It has been 100 days since the war in Gaza began, and it has become increasingly difficult to read the news. Her husband told me it might be time to talk to a therapist. Instead, on a cold winter morning, after fighting back tears as I read another tale of human tragedy, I turned to artificial intelligence.
“I’m pretty depressed about the state of the world,” I typed into ChatGPT. “It’s natural to feel overwhelmed,” the magazine responded, offering a list of practical advice, including limiting media exposure, focusing on the positive and practicing self-care.
I closed the chat. I was sure that I would benefit from doing all this, but at that moment I didn’t feel much better.
It may seem strange that an AI would even try to provide this kind of assistance. But millions of people have already turned to his ChatGPT, a professional therapy chatbot that provides convenient and inexpensive mental health support. Even doctors are said to be using AI to create more empathetic notes for patients.
Some experts say this is a boon. After all, AI may be able to express empathy more openly and tirelessly than humans, unhindered by shame or burnout. “We admire empathetic AI” by a group of psychological researchers I wrote recently.
But others are not so sure. Many people question the idea that AI can be empathetic and worry about the consequences if people seek emotional support from machines that can only pretend to care. Some even wonder if the rise of so-called empathic AI might change the way we think…
Korolevo Quarry in Ukraine, one of the oldest human remains in Europe
Roman Galba
Molecular dating reveals that an area in Ukraine was occupied by humans 1.4 million years ago, making it one of the oldest human remains in Europe, and possibly the oldest.
The ruins, located in Korolevo in western Ukraine, have been studied since the 1970s. Numerous stone tools were found buried in layers of sediment next to outcrops of volcanic rock suitable for tool making.
“It was like a magnet that drew people to it, and they were camping nearby,” he says. Roman Galba At the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.
No bones have been found because the soil was too acidic to preserve bones, but hominins homo erectusa species that evolved about 2 million years ago and spread from Africa to Europe and Asia.
It is clear that early humans were present at the Korolevo sites repeatedly over hundreds of thousands of years, but we do not know exactly when they were present. But Garba's team has now used a technique called cosmogenic nuclide dating to date the oldest layer containing the tools to 1.4 million years ago.
This method relies on cosmic rays that are energetic enough to split atomic nuclei and create unusual isotopes. However, these cosmic rays do not penetrate deeply into solid objects, so these isotopes form only in exposed areas.
When an object is buried, the radioactive isotopes produced by cosmic rays decay into other isotopes, making it possible to determine when the object was buried.
Another early human site in Dmanisi, Georgia, is estimated to be 1.7 million years old, and other sites in France and Spain are about 1.2 million years old. This suggests that early humans migrated from Africa through Georgia into Ukraine and then west to other parts of Europe, Galba said, although some crossed the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey. There is a possibility that it was.
Some humans are crossed the Strait of Gibraltar It arrived in Spain when sea levels were lower than it is now, and then migrated east to other parts of Europe, but there is no evidence to support this, Galba said.
While parts of Georgia are geographically in Europe and the entire country is politically considered part of Europe, the Dmanisi site is geographically located in Asia, Garba said. As such, he and his team consider Korolevo to be the oldest reliably dated human site in Europe.
“Korolevo is, to our knowledge, the oldest confirmed human presence in Europe,” the paper says.
“I agree that the new age estimates are important, and they support the idea of an early east-west dispersal,” he says. chris stringer At the Natural History Museum in London.
Number of people under 50 diagnosed with colorectal cancer has been increasing for 30 years
Mohammed Elamin Aliwi/Alamy
One of the most alarming trends regarding cancer is the increasing incidence of several types of tumors in people under the age of 50, especially colorectal cancer.
A £20m, five-year research project aimed at discovering the causes of the rising number of bowel cancers has been given the green light. The study will use blood, urine and stool samples from millions of people held in about 17 biobanks in Europe, North America and India.
The goal is to determine whether this increase is related to changes in food, drink, medicines, air pollutants, and other environmental chemicals by measuring everything people are exposed to (known as the “exposome”). It’s about understanding what’s going on.
“Exposomes are all the elements of the outside world that influence our health,” he says. Andrew Chan co-leader of the project at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston;
The number of people under the age of 50 diagnosed with colorectal cancer has been increasing for 30 years. In the UK, for example, these tumors have increased by about 50 per cent in people aged 25 to 49 over this period, and similar trends are seen in the US, Canada, Australia and some European countries.
Nine out of 10 tumors occur in older people, so the increase in deaths among people under age 50 has not yet had a significant impact on the total number of cancer deaths. But this trend is worrying to doctors, especially since tumors in younger people tend to be more aggressive and diagnosed at a later stage.
Speculation abounds as to the cause, but various aspects of modern diets, including increased consumption of processed foods and red meat, and a lack of fiber, as well as antibiotic use and exposure to pollutants, are likely to be contributing factors. It is believed that this is the main cause.
In a new research projectChan and his team have attempted to identify and measure all the chemicals in medical samples obtained in previous studies, and plan to investigate further.
They will use mass spectrometry to identify the chemical signatures that disrupted the levels of novel compounds and natural biochemicals that entered the body.
One of the biobanks being used is Nurses’ Health Study 3, a large-scale project in the United States that charts the health and lifestyles of hundreds of thousands of nurses. Some participants have provided not only blood samples but also stool samples, which will allow the team to analyze gut bacteria as well.
Another important cohort is the Danish Newborn Screening Biobank. The biobank contains dried blood spots from almost every baby born in Denmark since 1982, representing approximately 2 million samples. This will allow researchers to see whether what we are exposed to in the womb is associated with an increased risk of colon cancer.
If, as expected, a correlation is found between certain biochemicals in the blood and the risk of colon cancer, the researchers will investigate whether blood tests can identify people who are more vulnerable. says Mr. Chan. “That could be a group of people who would be targeted for more intensive colon cancer testing,” he says.
Another part of the project will test whether reversing blood characteristics associated with colorectal cancer reduces people’s risk of developing the tumor. Jordana Bell Professor at King’s College London and one of Chan’s collaborators. “We seek to apply the insights we generate early by identifying putative causal factors, understanding potential mechanisms, and designing intervention trials,” she says.
Ian Fawkes from Cancer Research UK (CRUK) said: “In the United States, recent data show that people born in the 1990s have a 2.4 times higher risk of colon cancer than people born in the 1950s. Most cancer cases occur in people over age 50. “This development is an important issue for us to address. The key is to understand why the rise in early-onset cancers is occurring in the first place.”
CRUK is funding the research along with Maryland’s National Cancer Institute, France’s National Cancer Institute and the UK’s Gut Babe Foundation.
I I have a bad cold, but I felt better after watching Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley. This is the game’s equivalent of honey, lemon, and a hot water bottle, full of deliciousness and warmth. But it’s also strange and melancholic, an iconic mark of Moomin and part of the reason for the enduring popularity of Jansson’s work. It’s weird, sad, creepy, wholesome, and fun.
The plot follows Snufkin, a philosophical wanderer, preparing to return to Moominvalley in the spring and meet his best friend Moomintroll after the Moomins wake up from hibernation. However, he finds his way blocked by a park patrolled by police. The administrators of Hemulen Park have decided to extend their powers to build gardens throughout Moominvalley, managed according to strict signposted rules. Enraged by this unjust natural enclosure, Snufkin begins tearing up his sign. And in a tempting logic, once all the signs are gone, the cops just walk away because there are no more rules to enforce. This allows Snufkin to freely rewild the area, tearing up paving slabs and dismantling fences.
This conflict with park management forms the basis of the game, and there are several parks where Snufkin must sneak around the sights of roaming police officers while destroying signs. Snufkin uses his trusty harmonica to charm animals and solve puzzles, and then adds flutes and drums to his arsenal, but outside of this novel use of musical instruments to interact with the world, there are no innovations. There are very few. You’re given a shopping list of quests to complete, many of which involve finding specific objects or characters, and there’s also the familiar stealth section that’s been used in countless games before.
Full of kindness and warmth… Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley. Photo: Hyper Games/Low Fury
But beyond that, this works as a tour through the characters and locations of the Moomin world. Although the story is original and only loosely based on the events of the 1954 book Moomin Summer Madness, the game still remains very faithful to Tove Jansson’s original text and uses her beautiful artwork convincingly. It presents itself as a facsimile of the events of the novel as a whole.
Early on, we’re introduced to the terrifying Groke, who can freeze fire when he sits on it, and soon certain small, unnamed creatures are tagged along with Snufkin. Toffle is also here, but he is too scared to come down from the tree. There’s also Two Ticky, Mrs. Fillyjonk, Lady Snork, and the Hatter, to name a few. Fans of Jansson’s work will rejoice at every cameo appearance, but even if these names mean nothing to you, Melody of Moominvalley does a good job of showing why these characters are so beloved. This is a children’s fairy tale world populated by deeply flawed adults, mixed with some very strange and biting satire. Mrs. Fillyonk is the original helicopter parent. Snufkin was an eco-warrior long before the word was coined.
That was also strangely sad. Most of the time, the characters seem too wrapped up in their own neuroses and obsessions to ever truly be happy, but I’m sure they can overcome their traumas and differences and somehow manage to get along. That fact is what makes this world so uplifting. In that sense, the choice of Sigur Ros for the uplifting yet melancholic soundtrack is an inspiration.
The melodies of Moominvalley are simple and non-challenging, but they are disappointingly short, so you can see almost everything in a day’s play. Still, it’s all so carefully put together that it’s hard to begrudge these shortcomings. It’s all about licensing. Tove’s short stay in his faithfully recreated version of Jansson’s strange and memorable world is worth the price of admission.
About a quarter of Labradors have a mutation in the POMC gene that induces starvation.
Charles Mann/Getty Images
Labradors and flat-coated retrievers, two dog breeds, may be more susceptible to being overweight because they carry mutations that cause them to feel hungry between meals and slow their metabolic rates. “It's a double whammy,” he says. Eleanor Laffan at Cambridge University.
mutations that affect genes called POMCwhich affects about a quarter of Labradors and two-thirds of flat-coated retrievers, but does not affect other breeds.
Discovered in 2016, it was found to alter pathways in the brain associated with weight regulation, but it was unclear exactly how it affected eating habits.
To find out, Laffan's team conducted a “boxed sausage” test on 87 pet Labradors. In this test, dogs were able to see and smell sausages in an impenetrable container. The Labrador dog, in which he had one copy of the mutation, continued to try to open the box much longer than the dog without it.
However, in another test in which dogs were given a can of food every 20 minutes until they ran out of food, all dogs ate the same amount of food, regardless of whether they had the genetic mutation or not. This shows that the mutation affects appetite in a specific way, by increasing hunger levels between meals, Laffan says.
The researchers also measured the resting metabolic rates of flat-coated retrievers while they slept and found that dogs with two copies of the mutation had metabolic rates that were about a quarter lower than other dogs.
Laffan said the effect would be expected to be the same in both breeds, but in a second experiment flat-coated retrievers were more likely to carry both of the mutations than Labradors. He wanted to find out.
Laffan said many other genes probably influence dog weight, just as they do in humans.
Dan O'Neill Researchers from the Royal College of Veterinary Medicine say owners of overweight dogs should avoid giving treats as a way to show affection and instead give their dogs other forms of attention. “You can also replace that snack with a walk,” he says.
I had to let go of Pacific Drive, the unconventional fiction-inspired driving survival game I recommended last week. It’s not because it’s bad, not because it’s great, but because I invested over 20 hours of my time and now I’m short on it.
Furthermore, if I’m completely honest, it caught me off guard. In this game, you drive a beat-up old car and venture deeper into long-abandoned exclusion zones, exploring the anomalies you encounter. These anomalies range from pillars that suddenly emerge from the ground to menacing hurricanes that alter roads, all of which are thrilling, unique, and eerie.
However, what deterred me were the tourists. Occasionally, I’d spot a mannequin-like figure frozen in a menacing pose, seemingly harmless. But, when I looked away, I noticed it would sometimes change position or get closer to me. Uh-uh. No, thank you. That’s a hard pass right there.
