A recent study has shown that including just three baby carrots in your weekly diet can boost levels of beneficial carotenoids in your skin, particularly in young people.
These findings suggest that making small changes to your diet can have a significant impact on your health.
Researchers at Samford University conducted a study that revealed how incorporating baby carrots into your diet can increase carotenoids in your skin, which have various health benefits. When baby carrots were combined with a multivitamin containing beta-carotene, the levels of carotenoids in the skin increased even more significantly.
Carotenoids are compounds responsible for the vibrant colors of fruits and vegetables like red, orange, and yellow. They can only be obtained through diet and are used as an indicator of fruit and vegetable intake.
According to Mary Harper Simmons, a nutrition master’s student at Samford University and the study author, higher carotenoid intake leads to higher levels of antioxidants in the body, reducing inflammation and lowering the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and cardiovascular disease.
Previous research has shown that consuming three times the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables for three weeks can increase carotenoids in the skin. This study aimed to create a convenient snack rich in carotenoids that people enjoy.
Results of the study were presented at the American Academy of Nutrition’s annual meeting in Chicago. Participants were randomly assigned to different dietary intervention groups, including consuming baby carrots, a multivitamin supplement, or a combination of both. The group that ate baby carrots saw a 10.8% increase in skin carotenoid scores, while the combination group had a 21.6% increase.
Going forward, the research team plans to explore different populations and other carotenoid-rich foods like sweet potatoes and green leafy vegetables.
About our experts
Mary Harper Simmons: A master’s student in nutrition at Samford University and presenter of the talk “Effect of a 4-week intervention with baby carrots or a multivitamin supplement on skin carotenoid scores in young adults” at the NUTRITION 2024 conference.
Despite their intimidating appearance, dinosaurs were not slow, lumbering creatures as previously thought. As our knowledge of these prehistoric creatures grows, our early assumptions are being proven wrong. Here are seven significant ways our understanding of dinosaurs has evolved:
1. Tyrannosaurus Rex
In 1902, paleontologist Barnum Brown discovered a massive pile of bones in Hell Creek, Montana. These bones belonged to a towering, bipedal creature with a fierce, predatory look – the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Over the years, numerous T. rex skeletons have been unearthed, revealing it as one of the largest and most powerful carnivorous animals to have lived. Recent discoveries, such as the presence of feathers, suggest T. rex was more complex than originally thought.
Cast of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on display in the main gallery of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, UK – Image credit: Alamy
2. Iguanodon
In 1822, Gideon Mantell presented a fossil discovered in Sussex, England, to the Royal Society. Initially mistaken for belonging to a giant fish or rhinoceros, the tooth actually belonged to a dinosaur, later named Iguanodon. Subsequent findings have revealed Iguanodon as a giant, ground-dwelling dinosaur with spikes on its hands for defense.
3. Dryptosaurus
Discovered in New Jersey in 1866, Dryptosaurus was one of the first well-preserved carnivorous dinosaur skeletons found in North America. Originally named “Laelaps,” it was later corrected to Dryptosaurus. The predator’s agility and speed challenged old perceptions of dinosaurs as slow-moving creatures.
Dryptosaurus as imagined in 1869 – Image courtesy of Alamy
4. Elasmosaurus
When Elasmosaurus was discovered, its long, snake-like neck puzzled scientists. Initially mistaken for a sea snake-turtle hybrid, it was later identified as a plesiosaur with an unusually long neck, setting it apart from other marine reptiles of its time.
Early studies of Elasmosaurus fossils led some to imagine it was a giant sea snake-turtle hybrid – Image credit: Alamy
5. Stegosaurus
Stegosaurus, known for its distinctive plates, initially puzzled paleontologists due to its unique features. Misinterpreted as an aquatic creature with shell-like plates, subsequent discoveries revealed its upright plates and raised questions about their purpose – whether for display or thermoregulation.
Previous depictions of Stegosaurus were unclear on the plate – Image credit: Alamy
6. Ichthyosaur
Mary Anning’s discoveries in England led to the naming of the Ichthyosaur, an extinct aquatic reptile with flippered limbs and a streamlined body. Initially mistaken for a fish or crocodile, the Ichthyosaur was later recognized as an ancient marine reptile.
