every year, a new set of terms became increasingly prominent in State of the Union addresses given starting in 1917, the year in which the US joined Allied forces in the global conflict against Germany.

For instance, words such as “democracy,” “unity,” “peace”, and “terror” emerged and started to replace older terms centered around statecraft and diplomacy as keywords, Rule and her fellow investigators found. By the 1940s, a cluster of new words focusing on the Navy, believed to be indicative of an isolationist foreign policy, all but disappears from presidential addresses.

Furthermore, they discovered an overall shift in the terminology dominating domestic policy in the US, as new discussions over the size of the federal government. its role in the regulating the economy and whether or not it had a responsibility to provide equal opportunity emerged during this post-WWI era. Keywords such as the “Treasury,” “amount” and “expenditures” are replaced by “tax relief,” “incentives” and “welfare” during this transitional period.

“What our analysis shows is not just what emerged as new in the modern period, but what ended,” Rule told redOrbit. “After 1917, a topic of political conversation that had existed since the first state of the union address in 1790, about the Navy, dies away. So does another strand of conversation about noninterventionist foreign policy. After WWI, the welfare state becomes recognizable as a topic of political discourse, but we also show that this conversation had its origin in pre-1917 conversation about political and economic reform.”

“We show that it is possible to analyze text in a manner that makes the outcomes of that analysis immediately interpretable,” she added. “We can see how terms are related to other terms, how clusters of concepts are related to one another, and so on. And that is because we can represent the State of the Union as a giant network of intertwined terms.”

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Feature Image Credit: GalleryHip.com

Health

Shots fired? Researchers kill flu virus without a vaccine

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Researchers from Ohio State University have reportedly discovered a new way to help a person’s body combat the flu virus, boosting immune response without the need for a vaccine based either on the pathogen itself or the powerful infection fighting substance interferon.
Writing in the latest edition of the journal PLOS Pathogens, the study authors reported that their technique involves increasing the level of a protein known to be effective against every strain of influenza tested to date. To do so, however, they needed to boost the levels of this protein before the virus entered a person’s system, and they did this by manipulating a specific enzyme.
The flu-fighting protein is known as for interferon-induced transmembrane protein 3 (IFITM3), and under natural conditions, it’s only mass produced once the flu virus is present in a person’s body. It combats the pathogen by disabling its ability to make copies of itself, the research team explained, and increasing its levels prior to infection could prevent it from occurring.
Allowing the body to accumulate flu-fighting proteins
If the immune system believes IFITM3 is not actively needed to combat influenza, enzymes known as NEDD4 are released. These enzymes degrade the IFITM3 protein, attaching a small chain of molecules to it (a process called ubiquitination), and in a series of experiments, the authors were able to inhibit its function and allow the flu-fighting protein to accumulate.
“In our work so far, we’ve used genetic techniques to either knock out or silence the NEDD4 gene,” senior author Jacob Yount, an assistant professor of microbial infection and immunity at OSU, explained to redOrbit via email. “In mouse cells genetically engineered to lack NEDD4, IFITM3 levels go up dramatically and the cells become much more resistant to infection.”
“We then used a genetic tool called siRNA to shut down the production of NEDD4 in human lung cells. Again, depleting the cells of NEDD4 caused IFITM3 to accumulate which made the cells resistant to infection,” Yount added. “When we eliminate NEDD4 from cells, this allows IFITM3 to accumulate to high levels that are necessary for its full effect on influenza virus.”
“We’ve known for several years that high levels of IFITM3 can very effectively inhibit flu infections,” he concluded. “The body naturally increases IFITM3 levels when it senses that a flu infection is present so that the spread of the virus can be limited. What we’ve identified is a new molecule, namely NEDD4, that can be targeted to increase IFITM3 levels prior to infection.”
Flu shots aren’t going away anytime soon, though
While the findings are promising thus far, Yount and his colleagues caution that this treatment is still many years away from potentially being used in humans. Their new study involves mice and cultured cells to test experimental drugs exploiting this flu prevention technique under laboratory conditions. Their ultimate goal, however, is to do away with the need for flu vaccines.
“Our research in this publication was done on cells in culture. The challenge of translating this work into humans is that we will need to find ways in which to safely silence or inhibit NEDD4 in the lungs,” he said. “We are now developing and testing specific drugs that inactivate NEDD4. The first stage of this work is to examine the safety and efficacy of these drugs in mice.”
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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

Testosterone supplements don’t boost sex drive of older men, study finds

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

 

Taking testosterone supplements in order to improve sexual function or overall quality of life may be a waste of time, according to new research led by experts from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In the study, Dr. Shalender Bhasin, director of the hospital’s research program in men’s health, and his colleagues report that testosterone therapy administration did not significantly improve sexual function or health-related quality of life in older men with lower testosterone levels, nor did it have any impact on the progression of hardening of the arteries in these males.

The results are based on the Testosterone’s Effects on Atherosclerosis Progression in Aging Men (TEAAM) trial, and the findings indicate that this type of supplement should not be used “indiscriminately” by older men, and that they are unlikely to have the intended effect on men seeking to recapture their youthful virility.

“Many men, as they get older, experience a decline in testosterone and in sexual function and vitality. But our study finds that taking testosterone, when levels are in the low to low normal range, may not improve sexual function or quality of life,” Dr. Bhasin added.

Study also found no link with atherosclerosis

As the authors explained, testosterone is a hormone secreted primarily by the testicles that plays an essential role in male reproductive tissue, as well as muscle growth, body mass, and body hair. As men pass the age of 40, their testosterone levels decrease by an average of one percent each year, and previous research has been inconclusive about the benefit of using supplements.

Some of those studies have indicated that testosterone therapy could increase a man’s risk of having a heart attack or stroke due to plaque accumulation in the arteries (a condition also known as atherosclerosis). However, during the three-year-long TEAAM trial, Dr. Bhasin’s team found that testosterone did not affect the rate of hardening of the arteries.

However, he also said that additional data from long-term, large-scale trials were needed in order to determine the impact of these supplements on other significant cardiovascular events. The new study looked at more than 300 men over the age of 60, with testosterone levels in the low to low-normal range (100-400 ng/dL). It measured for two indicators of atherosclerosis and had each of the participants complete a questionnaire about sexual function and quality of life.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Health

Pre-teen football linked to brain alterations in NFL players

Written By: Brett Smith
Emily Bills

 

While child football players aren’t capable of making the crunching, brain-rattling tackles seen in the National Football League, a new study shows that brain development can be affected by playing football at a young age.

Published in the Journal of Neurotrauma, the study found NFL players who started playing organized football before the age of 12 had a greater risk of altered brain development as opposed to those who started playing at a later age. The study is the first to show a link between early repetitive head trauma and future structural brain variations.

In the study, researchers reviewed 40 former NFL players between the ages of 40 and 65 who played over 12 years of structured football, with a minimum of two years at the NFL level. One half of the players took up football prior to the age of 12 and half started at age 12 or later. The number of concussions suffered was very similar between the two groups. All of these players had a minimum of six months of memory and cognitive issues.

“To examine brain development in these players, we used an advanced technique called diffusor tensor imaging (DTI), a type of magnetic resonance imaging that specifically looks at the movement of water molecules along white matter tracts, which are the super-highways within the brain for relaying commands and information,” study author Dr. Inga Koerte, professor of neurobiological research at the University of Munich and visiting professor at Harvard University, said in a press release.

Don’t hit your head between the ages of 10 and 12

The study team said their work builds on a growing body of evidence showing the brain may be especially susceptible to injury between the ages of 10 and 12.

“Therefore, this development process may be disrupted by repeated head impacts in childhood possibly leading to lasting changes in brain structure,” said study author Julie Stamm, currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Despite finding evidence of a neurodevelopmental window where kids are susceptible to repeated head impacts, the relatively small sample size of just 40 individuals means the results cannot be generalized to non-professionals.

“The results of this study do not confirm a cause and effect relationship, only that there is an association between younger age of first exposure to tackle football and abnormal brain imaging patterns later in life,” said study author Martha Shenton, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Technology

Depth-sensing 3D camera works in bright sunlight

Written By: Brett Smith
Emily Bills

Microsoft’s depth-sensing Kinect device has one major shortcoming: the inability to work in sunlight or other bright light.

Now, according to a new study presented Monday at SIGGRAPH 2015, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, researchers have developed a digital camera device capable of addressing that shortfall.

According to the study team, the device works by collecting only the parts of light the camera actually needs. To do this, the scientists developed a mathematical simulation to help program these devices so the camera and its light source interact efficiently, removing extraneous light that would usually wash out the signals required to recognize a scene’s shapes.

“We have a way of choosing the light rays we want to capture and only those rays,” team member Srinivasa Narasimhan, an associate professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, said in a press release. “We don’t need new image-processing algorithms and we don’t need extra processing to eliminate the noise, because we don’t collect the noise. This is all done by the sensor.”

The team was able to develop prototype founded on this simulation by syncing a laser projector with a typical rolling-shutter camera – the kind of camera found in most smartphones. This allows the camera to detect light solely from points being lit up by the laser as it scans the scene.

Works in any lighting setup

The novel system allows the camera to operate under a range of lighting setups. For example, it can tell the shape of a light bulb that has been turned on, or see through smoke. As a side benefit, the device is also extremely energy efficient.

The research team said their technology could find uses in a variety of settings, including medical imaging, assessment of shiny metallic parts, and robotic vision. Additionally, it might be readily incorporated into smartphones.

Team member Kyros Kutulakos, University of Toronto professor of computer science, explained that the system works by basically overpowering sunlight.

“Even though we’re not sending a huge amount of photons, at short time scales, we’re sending a lot more energy to that spot than the energy sent by the sun,” he said. The key is to be able to record just the light from that spot as it is lit up, as opposed to try to pick out the spot from a bright scene.

(Image: The prototype is able to capture the detail of a lightbulb that would otherwise just be a blinding blob of light to a normal camera. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University)

Space

Is our universe slowly dying?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

 

A new in-depth analysis led by an international team of researchers has measured the energy generated by more than 200,000 galaxies in a number of different wavelengths, in an effort to comprehensively and precisely assess the energy output of nearby regions of space.

Using several of the most powerful ground-based and space telescopes, astronomers looked at the energy output of each galaxy at 21 different wavelengths ranging from ultraviolet to far infrared. This was part of the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) project – an effort that, according to the researchers, is “the largest multi-wavelength survey ever put together.”

The study authors, who presented their findings Monday at the International Astronomical Union XXIX General Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii, discovered that the amount of energy produced in a section of the Universe today is about half of what it was two billion years ago, and the trend is taking place in all different wavelengths. In short, it appears that the universe is dying.

So is it time for the Universe to get its affairs in order?

Naturally, the first question that comes to mind is: So just how much time does the Universe have left? Fortunately, Dr. Andrew Hopkins from the Australian Astronomical Observatory assured redOrbit via email that there is “still plenty of time – something like 100 billion years, before the universe fades to black.”

“Interestingly, there are many more cataclysmic events that will happen long before that cold, isolated, dark end: The Sun will come to the end of its life in about 5 billion years, and our Milky Way Galaxy will collide with our massive neighbor galaxy, Andromeda, in about 10 billion years. So while the Universe is slowly fading, there will still be many significant events going on,” he added. “What is exciting about this work is that we’re measuring this rate of fading more precisely than possible before, across almost the full electromagnetic spectrum.”

So how did Dr. Hopkins and his colleagues pull it off? They used 11 different telescope facilities from all over the word and in space, manned by a survey team of nearly 100 individuals from 12 different countries. The Anglo-Australian Telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory at New South Wales was used during the underlying spectroscopic survey, which measured nearly 250,000 new galaxies in seven years.

“This information was combined with the imaging data from the other 10 telescopes to make this new, highly precise measurement,” Dr. Hopkins said. Other telescopes used as part of the project include the ESO’s VIST and VST survey telescopes at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, NASA’s GALEX and WISE telescopes, and the European Space Agency’s Herschel telescope.

(Image: The distribution of galaxies as mapped by various Australia, US and European survey teams. Credit: ICRAR/GAMA and ESO)

The ultimate stargazing playlist

Written By: Emily Bills
Christopher Pilny

Emily Bills for redOrbit.com – @emilygbills

On the heels of our two recent(ish) articles, Stars you can only see in the Northern Hemisphere and Stars you can only see in the Southern Hemisphere, we are a little constellation crazy right now. Add to the fact that, with it being Memorial Day weekend, peak stargazing season is here. So in the spirit of stars and galaxies and all things great, we have created our Essential Stargazing Playlist.

1. “Cassiopeia” by Sara Bareilles

Spacey synths and Bareilles’s dreamy voice tell the story of the lonely constellation, Cassiopeia, perched “light years away from the hope of being sun-kissed.” Although slightly sad, this is the perfect background song for star-crossed lovers…looking at each other…under the starlight.

2. “Constellations” by Jack Johnson

Mellow guitar riffs open this one up, and because it’s Jack Johnson, you know it’s gonna be good. He describes a classic childhood scene: children sitting under the stars while their grandpa translates the constellations for them. This song is guaranteed to melt the stress away and send you sailing away wistfully as you wait for the next song on the playlist.

3. “Da Dip” by Freak Nasty

Doesn’t this song just make you think of the Big and Little Dippers, dipping along in the Northern night sky? This groovy tune will make you want to sway your hips and maybe even emulate the Dipper constellations. It probably will also bring you back to your high school dance days as you tried to dip lower than all of your friends while wearing your best acid wash jeans.

4. “Southern Cross” by Crosby, Stills & Nash

A classic 80s hit, this song is about a man who navigates around the world after a failed love affair. He uses the Southern Cross constellation to navigate by, something that sailors have done for ages. The folky harmonies will make you think of summer nights, fireflies, and the good old days.