Every review I read about Pacific Drive emphasizes how attached the reviewer becomes to their rickety old car, their sole companion on this enigmatic journey. They gradually repair and enhance the car with better parts and Ghostbusters-like gadgets to navigate the challenges of the outside world.
“I’m behind the wheel with a massive floodlight mounted on the side of the car for night missions, a contraption that (somehow) synthesizes fuel from the mysterious zone’s atmosphere, and an actual lifesaver. I also have a gadget that occasionally heals me,” PC gamer Christopher Livingston shares. “Most importantly, I possess a force field that I can activate to thwart that pesky hovering freak from grabbing parts of my car and scampering off. It’s like playing a tug-of-war game with my car. And here’s an actual quote from me the first time I saw a darn monster bouncing harmlessly off my shimmering energy shield: Hahaha! Take that! I adore this darn car.”
Kratos and his trusty ax in God of War: Ragnarok. Photo: Sony
I too felt this bond. The car was a sanctuary on Pacific Drive, but it also required attention, diligently tending to every scratch after each run and meticulously applying duct tape and Magic Repair resin to mend the wounds. It felt like it had a soul. Over time, quirks develop in your car, like the windshield wipers always going off when you open the car door, or the horn blaring at the wrong times. To rectify this, you must deduce the root of the problem through a simple engineering puzzle, or you can let it be. You get accustomed to the quirky horn.
I often experience this anthropomorphism of inanimate objects in games, particularly when it comes to vehicles. In Halo, I’d always try to stick with the same warthog throughout the levels, even when it was wildly impractical, driving it through alien bases teeming with zombie-like beings. It was my Warthog. Portal capitalizes on this notion when the malevolent AI GLaDOS bestows upon you the Weighted Companion Cube. I was compelled to carry it faithfully until it was incinerated as part of the game.
I also developed a fondness for specific weapons and outlandish armor in games like Monster Hunter to the point where I hesitated to part with them, even when superior alternatives were available. I distinctly recall forming a profound bond with Kratos’ axe in God of War and how it always returned to my grasp with a satisfying thud after being hurled. I would get exceedingly anxious, fearing I had forgotten to recall it and inadvertently abandoned it amidst the ruins. (Logically impossible, but the concern persisted nonetheless.)
This type of attachment is distinct from the emotional connection to video game characters, who, like all fictional characters, are typically crafted to evoke our sentiments. It’s more akin to the affection one might hold for their favorite mug or childhood bicycle. I presumed this idiosyncrasy was unique to me until I delved into other individuals’ encounters with Pacific Drive, only to discover that others, too, have cultivated a peculiar fixation with virtual cars. It’s both reassuring and engrossing to hear about.
Evidently, humans have been forging emotional connections with game elements since antiquity, so perhaps it’s not as eccentric as it initially appears.
New Orleans is at risk of more flooding than expected due to land subsidence
William A. Morgan/Shutterstock
Sea levels are rising faster than expected in U.S. coastal cities, primarily due to land subsidence from groundwater and fossil fuel extraction. This means up to 518,000 additional people living in these areas could be at risk of major flooding by 2050 if adequate protection is not in place.
Coastal cities often experience subsidence, where the land gradually sinks over time. One of the biggest factors causing this is the compaction of the earth by extracting resources such as water and fossil fuels from the ground.
To investigate how land subsidence and sea level rise will impact coastal communities. leonard owenhen The Virginia Tech researchers created a model based on land elevation changes in 32 major coastal cities, including Boston and San Francisco, and sea level rise projections through 2050.
Researchers found that cities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, such as New Orleans, have lower elevations and are sinking faster. It is sinking at least two millimeters more per year than other cities in the region, increasing the risk of future flooding. . Urban areas along the Pacific coast are better protected from rising sea levels because of their higher elevations.
“We were surprised to see that Biloxi, Mississippi, experienced the most rapid subsidence,” Owenhen says.
They also found that existing flood risk assessments in the United States do not take into account the combined effects of land subsidence, underestimating its threat. Researchers have found that nearly 1,400 square kilometers more land will be at risk of flooding by 2050 than current estimates. That means, in total, 1 in 50 people and 1 in 35 homes in 32 cities are at risk. .
This would put an additional 518,000 people and more than 288,000 homes at risk of flooding.
The study looked at flood risk for dozens of coastal U.S. cities by 2050.
Image courtesy of Leonard Owenhen
These findings highlight the urgent need to strengthen U.S. flood protection now, team members say Manuchel Shirzai, also at Virginia Tech. “Individual cities will need to adapt differently. New Orleans will need to strengthen city-wide flood protection, while San Francisco will probably only need to protect its critical infrastructure.”
Other things could be done to reduce the threat. “If land subsidence is being caused by groundwater extraction, oil and gas development, or other human-induced stresses, we need to do everything we can to reverse these trends before it’s too late.” he says. Simon Anisfeld At Yale University.
The brown and white giant panda is a mutant with a unique coat color found only in the world. Qinling Mountains Chinese.
Kizai is the only brown panda living in captivity. Image credit: Ailie HM / CC BY-SA 4.0 Certificate.
“Variation in fur color has considerable adaptive and cultural value in mammals,” said study lead author Dengfeng Guan, Ph.D., from the Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues.
“This property is directly determined by the ratio of eumelanin to pheomelanin and the density and distribution of melanosomes within the hair.”
“These factors are under complex control by hundreds of genes that influence different aspects of melanogenesis, including melanocyte proliferation and migration, melanin synthesis, and melanosome biogenesis and translocation.”
Giant panda (Airuropoda melanoruca) is one of the most charismatic flagship breeds, distinguished by its striking black and white coat.
However, the discovery brown panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca qinlingensis) This photograph, taken in the Qinling Mountains of China's Shaanxi province, challenges the conventional wisdom that color photographs of pandas are never possible.
Recognized as a subspecies of the giant panda, this brown panda is extremely rare and is definitely designated as a national treasure.
Since the first brown panda was discovered in 1985, 11 records have been reported by official news or private communications, seven of which have been confirmed by photographs or physical objects. Three cases were from Buping County, two from Yang County, one from Taibai County, and one from Taibai County. Zhou Zhi.
All brown pandas are found only in the Qinling Mountains, indicating that they are endemic to this region.
“The first recorded brown panda, a female named Dan Dan, was rescued from Foping Nature Reserve to Xi'an Zoo in 1985,” the biologists explained.
“She then mated with the black panda Wang Wang and gave birth to a male black panda named Qing Qing in captivity.”
“Dan Dan passed away in 2000 and Chin Chin also died in 2006, leaving no descendants.”
“In 2009, Qi Zhai, a male brown panda cub, was rescued from Fo Ping Nature Reserve and is currently the only brown panda living in captivity.”
Dr. Guan and co-authors established two family trios related to the brown panda Qi Zai and sequenced their genomes.
They analyzed ecological and genetic data obtained from a long-term study of wild giant pandas in Fo Ping Nature Reserve.
Additionally, we investigated the cellular mechanisms underlying brown fur color based on microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses.
They are candidate mutations, viz. base 2 The gene is thought to be the most likely genetic basis for brown pandas.
They verified this deletion through sequencing an additional cohort of 192 black pandas and CRISPR-Cas9 knockout mice.
Their findings will not only provide insight into the genetic basis of coat color variation in brown pandas and wild animals, but will also guide the scientific breeding of rare brown pandas.
“The extremely small number of brown pandas and the nature of the frameshift deletion mutation suggest that this mutation may be a neutral or weakly deleterious mutation,” the authors said.
“Remarkably, the two brown pandas (Qi Zai and Dan Dan) are showing normal growth and reproduction; base 2 The knockout mice were viable, fertile, and had no obvious physical abnormalities, indicating that this mutation had no apparent negative impact on the physical fitness of these mice. ”
“However, other physiological effects of this mutation on brown pandas remain unclear. base 2 It is known to be involved in the Alzheimer's disease pathway. ”
“Given the small population size of Qinling giant pandas, weak deleterious mutations may be corrected by genetic drift effects.”
“Further studies on brown pandas and knockout mouse models will therefore provide valuable insight into the functional consequences of this mutation.”
“For a rare coat color mutant of the giant panda that has great scientific and ornamental value, our findings will provide guidance for the scientific breeding of brown pandas.”
of study Published online this week Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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Dengfeng Guan other. 2024. Color photography: homozygous 25 bp deletion base 2 Giant pandas can have brown and white coats. PNAS 121 (11): e2317430121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2317430121
The Florida Senate has passed a bill that would prevent cities and counties from enforcing mandatory water breaks or other workplace safety measures for extreme heat.
With a 28-11 vote along party lines, the Republican-controlled Senate approved Senate Bill 1492, which would prohibit local governments from setting workplace heat standards higher than federal requirements. This means that cities and counties would no longer have the authority to mandate water breaks or shade breaks for workers during the day.
The legislation was introduced in response to the record-breaking heat in 2023, which resulted in prolonged heat waves and high temperatures in the southern United States. Climate experts attributed the extreme heat to global warming.
Proponents of Senate Bill 1492 argue that uniform regulations are necessary to avoid inconsistent rules across the state.
However, labor organizations argue that workplace heat standards are vital for protecting workers, particularly those in industries like construction and agriculture that require outdoor work.
Similar to a law in Texas, the bill in Florida would prevent local governments from implementing ordinances that mandate outdoor workers to take breaks for water or shade.
According to the National Weather Service, heat-related incidents cause more deaths in the U.S. than any other weather event, with outdoor workers at higher risk. The bill would also prohibit local heat protection measures such as training programs and record-keeping related to heat exposure.
While companies must adhere to OSHA’s general workplace safety regulations, there are currently no specific federal guidelines addressing extreme heat hazards.
The bill is pending final approval in the House of Representatives before reaching Governor Ron DeSantis. If signed, it will take effect on July 1st.
Unlike the extinct woolly mammoth, most edited elephants with mammoth-like features lack tusks to avoid poaching for ivory.
QuangTrungArt/Shutterstock
A company founded to bring back extinct animals has announced that it has made significant progress in its goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth. On March 6, Colossal announced that its team had succeeded in converting normal elephant cells into stem cells, which could lead to the creation of mammoth-like creatures. “This is an important step,” said the company’s CEO. ben ram said in a press release. Here’s what you need to know:
Is it really possible to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction?
No, it’s not, and it never will be. The genomes of several frozen mammoths have been sequenced, but there are many gaps. But it should be possible to edit the genome of a living elephant to make it look more like a mammoth. On its website, Colossal acknowledges that the elephant it plans to create will be a “cold-hardy elephant,” but says it will “possess all the key biological characteristics of a woolly mammoth.”
Will these edited elephants look like mammoths?
Colossal says even the sounds of mammoths are similar, but it’s unclear how humans know what a mammoth sounds like. There will be at least one major difference when it comes to their appearance. The majority do not have tusks to avoid ivory poaching, says Colossal co-founder George Church. Specimens with tusks can only be kept in strictly supervised areas.
Colossal also plans to make the mammoth-like elephants resistant to a disease called elephant endothelial-tropic herpesvirus.
Why does Colossal need to create elephant stem cells?
The company edits the genome of elephant cells to make them more similar to mammoths. But creating a living mammoth-like elephant requires producing embryos containing edited genomes. In theory, one way to do this would be to turn gene-edited elephant cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, and then turn those stem cells into eggs and sperm cells.
What are induced pluripotent stem cells?
Pluripotent stem cells can transform into any cell in the body, including eggs and sperm. They occur naturally in embryos, but can also be made from adult cells by adding certain proteins, and are therefore “induced.” These have been produced in many animal species, but until now no one had succeeded in inducing pluripotency in elephant cells.
Why is it so difficult to induce elephant cells to become pluripotent?
At least in part, perhaps, because they are large, long-lived animals, they require better anti-cancer mechanisms, which means tighter control over stem cell proliferation.
How did Colossal manage it?