Painting “Duria Antiquior” by Henri de la Beche – Image courtesy of Alamy
7. Pterosaur
Pterosaurs, flying reptiles with winged fingers, were initially misunderstood as sea creatures or mammals. Georges Cuvier’s recognition of their wing-supporting fingers led to the understanding of these creatures as early fliers, distinct from dinosaurs but closely related to them.
Early visualizations of pterosaurs made them look almost rodent-like – Image credit: Alamy
Back in the spring of 2003, the Human Genome Project completed the monumental task of sequencing the human genome.
Even now, The Book of Life remains a captivating and complex subject for the world’s top geneticists, as they work to unravel its mysteries.
This achievement was not only a major milestone for science but for life on our planet, marking the first time any organism had documented its fundamental genetic makeup. This event sparked the ongoing genetic revolution but also presented profound questions.
Questions like, “Why is there so much genetic material?”
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One intriguing aspect of the human genome is that the majority of it seems to serve no apparent function. With around 3 billion nucleotide pairs (A, C, G, T), fewer than 2% (approximately 20,000) of these are genes responsible for coding proteins that direct cellular activity in the body. So, what purpose do the remaining genes serve?
Some have referred to these as junk DNA: seemingly meaningless genetic remnants accumulated over the course of evolution or like a convoluted word puzzle with little coherence.
However, ongoing research indicates that at least some of these regions are not simply genetic debris but have crucial regulatory and corrective roles in the human genome’s protein-coding genes. These DNA sequences are likened to the controls for gene expression.
For instance, enhancer sequences boost gene transcription from DNA to RNA, while silencers have the opposite effect.
The dark genome largely consists of lengthy repeat DNA sequences called Transposons, which play vital roles in gene expression, evolutionary processes, and environmental adaptation.
These “jumping genes” can relocate within the genome, potentially causing significant genetic mutations or inversions. Scientists posit that transposons are linked to evolutionary developments such as opposable thumbs in humans and the loss of tails in humans and apes.
In certain scenarios, transposons may contribute to the onset of tumors and genetic disorders like hemophilia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy, stemming from repetitive DNA sequences associated with transposons.
As a result, the dark genome has become a focal point of medical research, with hopes that increased understanding over the next two decades will lead to revolutionary therapies for genetic diseases.
This content addresses the query of “What makes up the other 98% of DNA?” posed by Asa Mcintyre via email.
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It is one of the four fundamental forces, but what is gravity? It is made of? A quantum theory of gravity doesn’t exist (yet), but that hasn’t stopped scientists from pursuing these elusive particles.
Unusual waves
Ship-sinking “storm waves” are hitting our oceans… Scientists don’t know why. But there are calls for increased monitoring to build predictive models for these deadly waves. Here’s what we know about these mysterious, seemingly random phenomena.
Glowing Cave
Contrary to popular belief, radioactive material does not actually glow (as you can see by looking at a uranium rod). The Simpsons However, a team of nuclear forensics experts is working on developing a device that will do just that. BBC Science Focus News Editor Noah Leach meets the scientists behind this revolutionary device.
What will the universe become?
Using giant supercolliders, scientists hope to discover hidden instabilities built into the fabric of existence… instabilities that could destroy everything. So will it freeze, crumble, rip apart, or get sucked away? Here’s how cosmologists are tackling one of the biggest questions of all: “What will happen at the absolute end of all things?”
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Master your motivation: Why are some of us procrastinators and others driven and proactive? It’s all in the brain. Understanding the science behind motivation might help you achieve more. We’ve created a simple step-by-step guide to help you do just that.
Zero-emission aviation: After a long wait, the world’s first zero-emission aircraft is finally a reality, but are these battery-powered aircraft really the solution we need?
How to slow down time: In today’s modern world, with phone notifications, emails, endless meetings, and caffeine breaks, your days may feel like a blur. Sensing When you have less time, it feels like you have more time.
Issue 406 is scheduled to be released on June 11, 2024
In the beauty industry, treatments to combat bloating and cellulite are in high demand. Celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Kim Kardashian, and Sean “Diddy” Combs are now turning to lymphatic drainage massage for help with these issues.
This type of massage targets the lymphatic system, which sets it apart from other massage therapies like Swedish, sports, deep tissue, and aromatherapy. Each type of massage offers different benefits, so choosing the right one depends on the results you want to achieve.