5. “Orion’s Belt” by Riff Raff

How could we not include this gem? It really has nothing to do with Orion’s Belt other than the name, but we’re including it because come on, it’s Riff Raff. Listen to it with the bass all the way up and your shades all the way down.

6.”Etoile Polaire” by Philip Glass

Angelic voices repetitively harmonize over each other, creating the most celestial song on this playlist. The song is named after the North Star, or Polaris, which is located on the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. We will allow you to listen to this song on repeat for a few times because it’s so chill.

7. “HR 8938 Cephei” by Deadmau5

Although this song is lengthy, you won’t get tired of it. Random synth noises emulate sounds you might hear in deep space, making it kind of eerie before the song picks up. HR 8938 Cephei is a star located in the constellation, Cepheus. The particular star is near the north celestial pole and is about 40 times dimmer than Polaris. We dare you not to tap your feet.

8. “A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay

Coldplay thinks they see the girl they love in the stars. Catchy and generic, we included this one because it makes us think of a cheesy Nicholas Sparks movie love montage song where the couple splashes water at each other in a lake or something, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

9. “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” by The Beatles

A star in the Cepheus constellation was found to actually be a chunk of diamond that is 10 billion trillion trillion carats, and because of this, the little white dwarf star was nicknamed ‘Lucy.’

10. “New Constellation” by Toad the Wet Sprocket

This song is also pretty poppy and upbeat and about a guy writing a girl’s name in the stars, but we’re more fascinated with the name of the band. Just what is a Toad the Wet Sprocket? The world may never know.

Some others to consider:

  • “Rocket Man” by Elton John (duh).
  • “Space Oddity” by David Bowie
  • “E.T.” by Katy Perry, with or without Kanye
  • “Across the Universe” by The Beatles
  • “Space Cowboy” by Steve Miller Band
  • “Space Cowboy” by N*SYNC
  • “Space Cowboy” by Jamiroquai (Why not?)

Feel free to throw out your favorites in the comments below.

Giddy up.

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Health

Could listening to music help treat epilepsy?

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Christopher Pilny

New research has found that the brains of people with epilepsy react differently to music as compared to those without the disorder, suggesting music may hold a therapeutic value for those patients.

The research, which was presented at the American Psychological Association’s 123rd Annual Convention, was inspired by an observation: About 80% of epilepsy cases involve seizures that originate from the temporal lobe of the brain—the same area in which music is processed.

“We hypothesized that music would be processed in the brain differently than silence,” said Christine Charyton, PhD, adjunct assistant professor and visiting assistant professor of neurology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, in a press release. “We did not know if this would be the same or different for people with epilepsy.”

To test this, she and her colleagues collected data from 21 people and compared it to data from 15 controls without epilepsy at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center between September 2012 and May 2014.

Using an EEG, they recorded the brainwave patterns of the patients as they listened to 10 minutes of silence, then one of two musical pieces, a second 10-minute period of silence, the other musical piece, and a final 10-minute silent era. The two pieces were Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, andante movement (K. 448) and John Coltrane’s rendition of “My Favorite Things”; the order in which they were played was randomized.

Possible treatment?

The researchers found that the patients with epilepsy had significantly higher levels of brainwave activity while listening to music as compared to the control group. Further, their brainwave activity tended to actually synchronize with the music—especially in the temporal lobe, “Like two metronomes locked together and ticking in unison,” Charyton told the Toronto Star.

According to Charyton, the team was surprised by the findings. “We knew that musicians synchronize more with music but we were not sure how persons with epilepsy would respond,” she told Medical News Today. “Persons with epilepsy synchronize before a seizure. However, in our study, patients with epilepsy synchronized to the music without having a seizure.”

In theory, this means that music could alter the course of a seizure. “Persons with epilepsy synchronize with their brain pathologically before a seizure,” Charyton told redOrbit. “The music could act as a catalyst to change the synchronization dynamics so that the brain synchronizes with the music instead, to prevent the seizure from occurring.”

Charyton emphasized this research is only just beginning to be explored—the sample size is small, and she told redOrbit via email that the researchers are still working on their manuscript for publication.

Despite this, the findings are promising. “It could be helpful as a new treatment or therapy or prevention one day,” Charyton told the Star. “It could help give people with epilepsy some new hope.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Science

Solar activity not to blame for rising temperatures after all

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

 

Despite a previously established link between solar activity and climate, the Sun most likely did not help cause the upward trend in global temperatures observed during the past 300 years, a new study presented Friday at the IAU XXIX General Assembly has revealed.

As the researchers explained in a statement, from 1645 through 1715, sunspots were rare and the winters were on the harsh side. This event, known as the Maunder Minimum, revealed a possible link between solar activity and global climate trends, and led some to conclude that the sun was involved in the upward-trending temperatures that peaked during the late 20th century.

However, a discrepancy between two parallel series of sunspot number counts (the Wolf Sunspot Number and the Group Sunspot Number) have been a source of debate among experts, they said. In the new study, they correct the sunspot number to eliminate this discrepancy, nullifying claims that rising global temperatures cannot be directly attributed to increased solar activity.

The new correction of the solar activity record is known as Sunspot Number Version 2.0, and it explains that the apparent upward trend of solar activity that started after the end of the Maunder Minimum and extended through the industrial revolution was due to a “major calibration error.”

Sunspot, global warming link no longer supported by data

That error, which was found in the Group Sunspot Number, has since been corrected. As a result, the solar activity record now appears to have remained fairly stable since the 1700s. Now that the sunspot numbers have been corrected, the authors explained that existing climate models have to be reevaluated to account for this altered portrait of long-term solar activity.

So what was the reason for this discrepancy? Stanford University’s Leif Svalgaard, one of the researchers behind the study, said “because different observers at different times use different telescopes and counting methods, it is necessary to ‘normalize’ their counts, i.e. bring them onto the same scale. It is like one observation of weather reporting in Fahrenheit and another in Centigrade: one must convert one to the other.”

“The Group Sunspot Number was normalized to the counts reported for years 1874-1975 by the Royal Greenwich Observatory based on photographs of the Sun. But, because photographic techniques and emulsions were still developing during the early years, the counts were ‘drifting’ and were thus not a stable reference,” he explained to redOrbit via email. “We discover that by comparisons with several other visual observers, we can correct for the drift.”

Since the research was not focused specifically on climate issues, Svalgaard said that the team could not comment on other possible causes for climate change. But, he said, “Explanations that rely on simple correlations between changing climate and solar activity are not supported by the new sunspot series. Other explanations, or more complicated ones, must be responsible.”

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Space

Kepler discovers another new planet in habitable zone

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

 

A team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting two stars, and not only is this new world the 10th so-called circumbinary planet discovered to date by the NASA Kepler Mission, it is also located squarely in the habitable zone of its host stars.

Stephen Kane, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at San Francisco State University, and San Diego State University Professor William Welsh have dubbed the world Kepler-453b. Its discovery is detailed in a paper set to be published in The Astrophysical Journal and will be officially announced Friday at the annual IAU meeting in Honolulu.

Kane, who is the head of NASA’s Kepler Habitable Zone Working Group, explained that he and his fellow astronomers were fortunate to have made the discovery when they did, because if they were observing the area where Kepler-453b was located any earlier or later, they would not have seen anything and would likely have just assumed that there was no planet in the vicinity.

A really lucky discovery 

In most instances, astronomers spot exoplanets by observing the decrease in starlight as a planet transits or passes between its host star and Earth. In Kepler-453b’s case, though, it is affected by the gravitational pull of two stars, not just one, Kane explained in a statement.

As a result, its orbit is more erratic in nature, and the transits of such planets are visible just nine percent of the time. Had researchers not discovered the new planet now, they would not have had another chance at spotting it for more than 50 years.

“Yes, there was a certain amount of luck involved for this discovery,” Kane told redOrbit via email. “The Kepler spacecraft monitored the stellar system for about four years but it was only in the latter part of the observations that we saw the signature of the planet.”

“The reason for this is that the axis of the system slowly moves around like a spinning top with a period of 103 years. That means that sometimes the planet passes between us and the stars of the system but most of the time we would not see any signature,” he added. “Kepler just happened to be viewing the system at the right time for us to make the detection.”

Planet likely a gas giant, but may have rocky moons

During its transit, Kepler-453b blocked 0.5 percent of its host stars’ light, allowing researchers to observe that the new planet has a radius about 6.2 times the size of the Earth, or about 60 percent larger than Neptune. Based on the size measurements, they determined that it is not a rocky planet but a gas giant. Thus, despite being in its stars’ habitable zone, it is unable to support life.

However, it may have rocky moons orbiting it that could still be home to living organisms, and the nature of the discovery suggests that there are a lot more of these kinds of planets than we are thinking, according to Kane. Astronomers are just looking at the wrong times, he noted.

“We calculated that the planetary transits are only visible from Earth nine percent of the time, which means (for similar systems) there around 11.5 systems that are not showing signs of transits during the course of Kepler observations,” he told redOrbit. “This means that there is a lot of value to continuing to monitor such systems since there’s many planetary systems that are avoiding detection simply because we’re not looking at the right time.”

A vastly different stellar binary than you’d see in Star Wars

Kane added that there were “a few other really interesting things about this system,” including the fact that the stellar binary contained a star that is “quite similar” to the Sun (approximately 94 percent the size of our solar system’s central star) and a smaller second star that is just 20 percent the size of the sun and emits only one percent of the larger star’s energy.

“That means that the primary star vastly outshines the secondary star and would be an interesting view from the planet,” he explained. “By contrast, the view of the double stars from the surface of Tatooine in Star Wars shows them as being more or less identical. In the case of Kepler-453b, one would see a bright star like the Sun along with a fainter red star.”

(Image credit: Mark Garlick)

Technology

Google’s search algorithms could alter Presidential elections

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

 

Want to know who will win the 2016 US Presidential election? You might be able to find out simply by running a Google search on each candidate’s name, according to a new research by experts at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology.

The phenomenon is known as “search engine manipulation effect” (SEME), and authors Robert Epstein and Ronald E. Robertson suggest that biased results from websites like Google or Yahoo could shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by more than 20 percent.

Their findings, which have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are the result of five experiments conducted in two different countries. They found that for some key demographics, the shift can be much higher (as much as 80 percent), and that these rankings can be hidden to keep voters from knowing that they are being manipulated.

By knowing the proportion of undecided voters with access to the Web, and the percentage of voters susceptible to SEMS influence, Epstein and Robertson argue that it is possible to determine the win margin below which this phenomenon could determine the result of an election. The outcome of a close election could be changed by search algorithms.

Findings based on five different international experiments

According to Wired, Epstein and Robertson combined the results of five different double-blind, randomized controlled experiments involving more than 4,500 voters. They examined the influence of positive and negative search-engine results on undecided voters in the 2010 election to decide the prime minister of Australia and India’s 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

For example, in the Austrian election experiment, one group was first exposed to positive articles about one candidate, while another group saw positive articles about that person’s opponent and a third saw a random assortment of results. As it turns out, people overwhelmingly expressed the desire to vote for the candidate they saw positive results for (by a nearly 49 percent margin).

That effect remained even when a single negative story was later inserted into the results shown to the voters, and even appeared to strengthen in some situations, as it made the results appear to be more neutral and trustworthy. Likewise, during last year’s elections in India, they found a “vote manipulation power” (VMP) rating of 24 percent.

Even a small margin of influence could have a tremendous impact on an election, they explained. The Australian election came down to a margin of less than one percent, and half of all American presidential elections have been decided by eight percent or less. Even if SEME had an impact of one of two percent, it could be influential in an election, experts explained to Wired.

“We estimate, based on win margins in national elections around the world that Google could determine the outcome of upwards of 25 percent of all national elections,” Epstein told the site, adding that the phenomenon is not necessarily limited to the political arena. “You can push knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior among people who are vulnerable any way you want using search rankings.”

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Space

Joyful astronauts get their first taste of ‘space lettuce’

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

 

Members of the International Space Station crew are preparing to get their first taste of veggies grown in space, as the astronauts will be sampling red romaine lettuce leaves harvested from the plant growth system on board the orbiting laboratory today!

According to Gizmodo, once picked, the greens will be carefully cleaned using citric acid-based sanitizing wipes. Half of the harvest will be consumed fresh, while the other half will be packed, frozen, and sent back to Earth, where it will be carefully analyzed by NASA scientists.

The lettuce was grown using the ISS’s Veggie plant growth system, which was developed by a team at Orbital Technologies Corp. in Wisconsin and tested at the Kennedy Space Center before being sent to the space station. The plant experiment, dubbed Veg-01, is being used to study the in-orbit performance of the facility, NASA explained in a statement.

The lettuce seeds, which are contained in a rooting “pillow”, were planted on July 8 by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. They spent 33 days growing underneath red, green, and blue LEDs, which provide light for photosynthesis and helped to give the lettuce a more natural color.

Veggies could help astronauts physically, psychologically

The Veggie unit was developed by a team of engineers and collaborators including Dr. Ray Wheeler, chief of Advanced Life Support activities at the Exploration Research and Technology Programs Office at Kennedy, Dr. Gioia Massa, and Dr. Gary Stutte. All three previously studied plant-growing experiments at NASA’s Arizona-based Habitat Demonstration Unit.

According to Wheeler, Veggie will help NASA learn more about growing plants in a controlled-environment agricultural setting, and he explained that there is evidence to support the idea that fresh fruits and vegetables can be a good source of antioxidants. Having these goods available in space could improve the mood of astronauts and help protect them from harmful radiation.

“Future spaceflight missions could involve four to six crew members living in a confined space for an extended period of time, with limited communication,” said Whitmire. “We recognize it will be important to provide training that will be effective and equip the crew with adequate countermeasures during their mission.”