Specifically, they genetically engineered Asian elephant cells to permanently produce key proteins. Still, it took two months to turn the cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. “We want to make the process more efficient and faster, and I think this is a great start,” he says. Eliana Hisori At Colossal. DNA added to cells is easily removed, she says.
So does Colossal turn these induced pluripotent stem cells into eggs and sperm?
That’s the plan, but it could take years. Converting induced pluripotent stem cells into eggs and sperm is not easy. “This is primarily done in two species: mice and humans,” Church says. “And neither is perfect.”
Does that mean it could be decades before a mammoth-like elephant is produced?
Colossal claims the first “mammoth” will be born by 2028. Heisoli said the researchers aim to make just 50 to 100 gene edits in elephant cells, and that that is possible. But producing embryos in time for this deadline will almost certainly require implanting the edited genome into an elephant egg using the same cloning technique used to create Dolly the sheep. An elephant’s gestation period is her two years, so these embryos need to be created and implanted by her around the end of 2026.
Does cloning edited cells work?
Although it is possible, typically only a few percent of cloned embryos develop into healthy animals. “There are always going to be attempts that fail. How many elephants should we experimentally impregnate?” asks a stem cell expert. Dusko Ilic At King’s College London. “Just because we have the ability to do something new doesn’t mean we should pursue it without careful consideration of the ethical implications and consequences.”
Where does this mammoth-like elephant live? Given Russia’s claims about war and US biological weapons, isn’t it highly unlikely that Russia would allow genetically reborn mammoths to be released into Siberia?
“Keep in mind that mammoths were everywhere in the Arctic, not just Siberia,” Hisori says. Alaska and Canada are also possibilities, she said, and Colossal already has “very fruitful collaborations” with government agencies, local governments and First Nations.
Why is Colossal aiming to revive the mammoth?
The company claims that rewilding the arctic regions where mammoths live will reduce permafrost thaw and reduce climate change by locking up carbon in the form of frozen organic matter. “The Arctic is a perfect place to sequester carbon because it freezes more layers of topsoil every year,” Church says. “And herbivores poop on it.”
Could mammoth-like creatures really help limit further warming in the Arctic?
That hasn’t been established yet, but there is some possibility.One small study suggests animals can lower permafrost temperatures By flattening and insulating the snow that accumulates in winter. And if these animals limit forest expansion, that could also help, as dark trees in previously flat, snow-covered areas can have a warming effect. But it will take thousands of people to make a big impact.
Does that mean Colossal aims to have tens of thousands of these creatures roaming the North Pole?
Yes, that’s the purpose. Based on the increase in elephant population under favorable conditions, new scientist It is estimated that breeding so many mammoth-like elephants from a small initial population could take more than a century.
But Church says Colossal is developing an artificial womb that circumvents normal limitations. “So, in principle, we can do this at any scale the world wants and needs. If they don’t need it, we won’t scale up,” he says. .
According to The New York Times, former Republican President Donald Trump sought significant funding for his re-election bid by meeting with billionaire Elon Musk in Florida over the weekend.
Trump held talks with Musk, who is among the wealthiest individuals globally, along with various affluent Republican donors on Sunday. The Times reported that he is scheduled to have a one-on-one discussion with Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the owner and executive chairman of X, formerly known as Twitter.
Requests for comments from Reuters to Musk and the Trump campaign have not been immediately responded to.
In an attempt to enhance his presidential campaign after recent financial setbacks from legal cases, President Trump is looking to secure more major contributors, as per The Times.
Although Musk has not confirmed his financial support for Trump, he previously indicated his disapproval of incumbent Joe Biden and hinted at not wanting him to win a second term in a social media post following the 2020 election defeat.
While Musk has aimed to stay politically neutral, he previously revealed his vote for Biden in 2020 but has since criticized and clashed with the administration.
The White House condemned Musk’s tweets as allegedly showing anti-Semitism last year, and Musk’s mother accused the president of obstructing his plans for global betterment.
In light of his priorities to defeat the president, Musk, with an estimated net worth of $200 billion, holds a significant financial advantage over Trump in the upcoming 2024 general election campaign, as noted by Forbes.
Financial disclosures from the Federal Election Commission revealed a decrease in Trump’s cash reserves while Biden’s campaign reported an increase, giving him a more sizable financial backing.
Deep within the dusty archives of natural history museums worldwide lies a collection of rare species gathered over centuries, yet unseen by the public eye. However, a new initiative is changing that, making over 13,000 specimens digitally accessible to all.
Over the past five years, the oVert collaboration, consisting of 18 institutions, has produced an impressive array of 3D reconstructions of vertebrate specimens. This involved conducting numerous CT scans of various vertebrate species in the collection, including amphibians, reptiles, fish, and mammals. Even a humpback whale was meticulously scanned to create a detailed 3D model.
This innovative approach not only expands research opportunities for scientists and researchers but also benefits educators and artists, who can utilize these resources to create accurate models of a wide range of species.
Scientists have already begun using data from the oVert project to uncover fascinating insights about the natural world, with the potential for even more discoveries as technology advances.
types of fish
Specimens (such as these different types of fish), once restricted to scientists studying them, are now available to everyone as 3D models. Photo credit: openVertebrate
Frog vestibular system
Vestibular system of pumpkin toad (brachycephalic animal) is the smallest vertebrate ever observed. Still, they take up proportionately more space in their heads than larger creatures, making them less able to balance while jumping. Photo credit: openVertebrate
Incredibly detailed animal scans
Scanned image of Hosmer spiny dragon (Egernia hosmeri) indicates the level of detail revealed in these animal scans. Photo credit: openVertebrate
structure hidden inside
CT scans allow scientists to study the internal anatomy of a specimen without dissecting it. This image of a hedgehog is a good example. Photo credit: openVertebrate
centipede too far
Using the oVert system, researchers were able to perform a digital dissection of a rimrock-crowned snake (Tantilla's politics) – North America's rarest snake. This individual died while trying to eat a centipede. Photo credit: openVertebrate
unprecedented diversity
The main goal of the oVert project is to image as much diversity as possible across the vertebrate tree of life, including fish, reptiles, and mammals. Photo credit: openVertebrate
evolutionary insight
Analysis of the overt specimen revealed that frogs have lost their teeth more than 20 times throughout their evolutionary history, more than any other vertebrate group. Photo credit: openVertebrate
digital museum
On the left, a scientist (Melonycteris melanops). The image on the right shows the same bat after a 3D scan. Photo credit: openVertebrate
frog flowchart
Researchers can use a variety of methods to reconstruct museum specimens as digital 3D models. Photo credit: openVertebrate
Spiny rat osteoderm
One of the researchers was conducting routine CT scans of spiny mice and was surprised to discover that their tails were covered with an internal covering of bone plates called bony plates. Until this discovery, armadillos were thought to be the only living mammals with these structures. Photo credit: openVertebrate
When Ty passed a phone interview with a financial/banking company last month, they thought it would be nothing more than a quick chat with a recruiter. When Ty answers the phone, he assumes the recruiter named Jamie is a human. But things have become robotic.
“The voice sounded like Siri,” said Tai, 29, who lives in the D.C. metropolitan area. “It was creepy.”
Ty realized they weren’t talking to a living, breathing human being. Their interviewer was an AI system and had a tendency to be quite rude. Jamie asked Ty all the right questions – what is your management style? Are you suitable for this role? – But she wouldn’t let Ty answer completely.
“After disconnecting me, the AI responds, “Great!” Sounds good! perfection! ‘Move on to the next question,’ Tai said. “After the third or fourth question, the AI paused for a moment and said the interview was complete and someone from the team would contact me later.” (Ty said his current employer We asked that our last names not be used because we do not know that they are looking for work.)
a investigation Resume Builder, released last summer, found that by 2024, 4 in 10 companies will be using AI to “converse” with candidates during interviews. Of these companies, 15% said hiring decisions are made without any human input.
Laura Michelle Davis I have written From CNET: “Today, it’s not uncommon for applicants to be rejected by robots in human resources departments before they even connect with a real human.” To make the grueling hiring process even more discouraging, many are worried that generative AI, which uses datasets to create text, video, audio, images, and even robot recruiters, will completely take over our jobs.But can AI help us? search Any new gigs in the meantime?
Exercising while wearing foundation changes the properties of your skin.
One inch punch/Shutterstock
Wearing foundation while exercising can affect your skin health by changing the size of your pores and subsequently altering the release of sebum, which is responsible for keeping you healthy.
Lee Seok Ho The researchers at Texas A&M University in San Antonio recruited 43 college students, 20 men and 23 women. Participants first washed their faces with facial cleanser. The researchers then measured skin variables in different areas of the face, including pore size and sebum production.
A single layer of foundation was then applied to all participants’ faces, either on the forehead or cheeks, depending on the participant’s preference.
They then did a 20-minute moderate workout by running on a treadmill at 3 miles per hour (mph) for 5 minutes, 4 miles per hour for 10 minutes, and 5 miles per hour for 5 minutes.
After the training, the researchers repeated various skin measurements and found that areas with foundation had less sebum production than areas without makeup.
“This is a shining example of the negative effects of makeup during exercise,” the researchers wrote in their paper. “In this study, makeup use clogged pores and resulted in negative sebum scores.” The optimal amount of sebum is unknown, and too much can cause acne, while too little can cause skin irritation. To do.
Participants’ pore size also increased significantly in areas without foundation, but did not change significantly in areas with makeup. This suggests that this foundation may be inhibiting the natural enlargement of pores during exercise, preventing the release of sebum and sweat, which moisturize and cool the skin. The researchers did not assess whether these changes were related to skin problems.
Wearing foundation during exercise may not have a significant effect on most people who train for relatively short periods of time, but “we don’t know the effect on endurance-type athletes,” Lee said. say. The research team now wants to investigate the effects during longer exercise routines.
Shari Lipner Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York say the study’s split-face design is a good approach, but complicates comparisons because our skin characteristics vary across different parts of the face. Additionally, she says, the skin around the nose, mouth and eyes has a different thickness compared to the skin on the forehead and cheeks, so ideally these areas should have been studied as well.
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If you squint, you might think it’s a photograph at first glance. His Facebook ad for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) shows a couple cuddling in the front row of a concert hall.
But take a second look and you’ll see why this caused an uproar among creative workers and the unions that represent them. The couple’s tangled fingers are too big and too many. It has a strange sheen and looks like a wax figure. She is wearing a jewel-encrusted tulle dress and he is wearing a tuxedo, but he is also wearing a jewel-encrusted tulle dress. Also, she has a large cube on her lap.
“Why don’t you do something different this Saturday? Come see the orchestra play.” read the ad. This was clearly created by someone who had never seen an orchestra perform, and it shows rows of violinists sitting in the audience, often playing with three hands, one hand, or no hands at all. I imagine it is.
Queensland Symphony Orchestra ad created by AI. Photo: Facebook
This photo, shared by QSO on February 22nd, appears to be sourced from stock image aggregator Shutterstock. where is it listed Under the AI prompt, “Two people go on a date at a romantic indoor classical music concert.”
On Tuesday, industry group Media Entertainment Arts Alliance (MEAA) called it “The worst AI-generated artwork I’ve ever seen.”
“This is inappropriate, unprofessional, and disrespectful to the audience and the QSO musicians,” they added. “Creative workers and audiences deserve better from arts organizations.”
The post also received criticism in the replies. One comment reads, “Next time, please use a paid photographer.” Another person criticized it, calling it “terrible, an arts organization that literally doesn’t use artists.”
Classical Music Industry Blog Slipped Disc The ad was first reported by claimed that it caused “uproar” and “fury” among the orchestra’s players.
The Queensland Symphony Orchestra did not comment on the claims but justified its use of AI imagery in a statement to Guardian Australia. We are an orchestra for all Queenslanders, so we will continue to use new marketing tools and techniques.