Understanding the Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system is a crucial part of the body’s immune system, consisting of organs like the spleen, tonsils, bone marrow, and thymus. It works alongside the circulatory system by filtering out waste products and abnormal cells through lymph nodes. The lymph fluid helps maintain fluid balance, absorb fat, and defend against infections.
Who Benefits from Lymphatic Drainage Massage?
People with conditions like lymphedema, fibromyalgia, sports injuries, deep vein thrombosis, and cancer-related lymphatic buildup can benefit from lymphatic drainage massage. Athletes also find it useful for recovery and prevention, along with proper hydration, diet, exercise, and sleep.
Do You Need Lymphatic Drainage Massage?
Signs of a malfunctioning lymphatic system include swelling in knees, ankles, and hands, as well as swollen lymph nodes when sick. After cancer treatment, lymphatic drainage massage can help prevent infections and support healing.
Can Lymphatic Drainage Help with Weight Loss?
Lymphatic drainage massage can aid in weight loss by improving circulation, reducing swelling, and eliminating toxins. While it may improve the appearance of cellulite, it cannot completely remove it. Weight loss post-massage is often due to losing excess fluids.
What to Expect from Lymphatic Drainage Massage
There are two types of lymphatic drainage massage: manual and simple, both overseen by qualified practitioners. The techniques involve gentle pressure to clear and absorb toxins, without causing pain or skin irritation.
According to a bold study, women might excel at certain cognitive tasks during their menstrual period. New Research from University College London (UCL) and the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH) sheds light on this phenomenon.
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychology, this study is the first of its kind to explore sports-related cognition throughout different phases of the menstrual cycle.
The study involved 241 participants who underwent various cognitive tests simulating mental processes relevant in team sports, such as recognizing expressions, attention, reaction time, and spatial awareness.
Participants also used a menstrual cycle tracking app to determine their phase during the testing period.
Surprisingly, contrary to their expectations, participants demonstrated faster reaction times and lower error rates during their period. For instance, their timing accuracy during a task improved by 10 milliseconds on average (12%) compared to other times.
Lead study author Dr. Flaminia Ronca from UCL Department of Surgery and Interventional Science and ISEH noted that the findings challenge assumptions about women’s capabilities during menstruation.
Conversely, during the luteal phase, participants showed slightly slower reaction times but maintained consistent error rates.
The authors highlighted that even a small difference of 10 milliseconds could impact performance outcomes significantly.
Dr. Megan Lawley, another author of the study, emphasized the importance of further research in understanding how women’s cognitive abilities affect athletic performance at different menstrual cycle stages.
About the Experts
Flaminia Ronca: Associate Professor in the Department of Targeted Interventions at UCL, with research interests in body-brain interaction through movement.
Megan Lawley: Senior Sports Scientist specializing in female athlete health and previously involved in research on athlete performance factors at UK Sport and Bangor University.
The ancient Maya civilization of Central America has captivated researchers for centuries with its amazing astronomical calendar and impressive step pyramids.
Along with their rich culture, they are also connected with a darker aspect: human sacrifice. Recent studies reveal that this is indeed a grim reality.
New genetic analysis from the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza indicates that many of the sacrificial victims were children, with a high number being identical twins.
El Castillo, also known as the Temple of Kukulkan, is the centerpiece of the Chichen Itza ruins in the Yucatan state of Mexico. – Image credit: Johannes Krauss
Published in the journal Nature, the research looked at human remains found in a xultun near the Sacred Cenote.
Radiocarbon dating suggests that the chultun was used between the 7th and 12th centuries AD.
“All individuals in the chultun were children aged three to six,” explained Dr. Rodrigo Barquera, the lead author of the study.
Genetic evidence showed that all 64 individuals tested were male, with about 25% being closely related, including two sets of identical twins.
The occurrence of male identical twins in such a small sample size is unusual.
Barquera noted that twins held significance in Mayan mythology, especially the story of heroic twins defeating the king of the underworld.
This suggests that sacrificing identical male twins was a way to honor the hero twins’ existence.
Detail of the reconstructed stone tzonpantli (skull house) at Chichen Itza. – Image courtesy of Christina Wariner
While this may not have been favorable for identical twins in Maya culture, it was a great honor for their families.
Barquera and his team aim to validate their findings by comparing them with other archaeological sites.
About our experts
Rodrigo Barquera is a postdoctoral researcher in the Archaeogenetics department at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. He has authored numerous research papers published in esteemed journals like Nature and Nature Communications Biology.