“Besides having the ability to grow and eat fresh food in space, there also may be a psychological benefit,” Massa added. “The farther and longer humans go away from Earth, the greater the need to be able to grow plants for food, atmosphere recycling, and psychological benefits. I think that plant systems will become important components of any long-duration exploration scenario.”

(Image credit: NASA)

What is diabetes?

Written By: Susanna Pilny
John

 

While there are many different kinds of diabetes, they all have the same thing in common: If untreated, they result in blood sugar or insulin levels that are dangerously high. These high levels can lead to many serious health problems, ranging from heart disease to the loss of a limb and even Alzheimer’s, and while what it takes to reach this point varies widely from person to person, there are a few key players that have a role—mainly, insulin and glucagon.

Insulin and glucagon are two hormones produced by the pancreas (and brain) primarily involved in the regulation of blood sugar levels. Like Kirk and Spock or Abbott and Costello, they’re opposites that play off each other: After a meal, insulin takes the sugar that is now circulating in your blood and stores it away as fat, while glucagon releases stored sugar when blood glucose levels get too low. (Or, insulin puts sugar in body cells, glucagon gets sugar gone from them.)

The goal of each hormone is to keep your blood sugar levels between 70 mg/dl and 110 mg/dl, and so each are released as needed to help maintain them. When this system malfunctions, diabetes occurs. Here are the four more prominent types of diabetes and their causes:

Type I

When most people think of diabetes, they think of older people who develop it after years of bad eating and exercise habits—which is actually type II diabetes. Type I is a very different matter, because for starters, it’s usually developed in childhood.

And generally, it’s less the result of behavior and more the result of genetics and environment. A genetic predisposition, allergies, or an invasion of a virus can trigger the body to attack the pancreas cells that produce insulin. Eventually, these cells are mostly or totally destroyed, leaving the body unable to produce its own insulin. When this happens, the body cannot decrease its blood sugar levels without an external input of insulin, leading to high blood glucose levels.

Type II

Type II is the most common type of diabetes, accounting for around 90-95% of diabetics. Type II occurs when the body becomes resistant to insulin because of overexposure to it—meaning when given the same amount of insulin, it’s not as effective at removing glucose from the blood. To compensate, the body starts producing more and more insulin—which, like high blood glucose, is damaging to the body.

Gestational

While the exact cause of gestational diabetes is unknown, around 2-10% of pregnant women will develop it over the course of a pregnancy. The profile is similar to that of type II: The mothers become insulin resistant, usually in the later months of the pregnancy. However, most often this diabetes ends with the birth of the child.

Type III

Surprise! Unbeknownst to many, a type III diabetes has been recognized by researchers. Besides being produced by the pancreas, the brain also produces insulin. If the brain becomes insulin resistant, Alzheimer’s disease can be the result—with or without the presence of high blood glucose.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Health

Human serotonin neurons grown in petri dish

Written By: Brett Smith
Emily Bills

For the first time ever, a team of Chinese and American scientists have developed serotonin-producing neurons from human fibroblasts, the cells that transform into connective tissue in the body.

Serotonin is a crucial neurotransmitter linked to mood and mental issues like depression. The team said their study, published in the journal Molecular Psychology, not only helps with serotonin research – it will also assist other research teams trying to grow various cell types from fibroblasts.

“Our work demonstrates that the precious serotonin neurons hidden deep inside the human brain can now be created in a petri dish,” study author Jian Feng, a biophysics professor at the University at Buffalo, said in a news release.

The new study expands on previous research showing that human fibroblasts can be modified to neurons, using particular transcription factors that attach to genes, switching them on or off. This was the first direct conversion of fibroblasts into “induced serotonergic neurons,” which act like serotonin neurons in the human brain.

“We know the cells were converted to serotonergic neurons because they express proteins that are only found in neurons that produce serotonin,” Feng explained. “They are electrophysiologically active and demonstrate both the controlled release and the selective uptake of serotonin.”

To induce the development of these specialized neurons, the researchers supplied four genes that control the progression of serotonin neurons. Feng noted that the development will allow researchers to grow serotonin neurons for a specific patient from his or her cells.

Patient-specific serotonin cells will be extremely useful

“These patient-specific serotonin neurons will be very useful to the discovery of new drugs for diseases ranging from depression and anxiety to obsessive-compulsive disorder and many others,” Feng said. “They will not only allow researchers to study why certain individuals develop a disease but also to find out what can be done to treat it.”

In addition to creating serotonin neurons, Feng said the same technology should be able to generate other new cells and tissues.

“This research shows that it is possible to convert one type of cell into other types that have been difficult to access, such as neurons or heart cells,” he said. “All we need to do is find out the combination of transcription factors that is necessary. Sooner or later, we will find out what those combinations are so that we can regenerate cells and eventually tissues that will mimic the real cells and tissues in the body.”

(Image credit: Jian Feng/University at Buffalo)

Science

Oops: EPA accidentally turns Colorado river toxic orange

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

The bright orange-color of the water currently found in Colorado’s Animas River was accidentally caused by the same officials whose goal it is to keep this kind of pollution from happening in the first place, and things may be worse than originally thought.

As reported by CNN and Wired, the orange color is due to acidic wastewater filled with heavy metals pouring out of the abandoned Gold King Mine. While using heavy equipment in an attempt to enter the mine and investigate a persistent slow trickle of wastewater, EPA officials wound up turning a minor problem into a major one.

Their activities caused the mine’s plug to blow, causing the contaminated water (which up until that point had been treated in a holding area outside the mine) to flow into the Animas River, and turning it orange due to the iron, zinc, and copper content of the untreated H2O.

“It’s hard being on the other side of this,” regional EPA director of emergency preparedness Dave Ostrander told reporters during a public meeting on Friday afternoon, according to Wired. “We typically respond to emergencies; we don’t cause them.” Since then, however, published reports have indicated that the pollution may be more severe than previously believed.

Contamination three times worse than previously thought

On Sunday, EPA officials announced that an estimated three million gallons of contaminated water had leaked from the mine into the river; three times the amount previously believed, USA Today reported. Furthermore, they noted that the mine is still discharging 500 gallons per minute but noted that the water is being treated a two nearby ponds.

Preliminary testing data released by the agency over the weekend indicated that arsenic levels in the Durango region of the Animas River peaked at 300 times the normal level, while lead content topped out at 3,500 times the normal level. High concentrations of both metals are a considerable health risk, but the levels have decreased significantly since reaching their peak.

The Animas River meets the San Juan River in New Mexico, and while touring the damage over the weekend, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez told CNN affiliate KRQE, “The magnitude of it, you can’t even describe it… your mind sees something it’s not ready or adjusted to see.”

According to Reuters, an “unspecified number” people living downstream and who draw their drinking water from the river have reported discoloration, but the EPA said that there has been “no immediate evidence of harm to human health, livestock, or wildlife.” Nonetheless, residents were being told to temporarily avoid drinking or bathing in well water, and government workers said that they were working to provide families and businesses with usable water.

(Image: The beautiful Animas river before contamination. Credit: Thinkstock)

Science

Unusual Egyptian mummies found with organs intact

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

A pair of Egyptian mummies belonging to a royal architect and his wife have been found with their internal organs, including their brains, intact and well-preserved roughly about 3,500 years after their deaths, according to a recently-published PLOS One study.

Previously, experts believed that the architect, Kha, and his wife Merit had undergone what the folks at Discovery News called “a short and poor mummification,” despite the fact that they were relatively wealthy at the time of their death. The new study found that this is not the case, even if their abdominal organs, eyeballs and other body parts had not been removed.

Unlike other 18th Dynasty mummies, Kha and Merit’s organs had not been removed and placed in canopic jars. However, the researchers found that their bodies had been treated with both anti-bacterial and anti-insecticidal compounds – a discovery made using advanced X-ray imaging and chemical microanalysis to better understand techniques used to embalm the duo.

Kha was the chief architect for three 18th Dynasty Kings who died of unknown causes while in his fifties or sixties, according to Discovery News, while his wife had died much earlier, between the ages of 25 and 35. Her coffin was unfinished, so she was buried in her husband’s, and since she was shorter, special monogrammed linen was used to pad the extra space.

Both bodies received different, but quality, treatment

The mummies, which are now kept with their belongings at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, were found to have been mummified using natron salt solution, the same solution used for royals during the 18th Dynasty, University of York archaeological chemist Stephen Buckley said to the website. This solution would have reduced the need for their organs to be removed.

However, such evisceration would have been preferable, Buckley explained, as there is evidence that Kha’s mummy “may have been inflated by gases resulting from some bodily decay” prior to “deflating as desiccation took place post-natron bath.” He added some of the bones from Merit’s mummy had become disarticulated, possibly due to putrefaction of the internal organs.

Kha’s external wrappings showed evidence of animal fat and plant oil mixed with trace amounts of balsam, a plant gum and a coniferous resin, which the researchers explained would have given the mummy anti-bacterial and anti-insecticidal properties. Merit was embalmed using a mixture of an unusual fix oil mixed with balsam extract, plant gum, conifer resin and beeswax.

Additional chemical analysis of a fragment of Merit’s red linen shroud revealed that this same fish oil was mixed with traces of conifer resin, beeswax, and Pistacia resin, the website added. The resin, and perhaps the balsam, would have had to have been imported and indicate that the mummies received “a reasonable degree of care,” York Egyptologist Joann Fletcher said.

“Significant effort was clearly involved in their mummification, even if it did not produce the same high level of bodily preservation as the higher elite and royals at this time,” she added.

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Feature Image: Taking a digital scan of the Kha mummy. (Credit: Frank Rühli/PLOS ONE)

Space

New images reveal Ceres’ pyramid-shaped mountain is glowing

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

NASA on Thursday released a new video showing that the massive, pyramid-shaped mountain found on the dwarf planet Ceres has unusual bright streaks running down its sides, similar to the unusual bright spots on its surface that have fascinated scientists for months.

According to CNET and io9, the mountain is taller than the 20,000-foot Mt. McKinley in Alaska, is roughly conical in shape and has both a light and a dark side. The one end is coated in unusual, newly-spotted bright streaks, while the opposite face is described as dark and dull.

In addition, the mountain is not the central peak of a crater or a part of a mountain range. Rather, it stands alone, and while that isn’t unprecedented, it has piqued the interest of the scientists who are analyzing the data being gathered by the US space agency’s Dawn spacecraft.

Mountain, bright spots still defying explanation

The newest images of the pyramid-shaped mountain, which were taken on June 25 and released by NASA last week, were captured from an altitude of 2,700 miles above Ceres and reveal that the peak is an estimated four miles tall, making it the highest point on the dwarf planet.

“This mountain is among the tallest features we’ve seen on Ceres to date,” Dawn science team member Paul Schenk, a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, said last week in a statement. “It’s unusual that it’s not associated with a crater. Why is it sitting in the middle of nowhere? We don’t know yet, but we may find out with closer observations.”

In addition, the latest data returned by Dawn has not found evidence consistent with ice in the bright spots located in Ceres’ Occator crater. The probe examined how the spots reflected light at different wavelengths, and found that the amount of light reflected (the albedo) is not as high as predictions for concentrations of ice on the surface of the dwarf planet.

“The science team is continuing to evaluate the data and discuss theories about these bright spots at Occator,” said Chris Russell, Dawn’s principal investigator at UCLA. “We are now comparing the spots with the reflective properties of salt, but we are still puzzled by their source. We look forward to new, higher-resolution data from the mission’s next orbital phase.”

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Feature Image: YouTube/NASA/JPL

Science

Divers baffled by giant, mysterious mass off Turkish coast

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Christopher Pilny

Recently, scientists off the coast of Greece found underwater pools of opal and carbon dioxide, but a different underwater mass found near Turkey has a different group of divers utterly flummoxed.

As seen in the video, this translucent dotted blob is enormous, measuring about 13 feet around. Diver Lutfu Tanriover told Deep Sea News they felt a mixture of “both excitement and fear” as they approached the mass. When touched, it felt “very soft,” and it looked gelatinous.

The puzzled divers swam around it for some time, examining it closely with flashlights, but could not identify what the sphere was. Thus, they uploaded it online in hopes someone else could, appropriately titling the video “the thing”.

A mystery solved?

One expert thinks he might have the answer—Michael Vecchione, director of the NOAA National Systematics Laboratory at the Smithsonian and a curator of cephalopods at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. According to him, the sparkling dots are squid eggs, each around 0.07 inches long, embedded in a gelatinous nest.

“We don’t know exactly how many eggs are in there,” but it’s likely on the order of thousands to tens of thousands Vecchione told Live Science.

The species is thought to be Ommastrephes bartramii, or the neon flying squid—voracious predators that can reach nearly five feet in length. They are typically found in subtropical and temperate waters—which they often shoot out of like flying fish, occasionally landing on the decks of ships by accident.This unusual behavior is thought to be a predator-avoidance technique.

Despite this advanced escape method, O. bartramii is a major target for predators, which is probably why they lay so many eggs in a single nest.

“If you have an animal that makes a million babies for the population to remain stable, only two of them [need to] survive,” Vecchione said. “Lots of things like to eat them, including people.”

If they can avoid the myriad of predators trying to eat them, the full lifespan of the neon flying squid is only one or two years—but they make that time count.

“They are very important in the food web,” Vecchione said. “They live fast and die young.”

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Image credit: Luftu Tanriover/Vimeo

Space

Plant biopigments could be used to detect life on other planets

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

An international team of researchers has devised an unusual new way to search for life on other planets – searching for distinctive traces of biological photosynthetic pigments (biopigments) of plants in the light they reflect using polarization filters.

As Dr. Svetlana Berdyugina of the Institute of Physics of the University of Freiburg and the Freiburg Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics and colleagues reported in the latest edition of the International Journal of Astrobiology, if these biopigments were present as a sign of life on another world, they would give off a detectable polarized signature in the reflected light.