Daniel Boudot is a Sydney-based freelance photographer who is often hired by major performing arts companies for promotional images and production shots. Although he hasn’t yet seen his own work being taken over by AI, he says: “I’m getting more and more briefs where mockups are done by AI, so design agencies and marketers are I would be using AI to visualize a concept, and then it would be presented to me in a way that makes it a reality. This is a reasonable use of AI because it doesn’t take away anyone’s job.”
He called QSO advertising “not well thought out.”
“For me, this should have been a mock-up for the actual shoot. It’s a great concept. But have real musicians playing in a real theater.”
“I sympathize, too. It would cost thousands of dollars to make it happen in the real world.
“But the images they used are terrible, so that doesn’t mean photographers will lose their jobs. But I hope that as technology advances, it doesn’t become the new norm.”
AI-generated images have sparked a lot of discussion and outrage since their rise in recent years due to the accessibility of consumer tools like Dall-E and Midjourney. Much of the controversy revolves around the potential for AI to devalue or plagiarize human artists.
In the past 18 months, at least two art awards have made headlines after winners were found to have used AI to generate or alter their works. “I’m not going to apologize for that.” Jason M. Allen said, winner of the Digital Artist Award at the 2022 Colorado State Fair. “I won the award. I didn’t break any rules.”
In 2023, German artist Boris Eldergsen won the Sony World Photography Award for his AI-generated black and white photo of two women. He later admitted he had “entered as a cocky monkey” to incite discourse on AI ethics and refused to return the award.
Last September, the Australian Financial Review included an AI-generated image of the subject in its annual list of the country’s 10 most culturally influential people.
“How quickly can you tell it’s fake?” the publication asked. Editor Justify your decisions at the time.
For many, the answer was “surprisingly fast,” given the eccentricity of the marionette-like Margot Robbie and multi-fingered Sam Kerr.
researchers Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory We discovered two distantly related model plants. Arabidopsis And tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), very different control systems can be used to control the exact same gene. Incredibly, scientists have linked this behavior to extreme genetic modifications that occurred over the course of 125 million years of evolution.
Function of CLV3 in Arabidopsis And in tomato, the cis-regulatory sequences are conserved despite extreme divergence.Image credit: Shiren other., doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011174.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientist Daniel Siren and his colleagues used genome editing to create more than 70 mutant strains of tomato and Arabidopsis plants.
The researchers then analyzed how each mutation affected plant growth and development.
when DNA is stored CLV3 Check-in has mutated too much and the fruit has grown explosively.
“CLV3 It helps in the normal development of plants,” Dr. Shiren said.
“If the switch hadn't been turned on at exactly the right time, the plant would have looked completely different.”
“None of the fruits are huge and ideal. You have to balance growth and yield.”
“If you only have two giant tomatoes on a plant, is that as beneficial as a reduced yield?”
“There are no easy solutions. When you try to improve something, you always end up sacrificing something.”
In the case of tomatoes, mutations occur near the beginning, but not at the end. CLV3 Genetics had a dramatic effect on fruit size.
for Arabidopsisthe regions surrounding both parts of the gene had to be destroyed.
This suggests that something happened over the past 125 million years that caused plants to evolve differently. What exactly happened remains a mystery.
“We can't go back to our common ancestors because they no longer exist,” Dr. Siren says.
“So it's hard to say what the original conditions were and how they were mixed together.”
“The simplest explanation is that there is a regulatory element that is conserved to some degree, and that is being changed in a subtle way. That's a little unexpected.”
“What is certain is that gene regulation is not uniform across plant species.”
“Uncovering these genetic differences could help make crop genome engineering more predictable.”
“And that would be a huge win not only for science, but also for farmers and plant breeders around the world.”
GN-z11 is an extremely bright galaxy that existed just 420 million years ago, making it one of the oldest and most distant galaxies ever observed.
This two-part diagram shows evidence of a gaseous mass of helium in the halo surrounding galaxy GN-z11. The small box at the top right corner shows her GN-z11 in the galaxy. The box in the center shows a magnified image of the galaxy. The left-most box shows a map of helium gas in GN-z11's halo. This also includes clumps that are not visible in the infrared colors shown in the center panel. The spectrum in the bottom half of the graphic shows a distinct “fingerprint” of helium within the halo. The full spectrum shows no evidence of other elements, so the helium blob must be fairly pure, made from leftover hydrogen and helium gas from the Big Bang, with little contamination from heavier elements produced by stars. It suggests that there is no. Theory and simulations near particularly massive galaxies of these epochs predict that pockets of primordial gas must remain within the halo, and that these may collapse to form Population III clusters. doing. Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/Ralf Crawford, STScI.
GN-z11 is an early but moderately massive galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major.
First discovered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 2016, the galaxy is estimated to be just 420 million years old, or 3% of its current age.
GN-z11 is about 25 times smaller than the Milky Way, with only 1% of the mass of stars in our galaxy.
Remarkably, this galaxy is home to a supermassive black hole of approximately 1.6 million solar masses that is rapidly accreting matter.
using, near infrared spectrometer Astronomer Roberto Maiorino of the University of Cambridge and colleagues detected gaseous clumps of helium in the halo surrounding GN-z11 using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's (NIRSpec) instrument.
“The fact that we don't see anything but helium suggests that this mass must be fairly pure,” Maiorino said.
“This is what was predicted by theory and simulations near particularly massive galaxies of these times. There should be pockets of primordial gas left in the halo, and these collapse into population III. They may form star clusters.”
Finding never-before-seen “Population III stars” (first generation stars formed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium) is one of the most important goals of modern astrophysics.
These stars are expected to be very massive, very bright, and very hot.
Their expected characteristics are the presence of ionized helium and the absence of chemical elements heavier than helium.
The formation of the first stars and galaxies marked a fundamental change in the history of the universe, during which the universe went from a dark and relatively simple state to the highly structured and complex state we see today. It has evolved into an environment.
“In future Webb observations, we hope to probe GN-z11 more deeply and strengthen our case for Population III stars potentially forming within the halo,” the astronomers said.
Walking 9,000 to 10,000 steps a day appears to protect against early death and heart-related events
Pippa Samaya/Getty Images/Cavan Images
Walking 9,000 to 10,000 steps a day appears to reduce the risk of early death and heart-related events, adding legitimacy to an idea that has been criticized as unscientific.
The exact origins of the popular belief that people should aim for 10,000 steps a day are unknown, but it is believed to be related to a marketing campaign promoting pedometers in Japan.
Now, research by Matthew Ahmadi Professors at the University of Sydney in Australia suggest that this number may have some value.
The researchers analyzed more than 72,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, with an average age of 61, who wore movement-tracking accelerometers on their wrists for a week. “We were able to quantify the number of steps we took each day,” Ahmadi says.
Participants were then followed for an average of just under seven years, during which time there were 1,633 deaths and 6,190 heart disease-related events. The researchers found that the optimal number of steps per day is 9,000, after adjusting for other factors that may influence the risk of illness and death during that period, such as diet quality, smoking status, and other physical activity. I calculated it to be ~10,000 steps, after which the benefits begin to gradually decrease.
Doing so was found to reduce the risk of death by 39% and risk of heart-related events by 21% during the follow-up period.
“This paper will help the field take a major step forward in refining the science behind physical activity and sedentary time guidelines. Pardon the pun,” he says. Dale Esliger At Loughborough University, UK. “It seems to support the idea that the 10,000 step goal, which is not evidence-based to begin with, may indeed be about right.”
However, on the other hand nicolas berger Researchers at Britain’s Teesside University said the study was “very well designed” using “rigorous methodology and statistical analysis”, but Esliger said the wrist-worn acceleration It says that the meter is not always the best indicator of step count.
The researchers also didn’t take into account the number of steps taken per minute. “Probably about 6,000 steps performed at a higher cadence may be just as protective of your health as 10,000 steps at a slower pace,” Esliger says.
Biologists are University of Surrey They investigated interspecific variation in particulate matter accumulation, washout, and retention in 10 broad-leaved plants, focusing on leaf characteristics.
thomson other. We found that the interaction between macromorphology and micromorphology in green-walled plant species determines their particulate matter removal ability.Image credit: Thomson other. 2024., doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170950.
Green wall is a vertical system that has received particular attention because it can be installed without occupying additional space at street level.
They also offer other benefits, such as reduced dependence on existing soil conditions and additional ecosystem services.
Green wall is a term that includes walls covered with all forms of vegetation.
Green facades and living walls are two types of green walls, where green facades usually include climbing plants, whereas living walls include planting materials and plants to support a more diverse variety of plants. Includes technology.
The reduction of air pollutants by green walls depends on several factors such as plant type, barrier dimensions, leaf area index, humidity, wind speed, and orientation of the location.
“By planting vertically against green walls, communities can purify the air without taking up too much street space,” said Mamatha Thomson, a postgraduate researcher at the University of Surrey.
“Our study suggests that this process depends not only on leaf shape but also on the micromorphological properties of the leaf surface.”
“We believe that the right mix of species creates the most effective green walls. We look forward to conducting further research to see if we are right. .”
The leaves of the evergreens candytuft and ivy were found to be particularly good at trapping pollutant particles, both large and small.
Meanwhile, rain was able to wash most of the pollutants from the lavender's hairy leaves.
Candytuft and marjoram also performed well in washing away small pollution particles.
“We hope that urban planners and infrastructure experts can use our findings to think more carefully about what they plant,” said Prashant Kumar, a professor at the University of Surrey.
“Having a green wall is a great way to remove pollution, but what you plant on top of it can make a big difference to its success.”
of result It was published in the magazine Total environmental science.
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Mamatha Thomson other. 2024. Investigating the interplay between particulate matter scavenging, scavenging, and leaf properties in green-walled species. Total environmental science 921: 170950; doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170950
Developed by a team of physicists from the University of Bonn and the University of Bristol, this new method makes it possible to precisely determine the position of atoms in 3D in a single image and is based on an original physical principle.
The different directions of rotation of the various “dumbbells” indicate that the atoms are in different planes. Image credit: Institute of Applied Physics, University of Bonn.
“If you have ever used a microscope to study plant cells in your biology class, you can probably recall a similar situation,” said Tanguy Legrand and colleagues at the University of Bonn.
“It's easy to see that a particular chloroplast is located above and to the right of the nucleus. But are they both on the same plane?”
“However, when we adjust the focus of the microscope, we find that the images of the nuclei become clearer, while the images of the chloroplasts become blurred.”
“One of them has to be a little higher than the other, and the other a little lower than the other. However, this method doesn't give you exact details about the vertical position.”
“The principle is very similar if you want to observe individual atoms rather than cells. So-called quantum gas microscopes can be used for this purpose.”
“This allows us to directly determine the x and y coordinates of atoms.”
“However, it is much more difficult to measure its z-coordinate, and thus its distance to the objective lens. To find out in which plane an atom lies, we need to take multiple images by moving the focus to various different planes. I need to take a picture of a plane. This is a complex and time-consuming process. ”
“We have developed a method that completes this process in one step,” Dr. Legrand said.
“To achieve this, we use an effect that was already known in theory since the 1990s but had not yet been used in quantum gas microscopy.”
To experiment with atoms, you must first cool them down significantly until they barely move.
It is then possible to confine them to a standing wave of laser light, for example.
The egg then slides into the trough of the waves so that it fits inside the egg box.
After being captured, it is exposed to an additional laser beam and stimulated to emit light to reveal its location.
The resulting fluorescence appears as slightly blurred round spots in quantum gas microscopy.
“We have now developed a special method to transform the wavefront of light emitted by atoms,” said Dr. Andrea Alberti, also from the University of Bonn.
“Instead of a typical round spot, the deformed wavefront produces a dumbbell shape on the camera, which rotates itself.”
“The direction this dumbbell points is determined by the distance light travels from the atom to the camera.”
Professor Dieter Meschede from the University of Bonn said: “The dumbbell acts like a compass needle, and depending on its direction we can read the Z coordinate.”
This new method could be used to develop new quantum materials with special properties.
“For example, we can find out what quantum mechanical effects occur when atoms are arranged in a particular order,” said physicist Dr Carrie Widener from the University of Bristol.