Picture this: a hacker sitting at their laptop, frantically typing code as it flashes across the screen. Suddenly, they successfully hack into a satellite. Sounds like a scene from a James Bond movie, doesn’t it? But in reality, it poses a real threat.
Contrary to the dramatic portrayal in movies, hacking a satellite is much more complex than simply having a laptop and a strong internet connection. The issue of cybersecurity in space is becoming increasingly concerning as the number of operational satellites continues to grow.
By the end of 2022, there were 6,718 operational satellites orbiting the Earth, representing a significant increase from the previous year. With 10,206 objects in space, predominantly satellites, the space environment is rapidly expanding.
Satellites play crucial roles in GPS navigation, military surveillance, and banking systems, making them attractive targets for potential hackers. But despite their vulnerability, instances of successful hacks on satellites are rare. So, how can a satellite be hacked, and what are the potential consequences?
How can a satellite be hacked?
While space may seem like a distant realm filled with satellites in remote galaxies, most satellites actually orbit in low earth orbit (LEO), between 99 and 1,243 miles above Earth. Physically accessing a satellite remains a challenge, but there are various methods hackers can employ to compromise satellites without venturing into space.
According to Anuradha Dhamal Dey, a SpaceX space ecosystem manager at Satellite Applications Catapult, potential satellite hacking methods include physical attacks, cyber attacks, and the use of kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) technology. These methods have raised concerns about the security of space-based systems.
ASAT refers to any means of destroying a satellite, with kinetic ASAT involving physical strikes on satellites, such as through ballistic missiles or drones. While kinetic ASAT attacks are unprecedented outside of testing scenarios, non-kinetic attacks using malware or viruses pose a theoretical threat to satellite security.
Despite these risks, no actual satellite hacks have occurred yet. In 2023, the US Air Force organized Hack the Sat event to test satellite vulnerabilities, with three teams successfully breaching a satellite’s security.
What will happen?
While satellite hacking remains theoretical, the potential consequences of a successful attack are significant. Space plays a vital role in various industries, from national security and defense to everyday services like food delivery and entertainment.
It has been common knowledge for many years that smoking is highly detrimental to health. Quitting smoking or avoiding starting in the first place are among the most effective measures individuals can take to safeguard their well-being.
The reduction in smoking rates is attributed to initiatives such as increased tobacco taxes, graphic warnings on packaging, workplace smoking bans, and the cessation of alluring tobacco advertising campaigns.
Nevertheless, nicotine addiction continues to thrive as a lucrative industry. Rather than fading away quietly, the tobacco sector has introduced a new array of products appealing primarily to the youth demographic: flavored disposable e-cigarettes, heat-not-burn devices, and their latest novelty item—nicotine pouches.
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Nicotine pouches are typically packaged in small, pocket-sized containers resembling tea bags. They consist of a blend of vegetable fiber, sugar, flavorings, and, of course, nicotine.
Nicotine can either be synthesized in a laboratory or extracted from the tobacco plant. These pouches come in various flavors ranging from fruity to sweet and in different nicotine strengths, some containing more nicotine than regular cigarettes.
The user places the small pouch between their lips and gums, allowing the nicotine to be absorbed. Once the nicotine is fully absorbed, the pouch is discarded and replaced. These pouches are discreet, emit a pleasant aroma, and unlike chewing tobacco, do not require spitting post-use.
Although nicotine pouches are relatively new, they bear similarities to Scandinavian “snus,” the key distinction being the absence of tobacco in pouches. This regulatory loophole allows pouches to dodge tobacco product rules and regulations that apply to cigarettes.
Unlike cigarettes, pouches can legally be sold to individuals under 18 in the UK due to this lack of regulation. Other countries, such as the US, have taken steps to ban or restrict pouch sales to adults only.
What do we know about the health risks of pouches?
While nicotine pouches are gaining popularity globally, limited data exists to assess their health risks as they are relatively new in the market. Nonetheless, the World Health Organization advocates for a cautious approach emphasizing the importance of prioritizing health outcomes while permitting the sale and promotion of nicotine pouches, especially concerning the health of young individuals.
Usage of pouches exposes individuals to toxic nicotine, increasing the risk of nicotine addiction and potentially leading to the use of other products like e-cigarettes or cigarettes.