Photosynthetic biopigments are plant substances which absorb and reflect particular wavelengths of visible light, thus making them appear in color in reflected wave ranges, the study authors said in a statement. They give plants (and other life forms) their colorful appearance, and the research team found unique traits in the part of the light spectrum they reflect.

Specifically, they found that the part of the spectrum reflected in colors given off by different types of plants oscillates in particular directions, which means that it becomes polarized. Each of these biopigments leave behind a colorful footprint in the polarized light, and the researchers can detect this signature with the help of polarization filters.

Discovery of habitable zone planets not a prerequisite

By using these polarization filters, which they explain work in much the same that that 3D movie glasses or polarized sunglasses do, the study authors can detect this unique signature in polarized light from plants that may exist on distant worlds. The high contrast of the biosignatures found in this light could help detect exoplanetary signals typically masked by stellar light.

“This technique could be instrumental in searching for life in Alpha Centauri, the planetary system closest to the Sun,” Dr. Berdyugina explained in a statement, noting that the nearby star Alpha Centauri B is ideal for conducting such searches due to its close proximity to Earth.

To date, no planet has been found in Alpha Centauri B’s habitable zone (the distance from a star at which a world is capable of maintaining liquid water on its surface). However, Dr. Berdyugina said that the newly-devised polarization technique could be used “to search for biosignatures that point to life” even now, before such a planet’s discovery.

Before more distant planetary systems can be explored using this method, however, larger telescopes will need to be built, she added. For now, though, Dr. Berdyugina and her colleagues from the University of Hawaii and the University of Aarhus in Denmark will have to be content to look for these biosignatures in the light emitted by the Alpha Centauri system.

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Health

Does white bread cause depression?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

Experts have long argued that white bread is low in essential nutrients and not as healthy as whole grain alternatives, but new research suggests that it could also be harmful to some people’s mental and emotional well-being.

Writing in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, study author Dr. James Gangwisch from Columbia University and his colleagues reported that white bread and rice could increase the risk of depression in older women, while whole grain foods and vegetables could reduce it.

According to The Telegraph and The Washington Post, the researchers studied data pertaining to more than 70,000 postmenopausal women from 1994 through 1998 and found a link between the consumption of refined carbohydrates, reduced blood sugar, and symptoms of depression.

Dr. Gangwisch’s team found that when the women consumed more refined grains and added sugars, their glycemic index (a measure of the rate at which a body can break down and absorb carbs) would rise and raise the risk of new-onset depression.

Hormonal changes to blame, according to authors

Conversely, those women who consumed a diet higher in dietary fiber, whole grains, vegetables, and non-juice fruits had a decreased risk of becoming depressed, leading the authors to conclude nutrition could be used to help prevent or treat depression.

Refined foods, they explained, could prompt hormone changes that cause a reduction of blood sugar levels in the body, causing a person to experience “sugar highs” and “crashes” on a more frequent basis. This could result in mood changes, fatigue, and other symptoms of depression.

Dr. Gangwisch and his co-authors told reporters that additional research is necessary in order to fully explore this possible new method of treating or preventing depression, and to see if similar outcomes can be observed in a larger sample of the population. The early results, however, seem to indicate that culinary choices could help a person’s emotional health.

Similar research conducted by a UK team last year found that eating fruits and vegetables each day was associated with improved mental well-being, according to CTV News. That study, which involved 14,000 participants, found that more than one-third of those who reported having good mental health said that they regularly ate five combined servings of those foods per day.

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Health

Is sexting good for you?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

More than eight out of every 10 US adults surveyed online admitted to sexting–sending sexually explicit content or photos via text message, Drexel University researchers revealed this weekend at the American Psychological Association’s 123rd Annual Convention in Toronto.

Emily Stasko, a doctoral candidate at the clinical PhD program in the Philadelphia-based university’s psychology department and study’s presenter, said that she and her co-author Dr. Pamela Geller, an associate professor of psychology and ob/gyn at Drexel, surveyed 870 men and women between the ages of 18 and 82.

Each individual was asked if they had sent or received sexually suggestive or explicit content via text message over the past year, or if they had ever engaged in the behavior. They learned that 88 percent reported having ever sexted, and 82 percent said they did so over the last 12 months.

“We were surprised by the high rates of sexting we observed,” Stasko told redOrbit via email. She and Dr. Geller also learned that 75 percent said that they sexted while part of a committed relationship, and 43 percent that that they had done so as part of a more casual relationship. The study was conducted using the Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) website.

‘A different approach’ to sexting-related research

The Drexel researchers also found that higher levels of sexting were associated with greater sexual satisfaction, especially for those in a relationship. Those who identified as single, on the other hand, were found to have significantly lower overall scores for sexual satisfaction.

“Due to the sampling methodology employed for this study, it is possible that the high observed prevalence of sexting is not representative of the general US population,” Stasko said, noting that “MTurk workers may be more technologically savvy than the general population and individuals interested in the topic of sexting may have been more likely to respond.”

She and Dr. Geller also found a link between increased levels of sexting and overall relationship satisfaction for all but those who identified their relationship as “very committed.” Participants were also asked about their attitudes towards sexting, and the study found that those who did so more often tended to view the behavior as fun and something expected in a relationship.

Stasko told redOrbit that she and Dr. Geller “wanted to take a different approach to studying sexting.  Most research looks at sexting as dangerous or risky, but if it were only bad, people wouldn’t do it. We set out to look at sexting as a form of communication that can be both good and bad.  We found that not all sexting is equal… context and intent matter.”

“Within a relationship, wantedness of sexting matters. Unwanted sexting is bad for relationship satisfaction. Wanted sexting is good for sexual and relationship satisfaction among heterosexuals,” she added. “To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to look at the effects of sexting on relationship satisfaction. We asked if sexting could be good and found that it could.  Future studies should look at what is driving the associations between sexting and relationship satisfaction.”

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Image credit: Thinkstock

Science

Cell phones are endangering gorillas and chipanzees

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

Chimpanzees and gorillas are both critically endangered species, and believe it or not, one of the contributing factors to these primates’ ongoing struggle is the smartphone that you use every day, one conversation expert told National Geographic during a recent interview.

In the interview, author and conservationist Nancy Merrick explained that the capacitors used in cell phones typically contain Columbite-tantalite or Coltan, a black tar-like material that is found in the Congo and can be refined into a powder than holds an electric charge.

Coltan, which is also used in laptops and some other types of electronic devices, has reportedly caused a considerable amount of illegal militia activity related to its mining and seeing, Merrick explained. This activity has also helped spur on deforestation in the Congo basin, one of the main reasons why the chimp and gorilla populations are on the decline.

“We’re already seeing that where chimps and gorillas live near human habitats their forests are being rapidly converted to agriculture,” Merrick, who was being interviewed to promote her new book ChimpSaver.org, told Nat Geo on Wednesday.

Deforestation one of the main threats to the chimps

Merrick, who worked along with well-known conservationist Jane Goodall during the 1970s and went on to create the website ChimpSaver.org, added that chimps and gorillas are currently faced with “many challenges,” and that while it was “essential” for Congo Basin forests to be protected that the “biggest challenge is unchecked population growth.”

Human population is currently around seven billion, and will likely be close to nine billion by 2050, she explained. Many of those new people will live in Africa, “which is probably the continent least able to accommodate such an increase,” Merrick said. Along with deforestation and the rise in human population, hunting for bush meat and illegal pet trade are also risk factors.

So what can people do to help out the primates? Merrick told Nat Geo that “the first thing is to learn more about the situation” through organizations, newsletters, social media and other means. She noted that chimps are currently “extinct in four African countries and severely threatened in ten others,” and that it was essential to “create a groundswell of interest in saving biodiversity if we’re going to save man’s closest relatives.”

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Image credit: Thinkstock

What is multiple sclerosis?

Written By: Susanna Pilny
John

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease that affects your brain and spinal cord, so before we can understand MS it’s best to learn a little about the layout of the nervous system.

Your brain and spinal cord make up what is known as the central nervous system, or CNS—which (simply put) is the part of your body that controls voluntary and involuntary actions. The CNS is made of many kinds of cells, but the two most important here are neurons and oligodendrocytes.

Neurons are the cells responsible for communicating parts of the body, creating a “highway” for information to travel across the body. This communication is usually transmitted through electrical signals or chemicals across the neurons’ branches.

Oligodendrocytes produce something called myelin, a substance that is mostly made of fat. Myelin wraps around parts on neurons, and by doing so acts similarly to insulation on wires: It helps keep the electrical and chemical signals from leaking outside the “wire”. If mass leakage were to occur, the communication between neurons would either become very slow, or would stop happening at all—like how a wire without insulation would short-circuit an electronic device.

In MS, this is actually what happens: Something destroys the oligodendrocytes, therefore stripping the neurons of their insulation. However, the disease sometimes progresses beyond removing the myelin—the attacking substance also damages the “wires” beneath, crippling communication between neurons even further.

What this means for the person with MS is that, depending on where in the brain the attacks occur, deficits will arise. For example, losing myelin around the optic nerve harms vision, while losing it in your cerebellum harms balance and coordination. MS patients can recover from these changes, but often they are permanent.

According to the NationalMSSociety, Other symptoms include: fatigue, walking difficulties, spasticity (stiffness and muscle spasms), weakness, dizziness and vertigo, bladder problems, bowel problems, pain, cognitive changes (like the ability to remember information and problem-solve), emotional changes, and depression.

These symptoms vary widely amongst patients, and come on in four different types of patterns: relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), where there are flare-ups followed by recovery periods followed by even worse flare-ups; secondary-progressive MS (SPMS), in which people with RRMS stop the cycle of relapse-recovery and begin to steadily grow worse; primary-progressive MS (PPMS), where the disease progresses steadily from the beginning without relapses and remissions; and progressive-relapsing MS (PRMS), in which the other types are combined.

What causes MS?

Nobody knows for sure at this point. The primary perpetrator is thought to be the immune system: It incorrectly recognizes something in the myelin and nerve cells as a foreign invader, and attacks them. Or in other words, your body’s defense systems try to protect you from harm, and end up harming you in the process—also known as an autoimmune disease.

But what would trigger such a response? Is it genes? Or is it environmental?

Genetics certainly play a role in MS. The people most likely to develop MS are Caucasian women of northern European descent, and having a close relative with the disease ups your personal likelihood from 0.1% (the general population) to around 5%.

There are some other risk factors involved in developing MS. For example, smoking has been found to increase a person’s risk of developing the disease, and is known to make it progress more quickly and severely. (Thankfully, it was also found that quitting smoking either before or during development of MS slows disease progression.)

Further, scientists have found that MS likelihood varies by how far you live from the equator. The closer you are, the less likely you and your descendants are to develop the disease—a relationship which holds true for young people (<15 years old) who move either closer or farther away. Scientists believe it has to do with vitamin D exposure, because those who live closer to the equator generally receive more vitamin D from sunlight.
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Image credit: Thinkstock

Science

‘Underwater Stonehenge’ discovered off Italy’s coast

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

An unusual monolith reminiscent of Stonehenge has been discovered in the waters off the coast of Sicily, and the archaeologists responsible for the find believe features carved into the 10,000-year-old pillar indicate that it was almost certainly man made.

According to Discovery News, the 3.2-foot-long monolith has a fairly basic shape and has been broken into two parts. It also featured three holes, each with a similar diameter, and was found at a depth of 131 feet on what had once been an island known as Pantelleria Vecchia Bank.

Pantelleria Vecchia Bank, the website explained, was located two dozen miles north of the island of Pantelleria in the Sicilian Channel. Roughly 9,500 years ago, the island was submerged during a tremendous flood which took place following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, according to the authors of a recently-published Journal of Archaeological Science paper.

Pillar might be part of a lighthouse or anchoring system

The monolith, which was found by Zvi Ben-Avraham of the Tel Aviv University Department of Earth Science and Emanuele Lodolo of the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Trieste, Italy, is said to weigh approximately 15 tons and was constructed out of a single block of stone that reportedly had to be cut, extracted, transported, and installed.

Lodolo told Discovery News on Thursday that the discovery “reveals the technological innovation and development achieved by the Mesolithic inhabitants in the Sicilian Channel region,” and that this type of effort “undoubtedly reveals important technical skills and great engineering.”

However, he noted that it is unknown what the pillar’s function was, or whether or not it was one part of a larger complex. “Most likely the structure was functional to the settlement,” Lodolo told the website. Since early Mediterranean basin civilizations would fish and trade with neighboring cultures, he noted that it may have been “some sort of a lighthouse” or “anchoring system.”

“Almost everything that we know about prehistoric cultures derives from settlements that are now on land. On the contrary, an extensive archaeological record of early settlings lies on the sea-floor of our continental shelves,” he added. “If we want to trace the origins of civilization in the Mediterranean region, we must focus on the now-submerged shelf areas.”

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Image credit: Emanuele Lodolo

 

Health

Exam stress can cause injuries in college athletics

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Brian Galloway

Student athletes, especially the team’s starters, are more likely to suffer an injury while preparing for an upcoming test, University of Missouri researchers have discovered.
Bryan Mann, an assistant professor of physical therapy in the MU School of Health Professions and assistant director of strength and conditioning for the university’s athletics department, and his colleagues reviewed weekly injury reports for more than 100 student athletes on a Division I college football team during a 20-week season, they explained in a statement.
Of those athletes, 60 had 86 different injury restrictions during the season, and the study found players were 3.19 times more likely to have an injury restriction during the weeks with high academic stress, such as weeks with an exam or big project. .
In fact, the players were only 2.84 times more likely to have such restrictions during periods of high physical stress (such as training camps) and low academic stress, Mann’s team explained in a study scheduled for publication in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
Coaches should be on the lookout for attitude changes
“Stress is systemic,” Mann explained in a statement. “Everything players deal with on a daily basis creates stress. They don’t have separate accounts to withdraw from for practice, school, and relationships. Whenever there’s stress, something’s got to give.”
“It’s similar to when unexpected expenses arise at the same time and you’re likely to overdraw your checking account. It’s the same idea but on a physiological basis rather than a monetary one,” he added. “We know when there will be midterms or finals, and we can plan for these academic stressors and accommodate practices accordingly to minimize the risk of injuries.”
Mann noted that there are some stress-causing events that cannot be predicted, but if they know about them, there are things that can be done to improve the situation. He advises coaches to be on the lookout for changes in their players’ attitudes, which are often indicative of changes going on in their lives, so that they can address any potential issues they’re dealing with.
“Whereas the demands placed on the student-athletes are high, it is imperative that we provide services that focus on their health and well-being,” said UM executive associate athletic director Bryan Maggard. “Our comprehensive services are geared to assist all students academically, socially and competitively.”
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Image credit: Thinkstock

Science

Are fish evolving to avoid capture by commercial trawlers?