“This allows us to simulate the properties of three-dimensional materials to some extent without having to synthesize them.”
team's work It was published in the magazine Physical review A.
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Tanguy Legrand other. 2024. His three-dimensional imaging of single atoms in optical lattices by helical point spread function engineering. Physics. Rev.A 109 (3): 033304; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevA.109.033304
Elephant pulling a dead calf in a tea plantation in northern Bengal, India
Parveen Kaswan and Akashdeep Roy
Asian elephants intentionally burying the bodies of their calves has been documented in the first scientific report of such behavior in this species.
Five calves were found buried in a drainage ditch on a tea plantation in the northern state of Bengal, India, with their feet and legs sticking out of the ground.
Footprints and scat of various sizes indicate that members of the herd of all ages contributed to each burial. A night watchman at the complex reported hearing loud elephant cries, sometimes lasting 30 to 40 minutes, before the herd left the area.
Akashdeep Roy Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune and Parveen Kaswan from the Indian Forest Service suggest that the sound of these bugles may represent mourning, and that during burials the herds are “helping and caring”. It suggests that the person exhibited a certain behavior.
“The burial of a calf is an extremely rare event in nature,” says Roy.
They were surprised to find the calf buried foot-deep, but if the herd had buried each calf together, this would be the most accessible position to place the carcass in the drain. , says Roy. For elephants, who are social animals, burying their calves' heads may be the most important thing they do, he says.
A baby elephant buried in a tea garden with its feet sticking out of the ground
Parveen Kaswan and Akashdeep Roy
The calf's body was later exhumed and examined. Their ages ranged from three months to one year old, and many were malnourished and suffering from infections. Bruises along each calf's back suggest that they were dragged or carried long distances to the burial site.
African bush elephant (african loxodonta) have been observed covering carcasses with plants and returning to the location later. However, the Asian elephant (maximum elephas) In this study, we typically avoided returning to the burial site and used an alternative route instead.
“These observations provide impressive evidence of the social complexity of elephants,” he says. Chase LaDue At the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden. “Some people have suggested that elephants seem to behave in a unique way towards their deceased relatives. [but] This paper is the first to describe what appears to be a methodical and planned burial of an elephant calf after it was taken to a burial site. ”
Still, Professor Radu said: “We must be careful how we interpret these results, especially since the mental and emotional lives of elephants remain largely a mystery to us.” There is.
He is not convinced that the position of the calf was intentional. “I could imagine an elephant pushing a dead calf into a narrow ditch, and given its awkward shape and weight distribution, the calf would land on its back with its legs in the air,” he says. “And because the depth of the trench is shallow, the feet are not buried, but this is not due to intentional burying of the head, but due to the unique topography of the burial site.”
The land where elephants once roamed freely is shrinking as humans expand, especially in India, the world's most populous country. Only about 22 percent of the land used by elephants is within protected areas.
“Understanding how elephants behave and respond to rapid changes in human-dominated landscapes may help develop conservation strategies that promote human-elephant coexistence.” Mr. Radu says.
Watching a total solar eclipse is an experience you’ll never forget, but if you don’t take the right precautions, it could end up for the wrong reasons. Looking directly at the sun can be dangerous, so read on to learn how to safely observe a solar eclipse and what you need to prepare in advance.
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be visible to more than 42 million people across North America. The total path is only about 185 kilometers wide and touches Mexico, 13 U.S. states, and parts of Canada. Most people in North America will experience this phenomenon as a partial solar eclipse, rather than a total solar eclipse.
“For those outside the path of totality, the moon will never completely cover the sun,” he says. Jeff Todd At Prevent Blindness, a Chicago-based eye care advocacy group. No matter how you look at it, eye protection is essential.
“To avoid damaging your eyes, you should wear eclipse glasses throughout the eclipse,” says Todd. Otherwise, you risk burning your retina. This phenomenon, also known as “eclipse blindness,” can occur painlessly and can be permanent. It may take several days after seeing a solar eclipse before you realize something is wrong. Sunglasses do not provide sufficient protection. However, it is perfectly safe to wear eclipse glasses over your prescription glasses.
How to safely view a solar eclipse
The prize for those traveling the path of totality is seeing the sun’s corona with the naked eye. However, it is only visible for a short few minutes during totality. Otherwise, partial phases will be visible and must be observed through eclipse glasses. Todd says people on the path to totality should wear eclipse glasses at all times, except during totality, a brief period of darkness when the sun is completely hidden by the moon. “Only then can you take off your eclipse glasses,” he said.
It is important for those in the path of totality to use their naked eyes to view the Sun during a total solar eclipse. “You have to look without a protective filter, otherwise you won’t see anything,” he says. ralph chow At the University of Waterloo, Canada.
solar eclipse 2024
On April 8th, a total solar eclipse will pass over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Our special series covers everything you need to know, from how and when to see a solar eclipse to the strangest solar eclipse experience of all time.
Just before totality ends, light from the Sun’s photosphere flows between the Moon’s peaks and valleys. Called Bailey beads, they appear for a few seconds and eventually become a flashing “diamond ring,” exposing enough of the sun’s photosphere for sunlight to return. “It gives us ample warning that it’s time to resume viewing partial solar eclipses with protective filters,” Chow said.
Which solar eclipse glasses should I buy?
It is important to wear eclipse glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard. ISO 12312-2 applies to products used for direct viewing of the sun. “Look for the ISO standard label and buy your glasses from a trusted source,” says Todd. “Get your glasses early in time for the eclipse.” Before you buy, make sure the company or brand is listed on the American Astronomical Society’s site. A vetted list of suppliers and resellers.
Do not use Eclipse glasses with binoculars or telescopes. If you want to use these instruments to observe a solar eclipse, you’ll need to attach a solar filter over the objective lens (the lens opposite the one you’re looking through). Never place solar filters or eclipse glasses between the telescope eye and the eyepiece or binocular eyecup.
Another way to safely view the eclipse is with a pinhole projector. This is a simple device that projects an image of the sun onto paper or cardboard through a small hole. An even easier method is to use a colander or a small hole in a spaghetti spoon. This projects a small crescent sun onto every surface.
New observations of 86 planet-forming disks provide astronomers with a wealth of data and unique insight into how planets form in different regions of the Milky Way.
A planet-forming disk around a young star and its location in the gas-rich clouds of the constellation Taurus, about 600 light-years from Earth. Scientists observed a total of 43 stars in the Taurus region, all of which are pictured here (although planet-forming disks were detected in only 39 of these targets) ).Image credit: ESO / Galfi other. /Iras.
More than 5,000 exoplanets have been discovered to date, many of them in planetary systems significantly different from our solar system.
To understand where and how this diversity occurs, astronomers need to look at the dust- and gas-rich disks that envelop young stars: the cradles of planet formation. These are most commonly found in the giant gas clouds in which the stars themselves are forming.
As with mature planetary systems, new images from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) show the amazing diversity of planet-forming disks.
“Some of these disks show huge spiral arms, probably driven by a complex ballet of orbiting planets,” said Christian Ginski, an astronomer at the University of Galway.
“Some show rings or large cavities formed by planet formation, while others appear smooth and almost dormant amidst this hustle and bustle of activity,” said Antonio Galfi, an astronomer at the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory. he added.
The authors studied a total of 86 stars across three different star-forming regions in the Milky Way. Taurus and Chameleon I are both about 600 light-years from Earth, and Orion is a gas-rich cloud about 1,600 light-years from us. It is known as the birthplace of several stars more massive than the Sun.
In the Orion cloud, we found that stars in groups of two or more are less likely to have large disks that form planets.
This is an important result given that, unlike our Sun, most stars in our galaxy have companion stars.
In addition to this, the uneven appearance of the disk in this region suggests that there may be a giant planet embedded within it, which could cause the disk to become distorted or misaligned. there is.
Planet-forming disks can extend to distances hundreds of times the distance between Earth and the Sun, but because of their location hundreds of light-years from us, they appear like tiny needles in the night sky. I can see it.
To observe the protoplanetary disk, astronomers used the VLT's Spectropolarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research Equipment (SPHERE).
Additional data was obtained using VLT's X-SHOOTER instrument, allowing researchers to determine how young the star is and how massive it is.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) has helped us understand more about the amount of dust around some stars.
Per Gunnar Vallegord, a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam, said: “The process that marks the beginning of the journey towards the formation of planets and, ultimately, the formation of life in our solar system could not be more beautiful. It's almost poetic that it is.”
The technology industry is one of the most valuable sectors globally, heavily relying on the unpaid efforts of a small number of enthusiasts.
This reliance is both a boon and a bane for open-source software projects, which are freely available for public use. Some of these projects efficiently solve simple problems, saving unnecessary repetition of work. Others tackle complex tasks that push boundaries.
This dependency is not a secret. In August 2020, webcomic xkcd highlighted this issue by portraying modern digital infrastructure as a delicate tower depending on a project maintained by a random person in Nebraska since 2003.
Moreover, a satirical tweet by Druthers Haver humorously emphasized the importance of unsung heroes like Ronald, who maintains critical technical tools like the UNIX tool called “Rank.”
The most crucial figures in technology are a mix of well-known personalities like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, as well as lesser-known individuals like Ronald, the caretaker of “Rank,” a vital tool that manages calculations for machines worldwide.
These anecdotes reflect reality. A software developer faced a crisis in 2016 when his left-pad code, included in numerous programs, unintentionally caused widespread failures due to a simple name dispute.
Similarly, OpenSSL, a widely used encryption tool, had a severe bug unnoticed for years, compromising online security. The story repeated with Log4j seven years later.
While distributing free software offers many benefits, sustaining its development poses challenges. Various models like paid support and corporate funding have been attempted, with mixed success.
Recently, projects like tea.xyz attempted to reward open-source contributors with crypto tokens but inadvertently attracted spam and low-quality contributions, illustrating the need for better solutions.
The Curious Case of $100
Apple receives its first fine from the EU. Photo: Donisle/Alamy
Apple recently faced a significant fine from the EU, underscoring the regulatory scrutiny on tech giants abusing their market dominance.
The substantial fine indicated the EU’s commitment to curbing anticompetitive behaviors that harm consumers, particularly in the online services sector.
Apple’s hidden rules negatively impacted consumers, leading to higher costs and limited choices in music streaming services.
This incident sheds light on the complex relationships between tech companies, regulators, and consumers, emphasizing the need for fair competition and consumer protection.
Facebook and Instagram are currently experiencing significant issues as of Tuesday afternoon in the UK, with users unable to log in and feeds not updating. The problem was first noticed around 3:30pm GMT.
Interestingly, Google also faced login problems at the same time, indicating a potential common cause for the outage affecting these two major tech companies that manage their own infrastructure.
Meta’s status page highlighted various disruptions, including a major issue with groups’ admin center and Facebook Login, a service that enables users to sign in to third-party platforms using their Facebook credentials, causing outages on other websites.
By 4pm GMT, Meta updated its status page to show an “unknown” status for most services except the Messenger API for Instagram, while services like WhatsApp and Facebook Ads Transparency page were still operational. However, the meta status page itself stopped working at 4:15 p.m.
In a tweet, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone acknowledged the ongoing issues and stated that they were working to resolve them.
Google’s ad status page confirmed an outage in its Ad Manager at 3:30pm GMT and mentioned investigating other reported issues. However, Google’s consumer services like search and YouTube were largely unaffected, although login problems did impact some corporate clients, such as the Guardian newspaper.
Systemic internet issues appear to be the underlying cause, with users of various platforms like X and Microsoft’s Teams also facing sporadic difficulties.
This outage is the first major Facebook outage of 2021, attributed to a configuration error in the BGP protocol, which inadvertently removed its address from the internet communication system between servers. Despite a swift discovery, it took several hours to implement and rectify the fix, compounded by the lack of remote access for engineers to resolve the issue.
MExperts say powerful viral clickbait has taken over Facebook and Instagram in Canada after Meta removed news from the platforms nine months ago. Now Australia could face a similar scenario online, with the company preparing to battle the Australian government over payments to news organizations.