Aside from the addictive nature of nicotine, its consumption in pouch form can impact adolescent brain development and overall health, including cognitive functions. High doses of nicotine may induce symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, nausea, and abdominal cramps, particularly in individuals inexperienced with nicotine exposure.
It might be tempting to compare the health effects of nicotine pouches, e-cigarettes, and tobacco products to deem one product “safer” than another. However, 85% of the UK population never smoke; hence, young non-smokers would not derive health benefits from initiating pouch use.
Moreover, there’s no current evidence supporting the efficacy of pouches in smoking or vaping cessation. Rather than aiding cessation efforts, individuals who smoke or vape may resort to pouches when restricted from smoking or vaping easily, potentially increasing nicotine intake.
A handful of multinational corporations dominate the global tobacco industry, with British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International being the two largest manufacturers and sellers of nicotine pouches. Resembling vintage cigarette advertisements, pouch promotions employ motorsport, celebrity endorsements, and various lifestyle marketing techniques.
The partial dam failure occurred after three days of heavy rainfall that caused the Minnesota River to reach its third-highest flood level since at least 1881. Brennan Dettman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, provided this information.
In the Mankato area, where the dam is situated, 7 to 8 inches of rain fell over the span of three days. Based on analysis by Kenny Blumenfeld, Senior Climatologist at the Minnesota Climate Division, the situation was dire. Blumenfeld’s analysis indicated that this level of heavy rain occurs approximately 0.5 to 2 percent of the time each year in southern Minnesota.
Bill McCormick, who headed Colorado’s dam safety program from 2011 to 2021, highlighted how extreme rainfall events are putting dams across the country under strain. “We are experiencing increasingly severe storms that are testing our aging infrastructure. Dams and spillways that previously didn’t face many storms annually are now encountering more frequent storms,” he noted. “These aging systems are facing heightened challenges.”
McCormick also pointed out that development in residential areas near dams has increased the risk factors, as people now live in regions previously designated for farmland. Dams constructed to protect agricultural areas are now safeguarding residential neighborhoods.
Hiba Baroud, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University, emphasized the need for lawmakers to take proactive measures in strengthening dam infrastructure and prioritizing repairs following incidents like the partial failure of the Rapidan Dam. “To prevent such occurrences, it is essential to proactively assess all dams in the U.S., prepare for potential scenarios, and prioritize necessary repairs or upgrades,” she urged. “Simply reacting to major events as wake-up calls concerning specific dams is not sufficient.”
A beam is a stream of particles moving from a source to a target, exerting a pushing force rather than a pulling force on the target.
On Earth, we can use a vacuum cleaner to pull something towards us, but in reality, we are creating a pressure difference that causes the remaining air molecules to push the object.
This method is not considered a beam and would not work in space where there are no molecules in a vacuum.
However, in space, objects can be moved without using beams. The “gravity tractor” is a concept for a spacecraft that would maneuver near an asteroid and utilize mutual gravity to alter its trajectory.
The spacecraft uses ion thrusters to counteract the gravitational pull of the asteroid, effectively pulling it forward at a controlled pace.
Although gravity is a universal force present between all objects with mass, it is relatively weak.
The ESA study discussed methods to charge an asteroid, such as bombarding it with electrons to create a charged object that can be influenced by the spacecraft charged to around 20,000 volts, acting as a type of tractor beam.
While this method is slower than a science fiction tractor beam, it demonstrates a potential approach to manipulating objects in space.
This article was written in response to a question from Alexandra Rowland about the feasibility of a Star Trek-style tractor beam.
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Favoritism stems from our individual preferences for colors, tastes, faces, places, and more, which are influenced by our evolutionary history. For instance, we tend to prefer lighter shades associated with positive things like the sky, while disliking darker shades associated with negativity.
Our preferences are also shaped by environmental factors, such as geographic environments that offer a balanced mix of habitat, resources, and views that promote survival. Additionally, we find symmetrical faces more attractive, possibly due to the genetic indicator of health they represent.
Cultural influences and personal experiences further mold our preferences. From childhood, we are asked to name our favorite things, combining inherent evolutionary preferences with sentimental attachments to shape our choices.
Our brains use these favorites as shortcuts to navigate the overwhelming number of choices in the world, making decisions easier for things like dinner reservations, vacations, or entertainment options. While convenient, relying on favorites can limit openness and spontaneity.