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Some fish may be evolving to better escape capture from the nets on commercial fishing boats, experts at the University of Glasgow Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine report in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

According to Time, the authors of the study demonstrated that fish that swim faster and are more fit overall are less likely to be trapped by trawler nets. This could, over time, lead to long term physiological changes in fish populations that make them harder for fishermen to catch.

“There is a lot of concern on how overfishing is affecting the abundance of wild fish, consequences for the economy, employment and the ecosystem as a whole,” lead investigator Dr. Shaun Killen said in a statement. “But one aspect that is often overlooked is that intense fishing pressure may cause evolutionary changes to remaining the fish that are not captured.”

He and his colleagues believe that this is an example of evolutionary competition between prey and predator, where the creatures that are being hunted make adaptations that make them better at evading capture. They conducted a series of simulations to test out the hypothesis.

Higher anaerobic capacity decreases odds of being caught

Dr. Killen’s team used simulated trawling with schools of wild minnows to see if specific fish were consistently easier to catch than others, and if so, if this increased susceptibility was linked to individual differences in swimming performance and metabolism within the shoal.

They measured the swimming ability and metabolic rate of 43 individual fish, while also keeping tabs on various indicators of aerobic and anaerobic physical fitness. The fish were then placed in a tank with a trawling net where the researchers attempted to catch them several times. The goal was to identify individual that might be more susceptible to capture by the fishing net.

Some fish were indeed more likely to be caught than others, and this likelihood was strongly linked to their ability to engage in intense physical activity for short periods of time (also known as anaerobic capacity). Furthermore, fish that were least likely to be caught also had the fastest aerobic swim speeds and the highest metabolic rates.

“Using simulated trawling, our study provides the first evidence for better swimming fish, and [that] those with higher metabolic rates, are more likely to escape capture,” said Dr. Killen. “Over time, the selective removal of poor-swimming fish could alter the fundamental physiological makeup of descendant populations that avoid fisheries capture.”

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Science

Archaeologists uncover gate to Goliath’s city, Gath

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Researchers from Bar-Ilan University in Israel have discovered a massive gate that they believe marks the entrance to Gath, the biblical city that was ruled by the Philistines and is said to be the home of Goliath, the massive warrior slain by future king David’s slingshot.

Archaeologist Aren Maeir, a professor at the university as well as the director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project, and his colleagues discovered the entrance to the ancient city during excavations taking place at the Tel Zafit National Park in the Judean Foothills, an area located roughly halfway between Jerusalem and Ashkelon in central Israel.

According to NBC News and Live Science reports, the massive gates are believed to mark the entrance to what was at one time the largest metropolis in the region. Maeir said the ruins indicate that Gath may have been the largest city in the land during 10th and 9th centuries BC, and that the “monumental fortifications stress how large and mighty this city was.”

Israelite, Philistine cultures influenced each other

The archaeologists were digging trenches in search of the ancient city’s fortifications when they found the top surface of the gigantic gate. Thus far, only the top of the gates and the surrounding fortifications are visible, and it may take several seasons to fully unearth the rest of the walls. Maeir’s expedition is currently in its 20th year at the site.

The researchers also reported that they discovered various nearby buildings, including a temple and an ironworks. Previously, they had uncovered Philistine Temples dating to the 11th through 9th century BCE, as well as what is said to be the earliest decipherable Philistine inscription ever discovered, which contained two names similar to the name Goliath.

They also found evidence of an earthquake in the 8th century BCE that they believe may be linked to the one mentioned in the Biblical Book of Amos: various items associated with Philistine culture, evidence of the capture and destruction of Gath as described by Hazael in the Bible, and evidence of the first Philistine settlement in Canaan (about 1200 BCE).

Also during the latest expedition, the archeologists found pottery that is distinctively Philistine in style, but which also show elements of Israelite technique. This indicates that the cultures had an influence on each other beyond simply being enemies, Maeir said. The find “mirrors the intense and multifaceted connections that existed between the Philistines and their neighbors,” he added.

(Image credit: Prof. Aren Maeir)

Science

Predator or prey? The answer lies in an animal’s eyes

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Want to know whether an animal is more likely to be a predator or someone else’s prey? Look at their eyes, according to a new study published in Friday’s edition of Science Advances that found a link between the shape of their pupil and their ecological niche.

As part of the study, experts at the University of California-Berkeley and Durham University in the UK looked at more than 200 different species of land animals. They found that creatures that have pupils that are vertically shaped slits are more likely to be ambush predators that are active during both the daytime and during nighttime hours.

They also found that animals with horizontally-elongated pupils are very likely to be plant-eating prey species that have eyes on the sides of their heads, and those with circular pupils tended to be “active foragers,” or animals that chase down their prey instead of sitting and waiting.

“Vertically orientated pupils are usually found in ambush predators – animals which essentially lie in waiting for their prey and then pounce,” co-author Gordon Love, a professor of physics at Durham University, explained to redOrbit via email. “They need to be able to judge distances to their prey accurately, and the vertical pupil helps this.”

“Horizontally oriented pupils are normally found in grazing herbivores with their eyes on the side of their head, which helps them see all around to detect predators,” he added.

Why? Love said that it’s because “horizontally elongated pupils optimizes the light into their eyes from all around in the horizontal plane.”

“For herbivores,” he added, “It is important that the elongation axis is parallel to the ground.” Grazing prey animals such as deer, sheep and horses have horizontal pupils because these help expand their effective field of view, computer simulations conducted by the authors discovered. Pupils that are stretched horizontally allows them to receive more light from the front, back and sides, while also limiting the amount of light from the sun so they can better see the ground.

Why are there no diagonal slits?

Love and lead investigator Martin Banks, a professor of optometry at UC Berkeley, built upon previous research published by former UC Berkeley optometry professor Gordon Walls during the 1940s. In this study, Walls explained that slit-shaped pupils enabled different musculatures, as well as a greater range in the total amount of light entering the eye.

For instance, the vertical slits of domesticated cats undergo a 135-fold change in area between constriction and geckos undergo a 300-fold change. In comparison, the circular pupils of humans undergo just a 15-fold change, the authors explained. Species active during both the day and the night require slit pupils to see in darker conditions without being blinded by sunlight.

However, this hypothesis does not explain why slits can’t be diagonal. The reason ambush predators need to have vertical pupil elongation, Love explained, is “because it has to be orthogonal to the spacing of their eyes. Their eyes are always spaced horizontally in a forward facing direction. In short, we don’t have animals who have eyes which are displaced diagonally – and hence the same is true for the orientation of the pupils.”

The authors noted that their work focused exclusively on terrestrial species, and that they plan to analyze the eyes of aquatic, aerial, and arboreal life in future studies. Love told redOrbit that they are currently studying the eyes of mice and fish. Their eyes have lenses with varying optical power, and the authors are exploring if this characteristic is linked to elongated pupils.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Technology

Robot controlled with exoskeleton made out of LEGOs

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

As if simply designing a suit capable of remotely controlling a humanoid robot wasn’t cool enough, designer Daniele Benedettelli has taken things to the next level by making its exoskeleton completely out of Lego building blocks.

Benedettelli’s creation, which has been featured by IGN and Slashgear uses Lego Mindstorms NXT hardware to control a robotic figure (also made from the popular brand of building blocks) remotely using potentiometers and Bluetooth technology.

The potentiometers capture the user’s movements, and that information is beamed to the robot via Bluetooth through the use of an Arduino board. Currently, the set-up only enables the wearer to control the shoulders and arms, but command can be transmitted from up to several feet away – and with minimal lag as well.

Remote manipulator set-up four years in the making

Benedettelli started the project back in 2011 with the development of a protoype robot capable of walking and talking, which he built using four Firgelli linear actuators (LA) and two Mindstorms NXT motors. On his website, he explained that the walking performance of this version was poor and that the actuators wound up cracking underneath its weight.

The original machine wound up being completely redesigned after a friend told Benedettelli that it resembled “a box with arms and legs,” and by May 2012, he explained that it looked far more humanoid in shape. It also used three NXT servo motors to walk, featured eight R/C servos used to actuate the arms and legs, and was controlled using a telemetry suit for the first time.

“In robotics lingo, Benedettelli’s set-up is known as a remote manipulator – a device controlled by a human operator via mechanical or electronic linkages,” the folks at Nerdist explained for the benefit of the robotically challenged.

“Remote manipulators have been used for decades by everything from heavy industry to radioactive science labs to NASA,” they added. “So while Benedettelli isn’t exactly innovating conceptually, by making a remote manipulator out of LEGOs, he has shown that both scale and cost can easily come down. And that LEGO robotics is awesome.” Amen.

(Image credit: Daniele Benedettelli)

Science

Nearly 400-year-old bonsai tree survived Hiroshima, honors friendship

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills

Yesterday was a somber day for many, as it was the 70th anniversary of one of the most infamous military actions in history: the day the first atomic bomb was ever used to take human lives, having been dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

Memorials and interviews with survivors can be found all across the Internet (like this one), but one unusual story in particular is garnering a lot of attention—the story of a 390-year-old bonsai tree that survived the blast in Hiroshima.

This tree, which can be found in Washington D.C.’s National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, has existed in relative obscurity for many years. Its previous owner, Japanese bonsai master Masaru Yamaki, donated the tree during America’s bicentennial as a gift of friendship, but the history of the tree wasn’t fully uncovered until his grandsons visited in 2001.

It was then that the museum became aware of the diminutive tree’s amazing story. In 1945, Yamaki and his family lived in a house with a nursery less than 2 miles from the blast site. When the bomb hit, the windows of the house blasted inwards, injuring some of the family—but the tiny tree, which had been outside, escaped entirely unscathed.

The Museum has an idea of how it survived: “Location, location, location,” said Jack Sustic, the curator of the Bonsai and Penjing Museum. “It was up against a wall. It must have been the wall that shielded it from the blast.”

Despite this amazing story, the museum did not wish to focus on it, according to USA Today.

“We really don’t play up the idea of its surviving Hiroshima,” Kathleen Emerson-Dell, assistant curator for artifact collections at the museum. “It’s just a fact of life.”

Instead, the museum chose to focus on the beauty of the tree and its symbolism of the healed friendship between the U.S. and Japan, initially leaving any mention of Hiroshima off the tree.

Many people grasp this point. “It’s a lot about forgiveness,” said William Lee, a rising junior at American University, after viewing the tree for the first time Wednesday. “About 30 years after the bombing it was donated as a sign of friendship from Japan. That’s incredible.”

However, many others caught wind of its past and recently have been making special trips to see it, prompting the staff to add a description of the tree’s history below the tree, near a placard that reads, “In training since 1625.”

A tree older than the U.S.A

Still, many maintain that Hiroshima is only a small part of what makes the tree special. For starters: The tree is nearly 400 years old, meaning that it’s lived through more major historical events than just Hiroshima. For example, it was about 150 when the Declaration of Independence was written, and 228 when Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Tokyo harbor and demanded Japan end its isolation from the rest of the world.

But there were even smaller accumulative events that make the bonsai incredible: “One of the things that makes it so special is, if you imagine, somebody has attended to that tree every day since 1625,” said Sustic. “I always like to say bonsai is like a verb. It’s not a noun; it’s doing.”

Further, as bonsai trees are living works of art, they can be extremely expensive. Adding in a long lifespan and fascinating history only adds to the value of this tree.

“I find it amazing that Masaru Yamaki could give a priceless bonsai basically to his enemy and not say a word about it,” said Felix Laughlin, president of the nonprofit National Bonsai Foundation. “I get emotional just talking about it.”

(Image credit: Christa Burns/Flickr Creative Commons)

Science

How season changes alter the way we perceive color

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

While the four seasons often have their own unique set of colors, new research published in the journal Current Biology suggests that the way humans perceive these hues can also change from spring to summer and winter to fall.

Led by scientists at York University in the UK, the study looked specifically at the color yellow – which, along with blue, green, and red, is one of the four “unique hues” perceived by the human eye, according to Discovery News and The Telegraph.

These eyes see these four colors as “pure” and not mixed with any other color, the website said, and yellow in particular is said to be unique in that most people tend to agree about what “real” yellow looks like, even though their eyes might be different.

As it turns out, however, the new study indicates that our eyes tend to interpret what this “real” yellow looks like as being different during the winter than in the summer. In fact, according to the authors, yellow seems to look greener during the summer.

Like changing the color balance on your TV

Researchers from the York Department of Psychology recruited 67 men and women to gauge when a colored light had reached “unique yellow” during the months of June and January, and found that there was “a significant season change” in their classifications.

“What we are finding is that between seasons our vision adapts to changes in environment,” lead author and doctoral student Lauren Welbourne told The Telegraph. “So in summer when there is a much larger amount of foliage, our visual system has to account for the fact that on average we are exposed to far more green… It’s a bit like changing the color balance on your TV.”