Last week, Meta announced it would no longer make payments to Australian news publishers, prompting the Australian government to consider using its legislative powers to force the platform to negotiate payments with news publishers. Ta.
The controversy could prevent Australian news organizations from posting links to their content on Facebook or Instagram, as Meta did for six days in 2021, and as Canada has done since mid-last year. The possibility is increasing.
Experts say Canada’s ban has done little damage to the social media giants, but it has hurt the news organizations Canada most wanted to support.
In June 2023, the Canadian federal government introduced Bill C-18, which aims to increase revenue for Canadian journalism publishers by requiring Meta and Google’s parent company Alphabet to compensate publishers for hosting and linking content. (Online News Act) was passed.
Both tech companies initially balked at the prospect, but Alphabet ultimately agreed to a deal with the government in November. Under the terms of the deal, Google’s parent company will contribute C$73.6 million (A$83 million) annually to be distributed to Canadian news publishers. Experts said the deal was in part because C-18 targeted link sharing and indexing, key aspects of Alphabet’s business model.
But Mehta is resisting the law’s restrictions, arguing it is “fundamentally flawed”. In response, it blocked all news sharing on its platforms, including Instagram and Facebook. Prior to the ban, Meta also announced it was ending its partnership with the Canadian Press, which had funded 30 reporting fellowships for young journalists starting in 2020.
The ban took effect in August amid the worst wildfire season in the country’s history, but lawmakers feared it would prevent Canadians from accessing the latest news in their communities and prevent evacuations. . The broadcaster denounced the move as “anti-competitive behavior” and said it violated regulations. federal law.
Mehta said in a statement at the time: “The Online News Act is based on the false premise that Meta is unfairly profiting from the news content shared on our platforms, when the opposite is true. We voluntarily share content on Facebook and Instagram to help grow our audience and generate revenue.”
Non-news content created by viral content makers is filling the space left by news articles.
“Real Facebook without news has turned out to be more harmful than I expected,” said Jean Hughes-Roy, a journalism professor at the University of Quebec.
2022, Roy conducted a simulation He said he conducted a study on what users would see on Facebook if news was banned, but the reality of the ban was worse than the simulation predicted.
“Viral content creators take news content, make it more sensational by adding misleading information or false details, and publish it on their Facebook pages or Instagram accounts. Such content is blocked by Meta. No, but the actual news will be blocked.”
However, the move doesn’t seem to have affected how Canadians use Facebook.
The number of daily active users on Facebook and the amount of time spent on the social network have changed little since the news block began, according to figures from two digital analytics firms shared with Reuters.
Part of Meta’s argument against compensating Canadian journalistic outlets was that links to news articles accounted for less than 3% of Facebook feeds in the country. This was also the argument made regarding Australia’s decision.
Chris Waddell, of Carleton University’s School of Journalism, said Meta is increasingly wary of its position in the news industry.
“I don’t think we’ve lost any advertisers,” he says. “I don’t know if their decisions really made a difference.” [to the company].
“Meta would do that.”I like to get a break from news from other places. It’s hard to imagine that the company really wants to get dragged into the controversy surrounding the impending US election, with AI-generated fake information being posted on Facebook. It’s a real minefield for them. If they’re right, they only make 3% to 4% of their revenue from news, so I can understand why they would bail out of it. ”
News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson told reporters on Monday that Meta’s 3% claim was “obviously a fabrication and an absurd number.”
“So how much discussion is there about the news? If there is a core news, then the latest factual information on Facebook is 100% news. And these are the things Facebook focuses on. We should also focus on our responsibilities to all Australians.”
Most large publications are finding new ways to redirect users to their sites. But Facebook’s refusal to allow links to be shared on its platform has a huge impact on small publishers.
Eden Fineday, publisher of Indige News, an Indigenous-led online journalism outlet, said traffic on the site has fallen by 43% since the ban.
“Facebook is a very indigenous platform,” Fineday told the Toronto Star. “This is a place where a lot of Indigenous communities connect with each other. So it hurts us. Indigenous people are the least considered demographic, especially by corporate America. They’re not just forgotten, they’re also more vulnerable to these changes. It’s sad that companies don’t consider who is being harmed.”
Twenty independent media outlets, including the New Brunswick Media Cooperative, have banded together to try to make up for the loss of traffic. not equipped. The purpose is both to strengthen bargaining positions and to share news more effectively with readers.
Waddell said smaller publishers must do the most to win back readers in order to survive.
“Ironically, those that have been most affected are small start-up publications and publications that have been around for some time that have used Facebook as a promotional tool to reach a wider audience.” he said.
Roy said he is concerned about what the disappearance of news from Meta’s platform would mean for Canadian democracy.
“The latest Reuters Journalism Institute Digital News Report found that 45 per cent of Canadians cite social media as a source of news, and the same percentage is true in Australia. “I’m worried” news doesn’t exist anymore. ”
IAlthough it’s far from his best album, or even the best album of the 1990s, Hours… is David Bowie’s most important album of the decade. However, it wasn’t the music’s fault, but the way it was released. The first album by an artist on the Major His label appeared as a download before it was physically released.
Rolling Stone, writing about the album in August 1999 ahead of its September release, called The Hours a “cyber coup.” This is a continuation of Bowie’s enthusiasm for releasing music online, which began with his 1996 single ‘Telling Lies’. He was also very active. He embraced webcasting and in 1998 he founded his own internet service provider with BowieNet. “I couldn’t be happier with the opportunity to bring the music industry closer to making digital downloads the norm rather than the exception,” he says. How did Bowie explain the release of “Hours…” at the time? “We all know that broadband opportunities are still not available to the overwhelming majority of people, so we hope that the success of this experiment will be measured in hundreds of downloads, not thousands. But just as color television broadcasts and film content on home videotape were necessary first steps to expand the industry’s consumer use, I believe this small step will help my own and others’ We hope this will lead to a huge leap forward for people and ultimately give consumers more choice and easier choice, allowing them to access the music they enjoy.”
The strangeness of cyberspace… David Bowie’s artwork for The Hours…
In early 1998, Virgin Records/EMI made Massive Attack’s Mezzanine available for streaming in its entirety online, with track-by-track previews available over several weeks, in conjunction with its physical release. At the time, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) warned against this, suggesting that streaming experiments could increase the likelihood of albums being pirated and burned onto CDs by tech-savvy individuals. This did not stop other major labels and their label acts from experimenting from time to time. Def Leppard and Red Hot Chili Peppers made their latest albums, Euphoria and Californication, respectively, available for streaming in full on June 4, 1999, four days before the records hit stores. Bob Merlis of the Chili Peppers’ label, Warner Bros., said, “Getting airplay is getting airplay. You just have to define the atmosphere.” “Since I can’t download it, I thought this was a good idea.”
But Bowie’s album release was designed to be a huge step forward. In 1999 he Interview by Jeremy Paxman He appeared on BBC Newsnight to talk about his career, art and what gives him the most energy – the internet. This 16-minute interview is still published on the BBC website, especially since Bowie’s death in January 2016, as evidence of his remarkable foresight regarding the impact of the internet on art, politics and society. Shared frequently. “I don’t think we’ve even seen the tip of the iceberg,” he told the weary and cynical Paxman. “I think the possibilities that the Internet brings to society are unimaginable, for better or worse. I think we are actually on the cusp of something both exhilarating and frightening.” Paxman says in his own words. suggested that it was just a “tool” that inspired Bowie to take action. “No, it’s not,” he said. “No, it’s an extraterrestrial!”
London-based tech company Nothing’s latest Android is aiming to disrupt the budget phone market with something more intriguing.
Priced at £319 (€329/AU$529), the Phone 2a by Nothing seeks to capture the cool design and appeal of its high-end models and deliver it in a more affordable and fresh package, complementing the £579 Phone 2.
This new model continues Nothing’s distinctive semi-transparent design, featuring a large, sleek OLED screen on the front and a translucent back that showcases unique design elements, including Nothing’s signature “glyph” LEDs.
Three LED strips on the back light up in complex patterns to match tones, alerts, or timers and charging. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
While the Phone 2a opts for a plastic construction over the metal and glass of the Phone 2, the LEDs are now positioned only at the top of the phone around the central camera module. Despite this, it can display intricate patterns for ringtones and notifications, as well as other entertaining features like volume levels, charging percentage, timer, and music visualizer.
Although the phone feels smooth and well-crafted, the plastic back tends to attract dust easily and is prone to scratches.
specification
screen: 6.7 inch 120Hz FHD+ OLED (394ppi)
Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro
Ram: 8GB or 12GB
storage: 128 or 256GB
operating system: None OS 2.5 (Android 14)
camera: 50MP main and ultrawide, 32MP selfie
Connectivity: 5G, eSIM, Wi-Fi 6, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, GNSS
water resistance: IP54 (splash proof)
size: 162×76.3×8.9mm
weight: 190g
Mid-range power and long battery life
Phone 2a charges to 80% in 39 minutes and fully charges in just under an hour using a 45W power adapter (sold separately). Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Powered by a mid-range MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Pro chip, the Nothing Phone 2a delivers impressive performance for its price. The software runs smoothly and swiftly, with apps loading quickly and games running well. While it may not match the high-end phones in performance and tends to get warm during gaming, it handles most tasks competently.
The Nothing Phone 2a also boasts a solid battery life, lasting 52 hours of general use or two days between charges, including several hours of 5G usage per day. However, gaming drains the battery faster compared to its high-end counterparts, consuming about 18% per hour of gameplay.
sustainability
The ribbon and pattern visible through the plastic back adds a bit of interest along with the LEDs. Photo: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian
Nothing guarantees that the battery will retain at least 90% of its original capacity for a minimum of 1,000 full charge cycles. The Phone 2a is typically repairable in the UK, with screen replacements costing £70, batteries costing £36, and additional costs for labor and shipping totaling around £35.
Constructed from recycled aluminum, copper, plastic, steel, tin, and other materials, which constitute 20% of the phone’s weight, the Phone 2a generates 52kg CO2 equivalent in carbon dioxide emissions. The company also publishes a sustainability report and offers a trade-in system.
Elon Musk is currently facing a $128 million lawsuit from four former Twitter executives for allegedly not paying them severance packages after acquiring the social network. The lawsuit, filed in California on Monday, follows a previous legal complaint from rank-and-file employees seeking $500 million in unpaid severance pay.
According to the complaint, “Mr. Musk decided not to provide severance packages to the plaintiffs, so he terminated them without valid cause, invented a false cause, and enlisted employees from various companies to support his decision.”
The four individuals in the lawsuit are former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former general counsel Sean Ejit, and former CLO Vijaya Segal, as well as Mr. Gadde. Following Musk’s acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, he conducted a mass layoff, claiming at the time that these executives were terminated for cause and therefore not entitled to severance pay.
The lawsuit states, “The ’cause’ was not ‘a business decision approved by the board of directors that Mr. Musk disagrees with.’ In the termination letter, he accused each plaintiff of ‘gross negligence’ and ‘willful misconduct’ without providing any evidence to support this allegation.” Neither Mr. Musk nor Mr. No has commented publicly on the matter, and Alex Spiro, a lawyer who often represents Mr. Musk, has not responded to requests for comment.
This lawsuit is one of several linked to Musk’s involuntary takeover of Twitter and subsequent operation of the platform, now named X. Furthermore, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint earlier this year, alleging that Musk’s SpaceX unlawfully terminated eight employees after they criticized his leadership.
After assuming control of the company, Musk disclosed that he laid off approximately 80% of Twitter’s staff during an interview with the BBC last year. Since Musk’s acquisition, the platform has encountered numerous challenges, including a decrease in advertising revenue and a rise in hate speech as content moderation efforts were scaled back. Although Musk initially attempted to withdraw from the deal, Twitter sued to enforce its completion.