In relationships, favoritism can lead to inequality and division, as seen with parents favoring certain children or bosses showing preference to specific employees.
This article addresses the question of why we choose favorites, originally posed by Heath Bowen via email.
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You’ve probably experienced this feeling before: after a long and exhausting day, all you want to do is curl up and sleep. But instead of allowing you to rest, your brain decides it’s time for some mischief, leaving you wide awake with thoughts racing through your mind.
So why does this happen? Why does our brain keep us awake when we’re most in need of sleep? The answer may lie in the fact that we’re just too tired to sleep.
If you’ve heard of this concept before, it’s often associated with babies who become “over-fatigued” when kept awake for too long, leading to stress and sleep disturbances.
However, the same phenomenon can occur in adults when unchecked emotions interfere with the body’s ability to shut down for sleep. And the longer you stay tired, the harder it becomes to fall asleep.
Fortunately, there are ways to break this cycle. In the following sections, we’ll not only explore what excessive fatigue is, but also share three simple, scientifically-backed steps to help you overcome excessive fatigue for good.
Excessive fatigue ruins your sleep
Being excessively tired is a paradoxical situation. When you’re physically and mentally drained, your brain is actually in a state of hyperarousal, making it difficult to relax and fall asleep.
This hyperarousal state hinders the body’s natural sleep mechanisms, particularly the buildup of sleep pressure.
Sleep pressure refers to the increase in neurochemicals and hormones that signal your body’s need for sleep as you stay awake throughout the day.
According to Professor Matt Jones from the University of Bristol, “As sleep pressure builds up, the brain may also become more excitable, with neurons in the cerebral cortex firing at an increased rate.”
By maintaining hyper-vigilance and allowing intrusive thoughts to dominate your mind, you disrupt the brain’s ability to reset the sleep pressure system, making it harder to fall asleep.
Furthermore, chronic fatigue and sleep deprivation can exacerbate this cycle by feeding troubling thoughts that persist into the following night.
In a recent study, individuals with insomnia were found to ruminate more about past embarrassing events than healthy sleepers, leading to longer sleep onset times.
Additionally, insomniacs may become hypersensitive to bodily sensations like their own heartbeat, further inhibiting their ability to fall asleep.
Dr. Jones explains, “Insomnia creates a heightened awareness of irrelevant information, placing undue strain on the brain and hindering the natural process of sleep onset.”
If you find yourself feeling overly tired and mentally restless when trying to sleep, it indicates that key brain areas are still in a state of hyperarousal, preventing you from processing the events of the day.
According to Dr. Alex Scott of Keele University, modern society’s difficulty in regulating emotions and processing experiences often leaves individuals unable to positively address their emotions, leading to rumination and anxiety at bedtime.
To combat excessive fatigue and improve sleep quality, Scott recommends three simple strategies:
1. Stop counting sheep
Contrary to popular belief, focusing on falling asleep can actually make it more difficult to do so. Rather than forcing yourself to sleep, Dr. Scott suggests acknowledging that sleep is an automatic process that can’t be rushed. Instead of counting sheep, focus on processing your emotions through activities like journaling.
2. Keep a worry diary
Keeping a worry journal before bed can help you identify and address troubling thoughts that may be contributing to your inability to sleep. By writing down your worries and potential solutions, you can externalize and process these concerns, allowing your mind to relax and prepare for sleep.
3. Set a Bedtime Timer
To create a buffer between daily activities and bedtime, set a bedtime alarm to allow time for relaxation and decompression. Engaging in calming activities like reading or meditation before bed can help ease mental fatigue and promote restful sleep.
About our experts
Professor Matt Jones: A neuroscientist at the University of Bristol specializing in sleep science, memory, and decision-making.
Dr. Alex Scott: A psychology lecturer at Keele University whose research focuses on the role of sleep in mental health.
If you want evidence of Microsoft’s progress towards its environmental “moonshot” goals, look closer to Earth to a construction site on an industrial estate in west London. The company’s Park Royal data center is part of the company’s efforts to drive the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), but its ambitions are The goal is to become carbon negative by 2030. Microsoft says the center will be run entirely on renewable energy, but construction of the data center and the servers it will house will contribute to the company’s Scope 3 emissions (CO2)2. These relate to the electricity people use when using building materials or products like the Xbox. 30% increase from 2020. As a result, the company is exceeding its overall emissions target by roughly the same percentage.