The participants were each placed in a darkened room and asked to adjust to the light. They were then told to adjust on a machine known as a colorimeter forwards and backwards until they felt that it had reached unique yellow, with no hint of red or green. Welbourne said the findings will provide new insight into how the human visual processing system actually works.

“This is the first time natural changes in the environment have been shown to affect our perception of color,” she said. “Although there’s no disorder that this can fix, the more we learn about how vision and color in particular is processed, the better we can understand exactly how we see the world,” which could help experts “diagnose and treat visual disorders.”

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Health

Study: Women hurt more by breakups but recover more fully

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills

Globally, women hurt more after a breakup, but men may never recover—at least according to a new study published in Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.

The study—which was conducted by researchers from Binghamton University and University College London—involved 5,705 participants across 96 countries. These individuals were mostly young adults (average age was 27) and the weak majority (around 56%) had gone through multiple breakups. The researchers asked them to rate both the emotional and physical pain associated with a breakup on a scale of one (none) to 10 (unbearable).

In general, both sexes found breakups to be pretty emotionally straining, with a median and mean response of nearly 7 for both. However, women reported slightly more emotional pain: a 6.84 average versus a 6.58 for men.

The real difference, however, was in terms of physical pain: Women averaged 4.21, while men averaged 3.75—about an 11% stronger indication of pain for women.

Despite women apparently feeling more pain over a breakup, the researchers noted that they tend to recover more fully and become emotionally stronger for it, while men often never fully recover. Instead, men move on without resolving their negative feelings.

What’s the difference?

Some would say it comes down to differences in gender. It has been proposed that males have smaller networks of friends and family through which emotional support can be found, and they might be less accustomed to seeking that sort of emotional support at all.

However, according to Craig Morris, research associate at Binghamton University and lead author on the study, the difference between men and women comes down to evolutionary reasons.

“Put simply, women are evolved to invest far more in a relationship than a man,” Morris said in a press release. “A brief romantic encounter could lead to nine months of pregnancy followed by many years of lactation for an ancestral woman, while the man may have ‘left the scene’ literally minutes after the encounter, with no further biological investment. It is this ‘risk’ of higher biological investment that, over evolutionary time, has made women choosier about selecting a high-quality mate. Hence, the loss of a relationship with a high-quality mate ‘hurts’ more for a woman.”

Meanwhile, “The man will likely feel the loss deeply and for a very long period of time as it ‘sinks in’ that he must ‘start competing’ all over again to replace what he has lost — or worse still, come to the realization that the loss is irreplaceable,” said Morris.

Or, in other words, if he liked it, then he should’ve put a ring on it.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Science

Loch Ness-like reptile fossil unearthed in Alaska

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Researchers have uncovered the fossilized remains of an ancient, long-necked species of marine reptile known as an elasmosaur in the mountains of southern Alaska, marking the first time remains of the creature have been found in that state, according to reports.

Patrick Druckenmiller, earth sciences curator at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, told LiveScience that the creature also had paddlelike appendages and lived in the seas roughly 75 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. The elasmosaur is a member of the odd group of marine reptiles known as plesiosaurs, the explained to the website.

The majority of the bones remain trapped within a rocky cliff in the Talkeetna Mountains, which means that scientists have not yet had an opportunity to measure the creature’s skeleton as of yet. However, Druckenmiller (who visited the fossil site in June) estimated that the animal was about 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, and that its neck comprised nearly half of that body length.

The elasmosaur was carnivorous, he told KTNA in Talkeetna, and said that while he was “a little loathe to use the comparison,” compared the creature to the mythical Loch Ness Monster, a long-necked creature that he explained was “basically based on the body plan of an elasmosaur.”

How the fossils wound up in a cliff

Druckenmiller said the remains were originally discovered by Anchorage resident Curvin Metzler, who contacted the museum after he spotted the bones eroding out from the face of a cliff. He told KTNA that Metzler did “the right thing” by reporting the discovery so that the museum could “share it with the rest of the world.”

So how did the rocks wind up in the side of a mountain? Druckenmiller explained that the rocks currently containing the fossils would have been on the seabed some 70 to 75 million years ago, as there was a body of water along the southern margin of modern-day Alaska at the time that has since risen thousands of feet over millions of years due to tectonic activity.

“Alaska looked very different” at that time, he added in comments made to KTNA. “In fact, these rocks, which were being laid down as sediment below sea level, were along the southern margin of what was Alaska, then. In the last seventy-million years, because of movements of the Pacific seafloor under Alaska, they’ve been crunched and brought up above sea level.”

Druckenmiller concluded that he believed that the majority of the elasmosaur skeleton remains stuck in the mountain, and told local media that they will continue working to extract it over the summer of 2016. The new discovery comes more than a decade after workers at a quarry in the same mountain range found remains from a plant-eating ornithopod dinosaur.

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Feature Image: James Havens/UAF

Space

Charon feature names pay tribute to Star Wars, Doctor Who

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

In the wake of their involvement in one of the biggest real-life space exploration events in recent memory, the team behind the NASA New Horizons probe are drawing inspiration from fiction to informally name the various features found on Pluto’s moon Charon.

According to Space.com and Discovery News reports, US space agency scientists have decided to name some of the craters and other geological features on the largest of the dwarf planet’s five known moons in honor of people and places in Star Wars, Star Trek, and other classics.

From George Lucas’ iconic series of Jedi Knights and Sith Masters, we have the Skywalker Crater, (Leia) Organa Crater and, of course, Vader Crater. From Gene Roddenberry’s beloved franchise, we have craters named for Enterprise crewmembers Kirk, Spock, Sulu, and Uhura.

Of course, that’s not all. Fans of the long-running UK science fiction show Doctor Who will be thrilled to see the Tardis Chasma (named after the Doctor’s time-travelling machine) along with the Galifrey Macula (named in honor of his home planet). Sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, Alien, Firefly, and JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings are also recognized.

Names are unofficial (for now)

The colorful sci-fi inspired names are in stark contrast to those predominantly used to name the features on Pluto, which tend to focus on real-life explorers. For instance, Tombaugh Regio was named after Clyde Tombaugh, the US astronomer who discovered Pluto, while Sputnik Planum was named after the well-known Soviet satellite that kicked off the space age.

At this point, the Charon names are unofficial, as the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is the only body in the world allowed to assign official name to the objects in space, according to Tech Times. The preliminary names used on both the moon and the dwarf planet have been sent to the agency for approval however, so with luck, Serenity Chasma will soon be legit.

The proposed names were selected by public vote through the Seti Institute’s Our Pluto website. The organization said that they had received “so many great suggestions that winnowing down the list was a real challenge. Nevertheless, we limited our proposal to about 10 names in each theme so as not to overwork the IAU nomenclature working group too heavily.”

(Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute)

Space

Scientists solve mystery of planetary ring particle distribution

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

An international team of scientists have successfully solved a longstanding riddle by discovering that planetary rings, such as those found in orbit around the planet Saturn, have universally similar particle distributions, and are in a steady state independent of their history.

The findings, which were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), set out to determine if the icy rings around Saturn were unique in terms of their particle size distribution, or if the observed distribution was generic for all planetary rings.

They concluded that a power-law size distribution with large-size cutoff, as observed in the rings surrounding the gas giant was universal for systems where there was a sustained balance between aggregation and disruptive collisions. As a result, the same basic size distribution is expected for any ring system where collisions are involved, such as those around Uranus or Chiron.

“This was a fortunate collaboration of leading experts from different areas with astrophysicists,” lead author Professor Nikolai Brilliantov of the University of Leicester, told redOrbit. “The team was comprised of top-level specialists in kinetic theory, statistical physics, differential equations and numerical analysis who collaborated with leading scientists in the field of Saturn rings.”

Law of inverse cubes help explain universal nature of rings

As Professor Brilliantov, a member of the university’s Department of Mathematics explained in a statement, previous research on Saturn’s rings revealed that they are comprised of ice particles ranging in size from several centimeters to nearly 10 meters. Since these particles are most likely debris left over from a past catastrophic event, the varying sizes is not surprising.

What is surprising, however, is the that the relative abundance of different sized particles follows with a high degree of accuracy the mathematical law of inverse cubes, he said. In other words, the abundances of two meter particles is roughly eight times less that of one meter particles, the abundance of three meter particles is 27 times smaller, and so on.

Brilliantov said that this stays true up to the size of about 10 meters, at which point there is a sudden drop in abundance. The explanation as to why the rings follow the law of inverse cubes, and the reason for such a drastic drop at the 10 meter size range, had long remained a mystery, but the authors of the new study have come up with a solution by solving “an enormous number of differential equations” on incredibly fast computers, he told redOrbit via email.

“If particles comprising rings merge, colliding with very small velocities and break into small pieces, colliding with very large velocities, the distribution of particles’ sizes will have a universal form, provided the rings are in a steady state,” the professor said. “Hence, if one observes that a size distribution in rings deviates from the universal law, one can conclude that either the rings are not yet formed, or some catastrophic event has happened recently.”

“On the other hand, if the rings obey the universal size distribution, the parameters of the distribution provide a comprehensive information about the rings’ particles,” Brilliantov said, noting that he and his colleagues believe that these types of rings also exist beyond our Solar System.

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Feature Image: In this simulated image of Saturn’s rings, color is used to present information about ring particle sizes in different regions based on the measured attenuations of three radio signals. (Credit: NASA)

Science

Wasp forces ‘zombie’ spider to weave its cocoon web

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

An army of zombie slave spiders controlled by their parasitic wasp masters? It might sound like the plot of a cheesy 1960s sci-fi movie, but believe it or not, it actually happens in nature, as the authors of a Journal of Experimental Biology paper published Thursday explained.

According to study author Keizo Takasuka from Kobe University in Japan, these wasps are able to incapacitate unsuspecting insects and arachnids by seizing control of their nervous systems. Once the wasp has a bug or spider under its spell, so to speak, it deposits an egg on or within the body of its victim, paving the way for the next generation to continue the cycle.

One wasp in particular, Reclinervellus nielseni, seizes control of a spider, Cyclosa argenteoalba, which it then commands to construct a tough cocoon-type web out of its original orb-type web in order to protect the developing wasp pupa following the death of the host arachnid.

How do these wasps make spiders do their bidding?

Takasuka explained that the wasps use “chemical manipulation” to exercise its influence upon its victims. In a previous study, researchers removed the manipulating larva from a spider and found that the manipulated arachnid continued web building for a short time afterwards, suggesting that the larval effect “would be chemical, not physical” in nature.

“Until its pupation, the larva keeps the spider alive to let it capture prey as usual,” the author told redOrbit via email. “To catch prey, a spider has to construct a normal trapping web – an orb web. But such snare webs are too fine and fragile in general to sustain wasp’s pupal stage, because this wasp larva murders the spider before pupation. The larva thus has no way to maintain the web in the pupal stage, and thus has to seize control of the spider to reinforce the web.”

Takasuka studied spiders at shrines in the cities of Tamba and Sasayama from mid-April to mid-May, but the researcher had a difficult time keeping some of the spiders alive before their zombie state was triggered. Some of the arachnids would not build webs while in captivity, and Takasuka himself occasionally accidentally destroyed the webs.

How the experiments were conducted

Eventually, however, he was able to observe spiders build 10 carefully constructed cocoon webs for their wasp masters. A careful analysis of the webs revealed that they were similar to the other types of webs they produced, complete with decorative, fluffy structures. By watching the work, he also found that controlled spiders always built the new cocoon webs on the site of the old orb ones, removing the sticky spiral first, then reinforcing it and adding the decorations.

“During my field work, I found the cocoon web of this system for the first time and noticed… the resemblance between the cocoon and resting webs,” Takasuka said, adding that this caused him to expect that the larva exploited the spider’s innate resting web for its own purposes. Behavioral observations, examinations of web function, and quantitative tests of the web followed.

He told redOrbit via email that both types of webs had “specific fibrous decoration” and were generated in a nearly “identical” way. This led him to hypothesize that the fibrous decorations served some function. He conducted reflectance spectrum analysis and found that “decorations on both webs reflects UV light,” which acted as a way to announced the web’s presence to keep other creatures from bumping into it.

Takasuka added that he recruited material strength scientists from the Kobe University Faculty of Engineering. After testing the tensile strength, they found that the cocoon web was more reinforced than the other types of web produced by the spiders. Finally, he used unparasitized spiders of the same species, and replaced them over time with parasitized ones. Eventually, he was able to see several wasp larvae reach pupal stage and go on to manipulate the spiders.

(Image credit: Keizo Takasuka)

 

Science

Historical records used to track gibbon decline in China

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Using historical records from China dating back more than four centuries, researchers from the international conservation group, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), have reconstructed the decline and fall of one of the country’s most threatened species, the gibbon.

The research, led by ZSL senior research fellow Dr. Samuel Turvey, involved detailed analysis of ancient historical records starting as early as 1600 AD, encompassing both the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and stretching into the modern-day Communist period of China.

Just a few hundred years ago, gibbons could be found distributed across nearly half of China. Their populations started to collapse during the 20th century, however, and now the rare apes survive in only a few remote forest regions in the southwest.

In fact, one species, the Hainan gibbon (Nomascus hainanus), is now said to be among the rarest mammals on Earth, with a total population of just 26 to 28 individuals, they added. The study has been called one of the first uses of historical documents to reconstruct the decline of a species, and it appears in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Documents indicate decline started about 150 years ago

According to BBC News, the apes originally started to disappear from the documents reviewed by the ZSL-led team approximately 150 years ago, or around the same time that human populations began to grow and thrive. Currently, the Hainan gibbons live in just four social groups, including one discovered only a few weeks ago in the forests of southwestern China.

In a statement, Dr. Turvey explained that gibbons “were of great cultural importance” to ancient China because it was believed that the creatures could “channel mystical ‘qi energy’ and live for several hundred years.” While BBC said that it has been difficult to understand the creature’s population crash, the historical records have shed new light on the mystery.