Musk attributed the decline in ad revenue to anti-hate watchdog groups that released a report detailing racist and extremist content on the platform. He is currently engaged in ongoing legal battles against two of these organizations, Media Matters and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. A California judge is expected to make a decision this week on whether to dismiss the lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
A new breakthrough in medical research could lead to personalized therapy for babies in the womb. Scientists have successfully grown small organs, known as organoids, from fetuses for the first time. This allows for monitoring the health of the fetus by cloning its organs.
Organoids are complex 3D models of organs made from human cells, retaining the DNA of the original cells, in this case, amniotic fluid cells. These organoids mimic human tissue and provide a more detailed view of any malformations compared to traditional imaging techniques like MRI or ultrasound.
Developed by researchers at UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), this new technology enables a functional assessment of a baby’s congenital condition before birth. This groundbreaking method does not involve access to fetal tissue and is a significant advancement in prenatal diagnosis.
Lead author Dr. Mattia Gerli highlights the potential of organoids to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry and clinics, particularly in fetal development. The study focuses on utilizing amniotic fluid cells to create organoids for prenatal medicine.
Growth process of mini organs
The process involves extracting cells from amniotic fluid, identifying tissue-specific stem cells, and culturing them to form organoids such as lungs, intestines, and kidneys. These organoids show similar functions and gene expressions to the corresponding organs.
In a study comparing organoids from infants with congenital diaphragmatic hernia to healthy infants, researchers found that treatments could be monitored at the cellular level. This breakthrough enables more information for parents during early pregnancy and expands research in fetal development beyond legal limitations.
Gerli emphasizes the potential of organoids in studying human development and advancing prenatal medicine. This innovation opens up a new field of research that was previously limited due to legal restrictions on fetal sampling.
The future of personalized therapy for babies in the womb looks promising with the use of organoids in medical research and fetal diagnosis.
According to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis, individual neurons work together to generate rhythmic waves that propel fluid through dense brain tissue, cleaning it in the process.
Accumulation of metabolic waste products is a major cause of many neurological diseases, but there is still limited knowledge about how the brain performs self-cleaning.Jean Xie other. They demonstrate that neural networks synchronize individual action potentials to generate large-amplitude, rhythmic, self-perpetuating ion waves within the brain's interstitial fluid. Image credit: Jiang-Xie other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07108-6.
“These neurons are miniature pumps,” said Dr. Li-Feng Jiang-Xie, lead author of the study.
“Synchronized neural activity facilitates fluid flow and removal of debris from the brain.”
“If we can develop this process, we could slow or prevent neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, where excess waste products such as metabolic waste and junk proteins accumulate in the brain and cause neurodegeneration. It may be possible.”
Brain cells form a dynamic network that coordinates thoughts, emotions, and body movements and is essential for memory formation and problem solving.
But to perform these energy-intensive tasks, your brain cells need fuel. When you take in nutrients from your diet, metabolic waste products are produced in the process.
“It is important that the brain processes metabolic waste products that can accumulate and contribute to neurodegenerative diseases,” said Professor Jonathan Kipnis, senior author of the study.
“We knew that sleep is a time when the brain begins a cleansing process to flush out waste and toxins that have accumulated during wakefulness. But how does that happen? I didn't understand.”
“These findings may point us to strategies and potential treatments to accelerate the removal of hazardous waste and remove it before it leads to dire consequences.”
However, cleaning the dense brain is not an easy task. The cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain enters a complex network of cells, collecting toxic waste as it passes through it.
On leaving the brain, contaminated fluids must pass through a barrier in the dura mater (the outer layer of tissue that surrounds the brain under the skull) before flooding into the lymph vessels.
But what powers the flow of fluid into, into, and out of the brain?
“Researchers studied the brains of sleeping mice and discovered that neurons work together to fire electrical signals that generate rhythmic waves in the brain, prompting cleaning efforts,” says Jean. Dr. Shi said.
The study authors determined that such waves drive fluid movement.
They silenced certain brain areas so that neurons in those areas no longer produced rhythmic waves.
Without these waves, fresh cerebrospinal fluid cannot flow through the silenced brain areas and trapped waste products cannot exit the brain tissue.
“One of the reasons we sleep is to cleanse the brain,” Professor Kipnis says.
“And if we can enhance this cleansing process, perhaps we can sleep less and stay healthy.”
“Not everyone can benefit from eight hours of sleep each night, and lack of sleep can affect your health.”
“Other studies have shown that mice genetically short-sleeping have healthier brains.”
“Is it to remove waste products from the brain more efficiently?”
“Is it possible to strengthen the brain purification ability of people suffering from insomnia so that they can live with less sleep?”
of study Published in the Journal on February 28, 2024 Nature.
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LF.Jean Xie other. Neurodynamics directs cerebrospinal fluid perfusion and brain clearance. Nature, published online on February 28, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07108-6
Using data from Jupiter aurora distribution experiment (JADE) Instrument equipped NASA spacecraft Junoplanetary scientists calculated that the proportion of oxygen produced on Jupiter's icy moon Europa is significantly lower than in most previous studies.
This diagram shows charged particles from Jupiter impacting Europa's surface, splitting frozen water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen molecules. Scientists believe that some of these newly produced oxygen gas may migrate toward the moon's subsurface ocean, as depicted in the inset image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SWRI / PU.
With an equatorial diameter of 3,100 km (1,940 miles), Europa is the fourth largest of Jupiter's 95 known moons and the smallest of the four Galilean moons.
The moon has an internal liquid ocean and potentially habitable conditions beneath its frozen crust.
Its surface is constantly bombarded with radiation, which breaks down the icy crust into oxygen and hydrogen, most of which is either released from the surface and escapes into space, or remains and forms Europa's atmosphere.
The abundances of these atmospheric gases and ions, and consequently their production rates at the Earth's surface, are inferred primarily from remote sensing observations and are subject to large uncertainties.
“Europa is like an ice ball that slowly loses water in a flowing river,” said Dr. Jamie Zareh, a JADE scientist and researcher at Princeton University.
“However, the flow in this case is a fluid of ionized particles that are swept around Jupiter by Jupiter's unusual magnetic field.”
“When these ionized particles hit Europa, they break up the water ice on the surface molecule by molecule, producing hydrogen and oxygen.”
“In a sense, the entire ice shell is being continuously eroded by the waves of charged particles being launched.”
In the new study, Zarai and colleagues analyzed data from a flyby of Europa conducted by the Juno spacecraft on September 29, 2022. On this flight, the spacecraft flew 353 kilometers (219 miles) above Europa's surface.
They used a JADE instrument to extract abundant amounts of different pickup ions. Pick-up ions are charged particles produced by the destruction of atmospheric neutrals when they collide with high-energy radiation or other particles.
From these data, they calculate that about 12 kg of oxygen is produced every second on Europa's surface.
This is at the lower end of the range of 5 to 1,100 kg per second estimated from previous models.
The results suggest that Europa's surface may have less oxygen than previously thought, meaning that Europa's oceanic habitat is narrower. .
“Flying so close to the Galileo satellite during its long-duration mission allowed us to begin working on a wide range of science, including the unique opportunity to contribute to the study of Europa's habitability,” Juno Principal Investigator said researcher Dr. Scott Bolton. Southwest Research Institute.
“And we're not done yet. More moon approaches and the first exploration of Jupiter's close rings and polar atmosphere are still to come.”
of findings It was published in the magazine natural astronomy.
_____
JR Zarai other. Production of oxygen by dissociation of Europa's water and ice surfaces. Nat Astron, published online March 4, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02206-x
Christian Ziegler/Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior
As storks grow older, they choose faster and more direct migration routes. This suggests that storks are learning by experience to perfect these routes.
“We were able to track these animals and get detailed information about when and where they go,” he says. Ellen Aikens at the University of Wyoming. “But we wanted to learn more about how migration is refined and developed over the lifespan of storks.”
Stork (ciconia) Breeds mainly in Europe, but flies to central or southern Africa during the winter. From 2013 to 2020, Aikens and his colleagues captured 258 young storks at five breeding sites in Germany and Austria. They attached tags to them that tracked their location before releasing them.
In total, the team was able to record 301 migration events from 40 storks, with all storks completing at least two consecutive migrations.
After analyzing the data, the researchers found that young birds tend to spend more time exploring new places and trying different trails each year.
“The reason behind this is that during early childhood they collect information to better understand their environment,” Aikens said. “Because they haven’t yet bred, they have less time pressure to move into the territory they need to breed or build nests.”
However, as the storks grew, their paths gradually became straighter and they began to fly much faster in order to reach their destination faster.
“This suggests that they are progressively upgrading their routes to shorter and more direct ones, but this comes at the cost of requiring energetically more expensive transitions. ,” Aikens said. She says this change occurred because, as storks mature, they need to compete with other storks for quality nesting sites in order to be successful in breeding.
“Storks learn the same way we learn,” Aikens says. “We should appreciate more how wise and how wonderful it is that they are able to complete these journeys successfully and do better over the years.”
A satellite that is expected to change the way we look at global warming methane emissions from oil and gas production has launched from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base. The satellite, called MethaneSAT, will orbit the Earth 15 times a day and use infrared sensors to measure methane leaking from all the world's major production centers.
“We specifically designed MethaneSAT to accomplish one goal,” he says. stephen hamburger The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is a nonprofit advocacy group that developed the satellite with a consortium of universities and aerospace companies. “To generate policy-relevant data to track methane emissions from the oil and gas industry around the world.”
Methane is the most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. And oil, gas and coal production are among the largest sources of anthropogenic methane emissions. Many governments have set targets to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and at last year's COP28 climate change summit, many major oil and gas companies announced plans to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2050. It pledged to reduce methane emissions to zero..
However, it is difficult to assess progress against these commitments. Current methane emissions remain poorly quantified, leaks are difficult to track, and aerial surveys and ground monitoring are expensive and some countries do not allow them. MethaneSAT joins a growing family of methane detection instruments in orbit, aiming to provide better visibility. Existing satellites, such as the European Space Agency's TROPOMI, detect methane emissions over large areas. Other devices, like the 11 methane detection devices operated by Canadian company GHGSat, focus on identifying specific point sources of methane.
In contrast, MethaneSAT regularly monitors methane at high resolution between these scales, allowing researchers to quantify emissions across regions associated with oil and gas production and identify possible sources. can be mapped. “We needed to be able to see all the emissions and resolve them in space,” Hamburg says.
When fully operational, the satellite will deliver up to 30 different “scenes” measuring methane fluxes over 40,000 square kilometers per day, according to the City of Hamburg. He said he will prioritize monitoring oil and gas producing regions such as the Permian Basin in West Texas, but will also be able to measure methane from other major sources such as agriculture, wetlands and landfills. “Methane is methane,” he says.
In parallel with the development of the satellite, Hamburg et al. are building a pipeline to rapidly convert the raw data it generates into publicly available estimates of methane emissions and the likely sources of plumes. was built. This includes a global database of oil and gas infrastructure. Created in partnership with Google Helps connect methane detection to its source.
“We're mapping the whole thing,” Hamburg says. He said the satellite will generate more data on methane emissions from oil and gas in its first year of operation than has been collected in the past 50 years. Full data collection is expected to begin in early 2025.
“The data is here and the technology is here to initiate action,” he says. Jean-François Gauthier GHGSat's hope is that MethaneSAT will help identify sources of emissions, allowing GHGSat's focused satellites to measure in more detail.
rob jackson Stanford University in California says the satellite can independently check emissions reported by companies and countries. “There will be nowhere to hide,” he says. The flood of data may also help explain the still-uncertain causes of the rise in methane rates since 2007, he added.
“The big question for me is how do people use that information,” Jackson says. “There's an assumption that if we had all the information, the emissions would somehow go away. But having information from aircraft and ground sources didn't stop these emissions.”
Also known as the giant southern crab, it lives on rocky and muddy bottoms off the coast of southern Australia.
“Alive 'Southern Giant Crab'” Pseudocalcinus gigas “It ranks among the largest crabs that have ever lived,” said Utrecht University paleontologist Barry van Bekel and colleague Alex Osso.