This week, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates argued that AI can help fight climate change because big tech companies are “seriously willing” to pay extra to use clean sources of electricity so they can “say they’re using green energy.” In the short term, AI poses a problem for Microsoft’s environmental goals. Microsoft’s outspoken president, Brad Smith, once called the company’s carbon-reduction ambitions a “moonshot.” In May, he stretched that metaphor to its limits and said that the company’s AI strategy has “moved the moon” for it. It plans to spend £2.5bn over the next three years to expand its AI data center infrastructure in the UK, and has announced new data center projects around the world this year, including in the US, Japan, Spain, and Germany.
Training and running the AI models underlying products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini uses significant amounts of electricity to power and cool the associated hardware, plus carbon is generated by manufacturing and transporting the associated equipment. “This is a technology that will increase energy consumption,” said Alex de Vries, founder of DigiConomist, a website that tracks the environmental impact of new technologies. The International Energy Agency estimates that the total electricity consumption of data centers is Doubling from 2022 levels to 1,000 TWh (terawatt hours) in 2026. This is equivalent to Japan’s energy demand. With AI, data centers 4.5% of world energy production That will happen by 2030, according to calculations by research firm Semianalysis.
The environment has also been in the spotlight amid concerns about AI’s impact on jobs and human lifespan. Last week, the International Monetary Fund said governments should consider imposing carbon taxes to capture the environmental costs of AI, either through a general carbon tax that covers emissions from servers, or a specific tax on CO2.2 It is generated by the device. The big tech companies involved in AI (Meta, Google, Amazon, Microsoft) are seeking renewable energy sources to meet their climate change targets. Largest Corporate Buyer Renewable Energy I bought more than half The power output of offshore wind farms in Scotland, which Microsoft announced in May it would invest $10 billion (£7.9 billion) in. Renewable Energy Projects.
Google aims to run its data centers entirely on carbon-free energy by 2030. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to achieving our climate change goals,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who left the company in 2020 but retains a stake in the company through his Foundation, has argued that AI can directly help combat climate change. He said Thursday that any increase in electricity demand would be matched by new investments in green generation to more than offset usage. A recent UK government-backed report agreed, saying that “the carbon intensity of energy sources is an important variable in In calculating AI-related emissions, but adding that “a significant portion of AI training worldwide still relies on high-carbon sources such as coal and natural gas”. Water needed to cool servers is also an issue, A study It estimates that AI could account for up to 6.6 billion cubic meters of water use by 2027. Two thirds This is equivalent to the annual consumption of England.
De Vries argues that the pursuit of sustainable computing power will put a strain on demand for renewable energy, resulting in fossil fuels making up for shortfalls in other parts of the global economy. “Increasing energy consumption means there isn’t enough renewable energy to cover that increase,” he says. Data center server rooms consume large amounts of energy. Photo: i3D_VR/Getty Images/iStockphoto. NexGen Cloud, a UK company that provides sustainable cloud computing, says that in an industry that relies on data centers to provide IT services such as data storage and computing power over the internet, data centers could use renewable energy sources for AI-related computing if they were located away from urban areas and near hydroelectric or geothermal generation sources. “We are excited to join forces with NVIDIA to bring the power of cloud to the cloud,” said Youlian Tzanev, co-founder of NexGen Cloud.
“Until now, the industry standard has been to build around economic centers, not renewable energy sources.” This makes it even harder for AI-focused tech companies to meet their carbon emissions targets. Amazon, the world’s largest cloud computing provider, aims to be net zero (removing as much carbon as it emits) by 2040 and aims to source 100% of its global electricity usage from renewable energy by 2025. Google and Meta are also pursuing the same net zero goal by 2030. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, uses Microsoft data centers to train and run its products.
There are two main ways that large-scale language models, the underlying technology behind chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, consume energy: The first is the training phase, where the model is fed huge amounts of data, often from the internet, to build up a statistical understanding of the language itself, which ultimately enables it to generate large numbers of compelling answers to queries. The initial energy costs of training an AI are astronomical, meaning that small businesses (and even smaller governments) that can’t afford to spend $100 million on training can’t compete in the field. But this cost pales in comparison to the cost of actually running the resulting models, a process called “inference.” According to Brent Till, an analyst at investment firm Jefferies, 90% of AI’s energy costs are in the inference stage – the power consumed when you ask an AI system to answer a factual question, summarize a chunk of text, or write an academic paper.