“China has a fantastically rich historical record, which includes a wealth of environmental data that has rarely been used for conservation management,” the ZSL researcher said, adding that the past presence of the gibbons throughout the country was “widely recorded in local documents.”

“Reconstructing when – and why – different gibbon populations disappeared across much of China can teach us important lessons that can help save the country’s last few gibbons,” he added in the statement. “Because of the current environmental crisis facing eastern and southeast Asia, we have to explore new ways to better understand the kinds of factors that can make species more or less vulnerable to extinction.”

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Health

Excessive workout supplement use: Emerging eating disorder?

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills

A new eating disorder may have been identified amongst men who live to work out, although it’s probably not what you’d expect: According to new research presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, some guys may be consuming over-the-counter bodybuilding supplements at a dangerous level in an attempt to construct a “better” body.
While some may see this as finding a problem where none exist, those who presented the research emphasized how pervasive this could be.
“These products have become an almost ubiquitous fixture in the pantries of young men across the country and can seemingly be purchased anywhere and everywhere — from grocery stores to college book stores,” said Richard Achiro, PhD, California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, Los Angeles, who presented the research. “The marketing efforts, which are tailored to addressing underlying insecurities associated with masculinity, position these products perfectly as a ‘solution’ by which to fill a void felt by so many men in our culture.”
This void can be so large that men begin experiencing signs of an eating disorder—including extreme emotions and attitudes involving weight and food issues that drive them to develop health-threatening eating habits.
An issue facing a significant number of men 
To uncover how widespread this may be, Achiro and co-author Peter Theodore, PhD, recruited 195 men age 18-65 who reported consuming legal appearance- or performance-enhancing supplements (like whey protein or creatine) in the past 30 days, and who stated they work out for fitness or appearance at least twice a week. These men completed an online survey relating to a variety of subjects, including supplement use, body image, gender role conflicts, eating habits, and self-esteem.
Of these men, over 40% reported that their use of supplements had increased with time, while 22% indicated that they replaced regular meals with supplements not intended for meal-replacement purposes.
However, several results were even more alarming. For instance, 29% of the men said they were concerned about their supplement use, and 8% reported their physicians told them to cut down on or stop their usage due to actual or potential side effects. Three percent of the men had actually been hospitalized as a result of supplements causing kidney and liver problems.
“The most critical implication for these findings is to put risky/excessive legal supplement use on the map as an issue facing a significant number of men,” said Achiro.
Like with other eating disorders, what drives this over-consumption appears to be a combination of factors, including body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and gender role conflict—or, the feeling that one is not living up to the strict limitations of masculinity as defined by modern society.
“Body-conscious men who are driven by psychological factors to attain a level of physical or masculine ‘perfection’ are prone to use these supplements and drugs in a manner that is excessive and which was demonstrated in this study to be a variant of disordered eating,” said Achiro. “As legal supplements become increasingly prevalent around the globe, it is all the more important to assess and treat the psychological causes and effects of excessive use of these drugs and supplements.”
(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Science

These frogs’ heads are venomous weapons

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

While some types of frogs are known to secrete poison from glands in their skin, researchers from Utah State University have reportedly discovered the first two species of the short bodied, tailless amphibians that can actually be considered truly venomous.

As Edmund Brodie, Jr., a professor in the university’s department of biology, and his colleagues report in Thursday’s edition of the journal Current Biology, the species produce powerful toxins and deliver the substances to other creatures through special bony spines on their heads.

The frogs, Corythomantis greeningi and Aparasphenodon brunoi., are native to Brazil but are not actually newly discovered species – they were first identified at least several decades ago, but scientists knew little about them. Brodie explained to redOrbit via email that his team learned the frogs were venomous in the most unfortunate way possible.

His colleague, Carlos Jared of the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo, “was jabbed by spines while collecting Corythomantis in the field,” Brodie said. “Intense, immediate pain radiated up his arm and this condition lasted five hours,” and since he was “many hours” away from medical help, he “toughed it out.” The incident wound up leading to a major discovery. No pain, no gain, right?

Venom is more toxic than that of pit vipers

On the plus side, the study authors explained in a statement, Jared was exposed to the less toxic of the two frogs, as their calculations indicate that the other species, A. brunoi, produced poison secretions powerful enough to kill more than 300,000 mice or roughly 80 humans.

“We compared the frog secretions with those of the deadly Brazilian pit-vipers (Bothrops) by mouse assays,” Brodie told redOrbit. “The secretions of Corythomantis greeningi are twice as toxic, by weight, as Bothrops venom; Aparasphenodon brunoi has secretions 25 times as toxic.”

However, he added, “the fact that these frogs have a stronger venom than pit-vipers does not make them more dangerous. Pit vipers inject a larger quantity of venom than would be transmitted on the tips of the frog head spines. Still, I would not want to test the venoms of Aparasphenodon on myself!”

Neither of the frogs is known to have any natural predators, the authors said – a fact that makes perfect sense in light of their unexpected discovery. They added that their research will help improve the understanding of amphibian biology.

Brodie and Jared also plan to further study both the venom and the glands that produce it, and noted that they intend to study other frog species in other parts of the world, also suspected to be venomous.

(Image credit: Carlos Jared/Butantan Institute)

Science

New species of deep sea fish has rigid ‘hooks’, unusual jaws

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Researchers working in the Gulf of Mexico have discovered a never-before-seen species of anglerfish, collecting three female specimens of the new creatures at depths of between 3280 and 5000 feet (1000-1500 meters), according to new research published on Thursday.

Writing in the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists journal Copeia, Dr. Tracey Sutton of Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and his colleagues explained that the creature represents a new species of Ceratioid anglerfish (Lasiognathus Regan).

“The three specimens were collected as part of an NOAA-supported study to find out what lives deep in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which occurred at 1500m depth,” Dr. Sutton told redOrbit via email. “Before the spill, we had very little data on what lives at these depths. This finding highlights the general lack of information about what lives at these depths in the Gulf of Mexico, and the world ocean in general.”

Dr. Sutton formally described the new creature with the assistance of Dr. Theodore Pietsch from the University of Washington. The three female specimens ranged in size from 30 to 95mm long, and lived so deep in the water that there is not sunlight – the only light is from creatures that can produce bioluminescence, or generate their own light source.

Species has unusual jaws, rigid “hooks” instead of soft “lures”

Furthermore, the researchers explained that at these depths, the pressure is immense (more than one ton per square inch) and the battle over food is constantly ongoing. For this reason, the fish developed the capability to use a fishing pole-like appendage on top of their heads to attract prey. By dangling their appendage, they are able to trap fish seeking out a meal of their own.

What makes this new anglerfish species so unique? According to Dr. Sutton, they have “never been seen alive, but based on the form of the upper jaws (‘inside out’ with teeth sticking exterior to the mouth), one would think the prey capture mechanism must be fascinating, perhaps like the closing of a venus fly-trap. Again, this is pure speculation based on its anatomy.”

anglerfish

“Its lure is also unique among anglers,” he told redOrbit. “The ‘hooks’ are actually rigid, whereas other anglerfishes have soft ‘lures.’ This species was identified as unique by the form of its ‘lure,’ which was quite different from the other species in the genus, but very consistent among the three specimens we collected. I would also note that none of the species of the genus Lasiognathus had ever previously been known for the Gulf of Mexico.”

Dr. Sutton, who is also a steering committee member of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative, added, “Industry is going deeper and deeper to find resources, and with that comes risk. One of our biggest issues is that we do not know what all lives at these depths, creating the possibility that we could eradicate or impact biodiversity that is unknown to us… The oceans midwaters are by far Earth’s largest ecosystems. We need to know more about them.”

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Feature Image: This is the new anglerfish — Lasiognathus regan. (Credit: Theodore Pietsch, Ph.D. University of Washington)

Health

Neigh it ain’t so: Humans, horses share similar facial expressions

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

Usually when someone calls you a “horse face”, it’s meant as an insult. (Though, better than being a horse’s a**.)

But new research from scientists at the University of Sussex has found that the facial expressions of humans and members of the equine family are surprisingly similar in some ways.

The findings, published Thursday in the journal PLOS One, revealed that like humans, horses use muscles underling their nostrils, lips, eyes and other facial features to change expressions in a variety of different social situations. The study also indicates that there could be evolutionary parallels among different types of animals in terms of how faces are used to communicate.

In a statement, the authors explained their work builds on previous studies that found facial cues are important for horses to communicate. It also establishes a new coding system, The Equine Facial Action Coding System (EquiFACS), used to identify different types of individual facial expressions on the basis of underlying muscle movements.

Devised by researchers from Sussex, the University of Portsmouth, and Duquesne University, the EquiFACS system identified a total of 17 discrete facial movements (also called “action units”) in horses. In comparison, humans had 27, chimpanzees had 13 and dogs had 16, they said.

EquiFACS reveals extensive facial movements of horses

“Horses are predominantly visual animals, with eyesight that’s better than domestic cats and dogs, yet their use of facial expressions has been largely overlooked,” explained co-author doctoral student at Sussex Jennifer Wathan in a statement. “What surprised us was the rich repertoire of complex facial movements in horses, and how many of them are similar to humans.”

“Despite the differences in face structure between horses and humans, we were able to identify some similar expressions in relation to movements of the lips and eyes,” she added. “What we’ll now be looking at is how these expressions relate to emotional states.”

As part of their study, Wathan and her colleagues reviewed video footage of a wide range of naturally-occurring horse behaviors, the university explained in a statement. By doing so, they were able to identify the different movements that the creatures can make with their faces, and this led to an analysis of the facial muscles responsible for the various motions. Each movement that they identified was assigned a unique code, the research team added.

“It was previously thought that, in terms of other species, the further away an animal was from humans, the more rudimentary their use of facial expressions would be,” co-lead author Karen McComb, a professor at the university, said. “Through the development of EquiFACS, however, it’s apparent that horses, with their complex and fluid social systems, also have an extensive range of facial movements and share many of these with humans and other animals.”

“With EquiFACS we can now document the facial movements associated with different social and emotional contexts and thus gain insights into how horses are actually experiencing their social world,” she added. “As well as enhancing our understanding of social cognition and comparative psychology, the findings should ultimately provide important information for veterinary and animal welfare practices.”

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Feature Image: Thinkstock

Health

Extreme stress turns regular fat into calorie-burning brown fat

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Emily Bills

With the number of obese Americans now outnumbering the overweight ones, and with men and women having a less than 1% chance of losing a significant amount of weight at all, researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have made a discovery that could lead to the first universally effective measure for permanent weight loss.

The researchers have discovered, for the first time in humans, that regular white fat can be converted into brown fat—and they believe they have figured out what triggers the change.

Brown fat is a type of tissue that increases metabolism and decreases blood glucose levels—all without you having to alter your physical activity levels. As compared to regular white fat, brown fat cells are smaller, with more mitochondria, and produce more uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). Unlike other body cells—which convert calories into energy that powers the cell and body—the excess UCP1 means that brown fat only turns calories into heat.

Previous studies have shown that humans have brown fat in small amounts, and that it more or less can be turned on to burn calories (like in colder temperatures); this study has shown that white fat can actually be “browned.”

[Also check out: Drug converts bad white fat to good brown fat in mice.]

The only problem: This process requires severe and prolonged adrenaline-releasing stress.

Don’t try this at home

Severe burn victims are a model of this kind of stress, experiencing extremely heightened adrenaline levels for several weeks following their injury. Thus, the researchers recruited 72 patients who had sustained severe burns on about 50% of their bodies, as well as 19 healthy control participants.

Samples of white fat were extracted from the patients over the course of their recovery, which were measured for metabolic rates and for cell composition. Further, the resting metabolic rates of the patients themselves were measured.

As the patients spent more and more time with elevated adrenaline levels, the researchers found that the white fat became “browner”—which is to say, the molecular and functional characteristics of the white fat grew more and more like that of brown fat.

“Our study provides proof of concept that browning of white fat is possible in humans. The next step is to identify the mechanisms underpinning this effect and then to develop drugs that mimic the burn-induced effect,” said lead author Labros Sidossis, UTMB professor of internal medicine, in a press release.

These results can be found in the journal Cell Metabolism.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Space

Neutron star takes on form of black hole with huge jets

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Black holes, previously believed to have been the only objects in the universe capable of forming powerful jets of materials shooting out into space, now have a little “friendly competition” in the form of an extremely dense double-star system known as PSR J1023+0038.

New observations conducted of this neutron star have revealed that it is also blasting these strong jets, scientists from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) reported in research published this week in the Astrophysical Journal. Originally identified as a neutron star in 2009, it wasn’t until 2013 and 2014 that the researchers realized PSR J1023+0038 was actually producing stronger-than-expected jets, they explained.

Neutron stars, which are formed when a massive star undergoes a supernova, causing its central parts to collapse beneath their own gravity, are essentially stellar corpses, ICRAR astronomer Dr. James Miller-Jones explained in a statement. In PSR J1023+0038’s case, the study authors said that they expected to find it producing a weak jet, since it was only consuming a small amount of material, but observations revealed its jets rivaled those of a black hole in strength.

Exploring the significance of this discovery

So what makes this discovery important? Lead investigator Dr. Adam Deller, an astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), explained to redOrbit via email that the detection of these jets “highlights a gap in our understanding of how accretion works.”

Accretion, he explained, is a fundamental process which plays a key role in turning protostars into main sequence stars which form many of the elements found in the universe, growing into the supermassive black holes found at the centers of nearly all galaxies. Prior to their research, Dr. Deller said, researchers believed that there was a clear-cut distinction between how accretion worked onto black holes and how it worked onto neutron stars and other objects.

“This result implies that black holes are less special than we thought,” he added, “even though unlike everything else in the universe, they have an event horizon.” Neutron stars, in comparison, have a solid surface, Dr. Miller-Jones added. Discovering that these stars can also produce these powerful jets “suggests that an event horizon is not needed to produce jets,” he noted, “which gives us an important clue as to how jets get launched and accelerated in the first place.”