“This bird is now endemic to the cool-temperate South Australian continental margin, although there is one record of a female being caught off the coast of New Zealand's South Island.”
“Scientists recognized and described the unique set of morphological characters of this monotypic genus and constructed a corresponding new family and superfamily.”
“Unfortunately, the geological history of this remarkable group of crabs is largely unknown.”
named Pseudocarcinus karlaubenheimeria new member of this genus lived in New Zealand about 8.8 million years ago (Miocene epoch).
Six specimens of this species were collected from Waitoetoe Beach. Urenui formation The Taranaki Basin is home to a series of volcanoes. Mojakatino Volcano Center It erupted offshore, leading to the formation of a specific paleoenvironment.
“this is, false calcinus It lived in what is now New Zealand,” the researchers said.
According to the team: false calcinus Males have one normal-sized claw and one extra-large claw.
“In modern oceans, crabs have larger absolute claw sizes in temperate regions than in tropical regions, but in temperate oceans their claws are smaller relative to their body size.”
“The Miocene of New Zealand was home to two species of giant crabs with the largest known crushing claws. Thumidocarcinus giganteus and Pseudocarcinus karlaubenheimeri”
“Clearly, food sources, metabolic conditions and calcium carbonate availability were favorable to these species.”
“Thumidocalcinus Extinct by the end of the Miocene. false calcinus It is currently only known from Australian waters. ”
team's paper Published in New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics.
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Barry W. M. van Bekel and Alex Osso. A new “Southern Giant Crab'' discovered in a Miocene continental slope paleoenvironment in Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, published online on February 27, 2024. doi: 10.1080/00288306.2024.2314472
A ball of cells grown from amniotic fluid. Red indicates lung stem cells
Giuseppe Cara, Paolo di Coppi, Mattia Guerli
Babies born with serious medical conditions may one day receive better diagnosis and treatment in utero, thanks to a new technique that takes samples of cells from intrauterine fluid and grows them in dishes. It might become.
world's first, paolo de coppi Researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London have shown that fetal cells from amniotic fluid can be induced to form miniature spheres of lung, kidney or small intestine tissue. They also showed that these lung organoids could help treat babies born with a sometimes fatal lung disease called congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH).
Although the technique has not yet been used to treat children, the results show it is possible in principle, De Coppi said. The strategy, which researchers call “personalized prenatal medicine,” can also be modified to help treat a variety of other congenital conditions.
The idea takes advantage of a recent approach in which cells in a dish are induced to grow into lentil-sized tissue organoids that take on a three-dimensional structure. These are better than standard techniques of growing cells in two-dimensional layers to capture specific aspects of the tissue in question, such as whether the tissue is healthy or growing abnormally.
The researchers now show that samples of amniotic fluid taken during pregnancy contain fetal cells that can form tissue organoids for the lungs, kidneys, and small intestine.
Studying organoids made from cells from fetuses known to suffer from congenital disorders can tell doctors exactly what form they take, how severe they are, and how they can be treated. We may be able to provide further information.
The researchers created organoids for 12 fetuses with CDH, which causes abdominal organs to push up into the chest, preventing the left lung from growing properly. This condition can be treated by pushing a balloon into the baby's lungs while the baby is in the womb to expand the lungs and improve growth.
The researchers created lung organoids from the fetuses before and after balloon treatment. They found hints that the organoids created after the treatment behaved more like healthy lung tissue than those created beforehand, suggesting that the treatment was successful.
Therefore, organoid technology can be used not only to monitor whether a treatment is effective, as doctors perform this intervention only in the most severe cases, but also to determine whether treatment is needed in the first place. You can use it.
“This has great potential for functional diagnostics,” says De Coppi. “We know how to make diagnoses based on images, but sometimes there are extensive diagnoses. [condition severity] Possible. We want to provide better prenatal diagnostic tools. ”
“If we can classify a disease as mild, moderate, or severe, that's a huge accomplishment,” he says. Cecilia Goeterstrom At Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
holm schneider Researchers at Germany's Erlangen University Hospital say their approach suggests that organoids could one day be converted into mature tissue and transplanted into babies after birth, even if part of their intestine is missing, for example. ing. “If we could engineer gut-like structures for these children to use after birth, we would be in a much better position,” he says.
Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered with an icy shell
NASA/JPL-California Institute of Technology
Jupiter’s moon Europa may not be as ripe for life as we think. Beneath the icy shell is an ocean of water, but as we know, the frigid moon may lack the oxygen needed to support life.
On Europa, oxygen is produced when radiation hits the surface and breaks down the water ice there into its constituent parts hydrogen and oxygen. Models of this process suggest that oxygen production rates can range from 5 kilograms per second to more than 1000 kilograms per second.
Jamie Zareh Researchers at Princeton University made the new estimate using data from the Juno spacecraft, which flew just 353 kilometers above Europa’s surface in 2022. They discovered that oxygen is only produced at a rate of about 12 kilograms per second at the Earth’s surface. This corresponds to the lower bound of previous estimates.
“In a sense, the shell is like Europa’s lungs. It’s continually producing oxygen,” Zaray says. “That said, we can’t say what happens after the oxygen is produced at the surface. How much of the oxygen makes it into the ocean remains a question.”
But if less oxygen is produced in the first place, less oxygen will enter European waters. As a result, researchers may be less likely to discover organisms similar to those living on Earth.
One of the next steps is to figure out how much of that oxygen can penetrate through the alien moon’s icy shell. NASA’s European Clipper mission, scheduled to launch in October, should help solve that problem. It is hoped that this will allow researchers to measure the thickness of the ice and determine whether elements and compounds useful for life can pass through it.
NASA has released a beautiful photo of spiral galaxy NGC 4423 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
This Hubble image shows spiral galaxy NGC 4423 about 55 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Sun.
NGC4423 It is located in the constellation Virgo, about 55 million light years away.
Also known as IRAS 12246+0609, LEDA 40801, or VCC 971, this spiral galaxy is approximately 35,000 light-years in diameter.
beginning spotted Discovered on April 13, 1784 by German-born British astronomer William Herschel, NGC 4423 is a member of the Virgo cluster.
“In the new image, NGC 4423 appears to have a highly irregular, tubular shape, so it may be surprising to learn that it is actually a spiral galaxy,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Knowing this, we can distinguish between the galaxy's denser central bulge and the less dense surrounding disk, which makes up the spiral arms.”
“If you looked at NGC 4423 head-on, it would resemble the shape we most associate with spiral galaxies: a spectacular curve spreading out from a bright center and interspersed with darker, dimmer, less populated regions. This is the arm you are drawing.”
“However, when observing the sky, we are constrained by the relative position of the earth and the object we are observing. We cannot simply change the position of the earth to get a better view of NGC 4423 head-on. .”
“Of course, celestial bodies are not stationary in space; they often move at very high speeds relative to each other.”
“This may suggest that even if the galaxy is moving in a coincidental direction relative to Earth, if you travel far enough you may be able to see it from a substantially different perspective. I don’t know.”
“While this is theoretically possible, in reality the distances in the universe are too long and human lifespans are too short for significant differences in relative alignment to occur.”
“In other words, this is more or less the view of NGC 4423 that we will always have.”
New images of NGC 4423 consist of observations from. Hubble's advanced survey camera (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical portions of the spectrum.
This is based on data obtained through two filters. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
Paleontologists at the University of California, Davis and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History estimate that: Colossus of PercetusA gigantic basilosaur whale that lived in the Eocene of Peru and was 17 meters long and weighed between 60 and 70 tons.
reconstruction of Colossus of Percetus in coastal habitats. related sawfish, Pristis, recovered from the same unit in the East Pisco Basin, Yumac, Paracas Formation, Peru. Image credit: A. Gennari.
Colossus of Percetus They lived in what is now Peru about 39 million years ago (Eocene epoch).
This species was first described in 2023. Basilosauridaean extinct cetacean family that lived in the Eocene and is known on all continents, including Antarctica.
“Colossus of Percetus“The bones are unusually dense,” said Ryosuke Motani, a professor at the University of California, Davis, and Dr. Nicholas Pienson of the Smithsonian Institution.
“Mammal bones are usually solid on the outside and spongy or hollow in the center. In some animals, much of the center is filled with solid bone, which makes it denser and heavier. There are some that are.”
“In aquatic animals, heavy bones offset the buoyancy of body fat and fat, allowing them to maintain neutral buoyancy underwater or, in the case of hippos, to walk on riverbeds.”
“Fossil whale bones have an extensively filled interior and an overgrowth of bone on the outside. A condition called pachyostosis is also found in some modern aquatic mammals, such as manatees. .”
In 2023, paleontologists estimated the weight of the following people: Colossus of Percetus 180 metric tons (range from 85 to 340 metric tons).
This results in Colossus of Percetus Despite being much shorter at 17 meters (17 meters) compared to the 30 meters (30 meters) of the blue whale, it weighs as much or more than the largest known blue whale.
“These estimates indicate that Colossus of Percetus It's incredibly dense,” Professor Motani said.
“It would have been a whale's job to stay on the surface and get out of the ocean. To do anything underwater, it would have had to keep swimming against gravity.”
The authors reviewed the assumptions used to make these estimates.
“The first problem is that the original study used fossil bones to estimate skeletal weight, and assumed that skeletal and non-skeletal mass increases at the same rate as body size increases, which increases the total animal weight. “It's an extrapolation,” they said.
“But measurements in other animals show that this is not the case.”
“Initial estimates also overestimated how much overall weight would increase as a result of hypertrophy.”
“However, the evidence for manatees shows that their bodies are relatively light compared to their skeletal mass.”
Professor Motani and Dr Pienson estimate the total length to be 17 meters. Colossus of Percetus It weighs between 60 and 70 tons, much lighter than any known blue whale.
individuals of Colossus of Percetus A whale that grows to 20 meters can weigh more than 110 tons, but that's still a long way off the 270 tons of the largest blue whale.
“Thanks to the new weight, the whale, like most whales, is able to rise to the surface and remain there while breathing and recovering from the dive,” Professor Motani said.
R. Motani and N.D. Pienson. 2024. Downsizing in the heavy class: Factors and methods for revising mass estimates of giant fossil whales. Colossus of Percetus. Peer J 12: e16978; doi: 10.7717/peerj.16978
In biomedical research, understanding causes and physical characteristics, known as phenotypes, is crucial for correcting abnormalities like diseases. Scientists use genetic techniques to identify disease-associated locations within the human genome, a process known as Genome-wide association research (GWAS). This research helps predict disease risk and develop prevention or treatment strategies.
However, a significant issue with GWAS is the lack of diversity in the data, primarily comprising individuals of European descent. This limits the application of results to other ancestries like Asia or Africa. Previous studies on rheumatoid arthritis have highlighted this limitation.
Using GWAS analysis, scientists generate statistics to predict an individual’s likelihood of developing traits or diseases based on their genetics, resembling a polygenic score report card. This analysis also shows how genes are inherited and their impact on traits like height, weight, and blood pressure.
To address this diversity gap, researchers from Australia, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea integrated European polygenic scores into genetic studies of various ancestries.
They utilized data from biobanks like UK Biobank, Biobank Japan, Taiwan Biobank, and Korea Genome Epidemiology Study, analyzing traits such as height, BMI, blood pressure, and diabetes. Statistical models helped calculate polygenic scores and evaluate GWAS results alongside European scores.
Their method aimed to enhance medical discoveries for underrepresented populations by analyzing genome segments unique to certain traits. They found that adjusting GWAS with polygenic scores improved the detection of rare genetic differences and trait relationships.
While primarily focusing on East Asian data, the authors suggested applying this method to other ancestries using polygenic scores. Although computationally intensive, this method shows promise in improving genetic data analysis for future GWAS studies.
In conclusion, the authors believe that their method will enhance genetic data exploration and can be easily integrated with existing GWAS software tools. They encourage researchers to utilize this method, particularly with underrepresented population data, to study genetic interactions and their effects on traits and diseases.
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