Dr. Miller-Jones pointed out that there are “competing theoretical models for how jets can be produced, and a better understanding of the similarities and differences between the jets in black holes and neutron stars can give us important clues as to the conditions needed to produce jets, hence helping pin down which of those theoretical models is more correct.” He and Dr. Deller also said that they hope the findings will improve the overall understanding of these jets.

Exploring the phenomenon of ‘transitional’ neutron stars

The study authors explained that PSR J1023+0038 is what is known as a “transitional” neutron star, meaning that it shifts between accreting and non-accreting phases – in other words, the star spends several years being powered primarily by the rotation of the neutron star, but changes to an active gathering state on occasion, becoming far brighter in the process.

“PSR J1023+0038 is actually a really interesting system, that only accretes some of the time,” Dr. Dellar explained. “The rest of the time it acts like a normal ‘radio pulsar’, which is a neutron star that acts like a cosmic lighthouse: it has a very strong magnetic field, and it emits very strong radiation from its magnetic poles, but it also rotates, and that rotation causes the beam of radiation to sweep across the sky, so we see regular “pulses” of emission here on Earth.”

When it was originally discovered, he told redOrbit, it was behaving like a radio pulsar, and continued to do so until 2013. At that time, it began to accrete gas that had been falling off of its companion star. The infalling material interfered with the processes which generated the radio pulses, causing them to disappear and prompting Dr. Dellar and his colleagues use telescopes to look at it in the optical and X-ray bands.

“All the hallmarks of accretion were present,” he said. Having found that the neutron star was accreting material, they used the Very Large Array to search for radio emissions coming from the jet of material being blasted out of the system. This emission, Dr. Dellar explained, was not the same as the one they observed when they found that PSR J1023+0038 was a radio pulsar – “it has a different spectrum, and it doesn’t pulse with the rotation of the neutron star.”

This emission is “coming from the electrons racing away from the system at relativistic speeds in the jet,” and once they found it, they used it to estimate how strong the jet is. Much to the team’s surprise, he said, “it came out much stronger than we had expected!” PSR J1023+0038 is just the third “transitional” pulsar to be found, Dr. Dellar added, and to follow up on their study, he and Dr. Miller-Jones hope to find and study more of these types of systems.

Health

Epilepsy drug first-ever 3D printed pill to receive FDA approval

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Spritam, a drug developed Aprecia Pharmaceuticals and designed to control seizures brought on by epilepsy, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, making it the first 3D printed medication in the world to receive the regulatory go-ahead for use.

According to BBC News, the company said that printing the drug will allow layers of medication to be more tightly packed together in precise dosages. Spritam is made with ZipDose 3D printing technology, which was developed by Aprecia to make high-dose pills easier to swallow.

As Gizmodo explains, Spritam tablets contain 1,000 milligrams of a common epilepsy treatment known as levetiracetam, but the ZipDose technology designs the pill to be extremely porous, and as soon as it meets liquid, it starts dissolving – allowing it to essentially melt in your mouth. The medication is expected to become available in the first quarter of next year.

Cheaper, easier way to create personalized medicine

Aprecia claims that it is the first and only pharmaceutical company to produce medicine using additive manufacturing methods on a commercial scale, the website noted. Using 3D printing to create these pills will allow for the creation of drugs based on a patient’s specific need instead of creating a one-size-fits-all medication, experts told BBC News.

“For the last 50 years, we have manufactured tablets in factories and shipped them to hospitals, and for the first time this process means we can produce tablets much closer to the patient,” Dr. Mohamed Albed Alhnan, a lecturer in pharmaceutics at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, told the British news organization on Tuesday.

This advance would make it possible for medical and healthcare facilities to alter doses on a patient-by-patient basis by making a simple adjustment to the software before the start of the printing process, Dr. Alhnan explained. Previously, personalized approaches to treatment like this would have been extremely costly to produce, he added.

“Spritam is designed to fill a need for patients who struggle with their current medication experience,” Don Wetherhold, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aprecia, said in a statement. “This is the first in a line of central nervous system products Aprecia plans to introduce as part of our commitment to transform the way patients experience taking medication.”

(Image credit: Aprecia)

Technology

Robots with whiskers could navigate the dark like rats

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

A new tactile sensor array developed by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Illinois Advanced Digital Sciences Centre in Singapore mimics the way mammals like rats and seals use their whiskers to traverse dark environments.

Their creation, which is described in the Wednesday edition of the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, produces tomographic images by measuring fluid flow. The array provides a new alternative or complement to current navigational and tracking systems, and future versions of the system may shrink the technology system and take object content into consideration.

“Animals such as seals and rats sense the world through their whiskers,” Cagdas Tuna, lead author on the paper and postdoctoral researcher at the ADSC, explained to redOrbit via email. “This tactile sensing mechanism is very critical to these animals as they can hunt in the dark, explore surroundings or live underground.”

“Inspired by these whisking animals, we have developed a robotic whisker array system that uses tomographic imaging for fluid-flow field measurements,” he added. The sensor array consists of five artificial whiskers, each of which is made from super-elastic Nitinol wires covered by plastic straws. They measure approximately 15 cm in length and 3 mm in width.

Technology could be used in drones, biomedical applications

These wires have strain gauges installed at their bases measuring movement and repeating the measurements from different directions to generate tomographic images of the fluid flow, Tuna explained. He added that he and his colleagues are “currently working on a more advanced system to track moving objects and detect rapidly changing flow patterns.”

“We envision this technology has the strong potential to be an alternative sensory system for navigation, detection, and tracking particularly in dark conditions,” Tuna told redOrbit. “For example, whiskers could still provide information when cameras or other sensors may have blind spots or suffer poor resolution. This may find its use in aerial or submarine drones to improve performance in navigation, tracking, and obstacle avoidance.”

“With the integration of object contact capability, another potential use could be in biomedical applications including cardiac surgeries,” he added. “The use of a thin whiskered catheter tip may make it easier for surgeons to track the relative position inside the heart with the reduced risk of injury or atrial fibrillation.”

Tuna pointed out that tactile perception is extensively used in the animal kingdom, as creatures use the technique to collect information about the environment around them. Although current engineer systems do not fully exploit these tactile sensing strategies, he thinks there is an increased interest in the robotics community to mimic aspects of biological whiskers as a method for extending the sensory range of current robotics systems.

(Image credit: Cagdas Tuna / University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Space

Star Trek actress returns to the skies in upcoming NASA mission

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Emily Bills

Talk about boldly going where no one has gone before: Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura on the original Star Trek TV series, announced recently that she would be involved in an upcoming NASA mission to study the atmosphere and analyze comets.

According to People magazine, the 82-year-old actress, who is recovering from a minor stroke she suffered back in June, revealed during a Reddit AMA on Friday that she would be among the passengers on a NASA Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne observatory flight when it lifts off on September 15.

“SOFIA does not, sadly, fly into space,” she explained. “It’s… a massive telescope mounted inside a [Boeing] 747 flying as high as is possible. I was on a similar flight, the first airborne observatory, back in 1977. It’s an amazing experience, you get a totally different perspective than from Earth. I do hope someone gets some great pictures.”

Not quite the Enterprise… but pretty cool!

Nichols will be “among the first non-essential personnel” to experience SOFIA, which is a joint project of the US space agency and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), The Verge reported on Monday. It was developed to observe infrared energy in the universe, allowing it to study things such as black holes, solar systems, asteroids, and newborn stars.

In fact, SOFIA was able to observe Pluto as the dwarf planet passed in front of a star during a recent flight near New Zealand. The instrument is more than eight feet in diameter and is housed in the aircraft’s fuselage. It has been hailed as the world’s largest airborne observatory, and is planned to have a lifespan of approximately two decades.

During that recent deployment to New Zealand, which lasted from June 15 through July 24, the flying observatory studied portions of the universe that can only be viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, NASA said. During that time, it was stationed at the National Science Foundation’s US Antarctic Program facility at Christchurch International Airport.

SOFIA Program Manager Eddie Zavala said that the six-week mission was “hugely successful,” adding, “the quality of the astronomical observing conditions in that part of the world is truly exceptional. I expect that there will be numerous science publications once the data have been processed and analyzed.”

Science

Move over Garmin: African fish species have their own built-in fish finders

Written By: Chuck Bednar
Christopher Pilny

A family of African fish known as mormyrids communicate through a unique series of electric discharges generated by an organ in their tails, and some of them can gather detailed information about the creature from which the signal originated from its waveform.

In fact, some of the 200 species that make up this fish family are able to determine the species, sex, age, relative dominance status, emotional state and perhaps even identity, while others lack this ability to perceive differences in waveform variations, experts from Washington University in St. Louis explained in new research published Tuesday in the journal eLife.

While the fish with this ability have been the subject of previous research, those without the enhanced communication system are less well understood – which is what led Dr. Bruce Carlson and graduate student Christa Baker to analyze these creatures in an attempt to discover why they perceive things differently than the more receptive members of their family.

Receptors in the skin are distributed differently

Dr. Carlson and Baker analyzed the sensory receptors and found that the less-perceptive types of mormyrids encode signals far differently than their more discriminating counterparts. In addition the receptors of the less discriminating fish tended to be more tuned to the collective signals from schools of shoals of fish rather than those given up by a single creature.

fish finders

“There had to be a neural correlate for the perceptual differences,” Dr. Carlson explained in a statement, “so we looked to see if something was happening ‘out in the periphery’ where the signals are originally detected and encoded for processing in the brain… As far as we know, this is the first time anyone has found a receptor tuned to group communication signals rather than those coming from individuals.”

These weakly electric fish possess sensory receptors known as knollenorgans in their skin, which they use to detect pulses given off by the fish surrounding them. These receptors can be found all over the bodies of the more discriminating fish, but only in three clustered areas on both sides of the head in the less-perceptive ones. The receptors that were broadly distributed produced spikes, the authors said, while the clustered ones produced oscillations at a constant frequency.

Oscillating receptors detect lower frequencies than spiking ones

Baker explained that when the oscillating receptors received a signal, they reset their oscillations to a specific point in the cycle, which briefly synchronized the oscillations of different receptors. Dr. Carlson added that this is first sensory receptor known to encode stimuli by basically hitting the reset button on its ongoing oscillation phase. Further investigation revealed that the two types of receptors do not encode the same information.

The spiking receptors, the researchers explained, fire a nerve impulse when there is an upward or downward excursion in the signal and are good when it comes to encoding precise timing cues in signaling waveforms. Oscillating receptors, however, only encode the onset of the signal and its point of origin. Spiking receptors are more sensitive to frequencies close to those that comprise the signals of other members of their species, while oscillating ones pick up lower frequencies, which are used to help fish detect and locate large groups of fish.

So why are the two groups of mormyrids so different?

Dr. Carson explained that their “best guess” is that “differences in social behavior, in social organization, selected for differences in sensory capacities. Based on what I’ve seen in the field, the fish able to perceive small differences in the communication signals tend to be solitary and territorial, whereas the fish whose receptors are tuned to group signals tend to be more gregarious.”

“My guess is that these two different lifestyles place very different selective pressures on communication,” he added. “If you’re solitary and territorial and you detect another fish in the area, you want to know exactly who that fish is. Is it a potential competitor, a potential mate, or a different species you’re not worried about? On the other hand, if you’re living in a shoal or school of fish, it’s not so important to identify individuals. Just sticking with the group is going to be a successful strategy.”

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Feature Image: Gnathonemus petersii – Elephant nose fish – Tapirfish. (Credit: GnathoMichel/Wikipedia)

Story Image: African fish called mormyrids communicate by means of electric signals (white lines following fish). Research has shown that fish in one group (top five) can glean detailed information from a signal’s waveform, but fish in another group (bottom five) are insensitive to waveform variations. What is the neurological basis for this difference in perception? (Credit: Bruce Carlson)

 

Health

Smoking pot as a teen not linked to later depression, lung cancer, study finds

Written By: Susanna Pilny
Christopher Pilny

A new study by the American Psychological Association is adding to the great debate over whether marijuana should be legalized: In contrast to some previous research, they found that chronic marijuana use by teenage boys has no apparent link to later physical or mental health issues, including depression or lung cancer.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Rutgers University studied 408 males as part of an offshoot of the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which began tracking 14-year-old male Pittsburgh public schoolers in the late 1980s. The boys were surveyed annually or semiannually for 12 years, and then a follow-up survey was issued at age 36.

Using this information, the researchers then divided the boys into four groups: low or non-users (46 percent); early chronic users (22 percent); participants who only smoked marijuana during adolescence (11 percent); and those who began using marijuana later in their teen years and continued using the drug (21 percent).

Based on results from previous studies, they hypothesized they would find links between marijuana use and the development of certain health conditions in the males—specifically psychotic symptoms (like delusions and hallucinations), cancer, asthma or respiratory problems, lifetime depression, anxiety, allergies, headaches, and high blood pressure. The researchers carefully controlled for other factors that could lead to development of these conditions, including participants’ access to healthcare, cigarette use, and other illicit drug use.

“What we found was a little surprising,” said lead researcher Jordan Bechtold, PhD, a psychology research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in a statement. “There were no differences in any of the mental or physical health outcomes that we measured regardless of the amount or frequency of marijuana used during adolescence.”

These results were unaffected by race (the group was 54% black, 42% white, and 4% other races or ethnicities), but as the study only tested males, it is uncertain whether the results would differ by sex. And despite the length and size of the study, the researchers made it clear the results are not the end-all be-all for the issue.

“We wanted to help inform the debate about legalization of marijuana, but it’s a very complicated issue and one study should not be taken in isolation,” said Bechtold.

The study was published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors.

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Feature Image: Thinkstock