The power used for training and inference is delivered through a vast and growing digital infrastructure. Data centers contain thousands of servers built from the ground up for specific pieces of AI workloads. A single training server contains a central processing unit (CPU) that’s nearly as powerful as a computer’s, and dozens of specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) or tensor processing units (TPUs), microchips designed to speed up the vast amounts of simple calculations that make up AI models. When you use the chatbot, you watch it spit out answers word for word, powered by powerful GPUs that consume about a quarter of the power it takes to boil a kettle. All of this is hosted in a data center, whether owned by the AI provider itself or a third party. In the latter case, it’s sometimes called “the cloud,” a fancy name for someone else’s computer.
SemiAnalysis estimates that if generative AI were integrated into every Google search, it could consume 29.2 TWh of energy per year, roughly the annual consumption of Ireland, which would be prohibitively financial for the tech company, sparking speculation that Google may start charging for some of its AI tools. But some argue that focusing on the energy overhead of AI is the wrong way to think about it. Instead, think about the energy that new tools can save. A provocative paper published in Nature’s peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports earlier this year argued that AI creates a smaller carbon footprint when writing or illustrating text than humans. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine estimate that AI systems emit “130 to 1,500 times” less carbon dioxide per page of text than a human writer, and up to 2,900 times less carbon dioxide per image. Of course, there’s no word on what human authors and illustrators will do instead: redirect and retrain their workforce in other areas, e.g. Green Jobs – It could be another moonshot.
We have all experienced the discomfort of hydrogen and methane accumulating in the large intestine, causing pressure and the urgent need for release. This natural bodily function does not adhere to our schedule, sometimes occurring at the most inconvenient times, like during a job interview or meeting your partner’s aristocratic parents for the first time.
Farting may seem harmless, but in a world like A Quiet Place, a sci-fi horror film featuring creatures with heightened hearing sensitivity, even a small noise could be deadly. Amidst the chaos of survival, the question arises: how long can humans hold in a fart before facing consequences?
In the third installment of the series, A Quiet Place Day 1, the movie prompts us to ponder on the taboo topic of fart retention. While scientific literature on this subject is limited, experts like Julie Thomson from the digestive health charity, Guts UK, shed light on the implications of holding in gas for prolonged periods.
On average, a person releases gas about 15 times a day, a vital bodily function that cannot be suppressed indefinitely. The accumulation of gas can lead to discomfort and potential health issues if prolonged.
Professor Clare Collins, Director of Research at the School of Health, University of Newcastle, Australia, discusses the link between gas retention and conditions like diverticulitis, emphasizing the importance of not suppressing natural bodily functions for extended periods.
While the consequences of holding in a fart might not seem severe, in a scenario akin to A Quiet Place, where noise attracts deadly beings, it’s crucial to prioritize health over momentary embarrassment.
Remember, maintaining a healthy diet, avoiding gas-inducing foods, and allowing your body to function naturally are key to avoiding discomfort and potential health complications associated with suppressing flatulence.
So, whether you find yourself in a post-apocalyptic world or facing a challenging situation, prioritize your health over temporary discomfort.
This article was first published on May 28, 2021
About our experts
Julie Thomson: Information Manager at Guts UK, an organization dedicated to improving awareness of gastrointestinal diseases.
Claire Collins: Emeritus Professor at the School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Australia, specializing in nutritional technologies and interventions.
As temperatures rise in many parts of the world this summer, staying cool can be a challenge. Imagine wearing a furry coat all day in such heat – not fun, right?
Our furry friends face this reality, which is why they need extra attention when the weather gets hot.
“Dogs rely on panting to cool down, which is less efficient than sweating,” explains Dogs Trust to BBC Science Focus.
“They lack self-control, so they don’t realize when they need to slow down due to heat.”
Fortunately, there are simple things you can do to keep your dog calm and happy when temperatures soar.
1. Walk your dog in the mornings and evenings
Like humans, dogs can overheat if exercised in direct sunlight. Research shows that a significant number of heatstroke cases in dogs are caused by exercise, with walking being a common trigger.
One recommendation from The Kennel Club is to walk your dog early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the hottest times of the day.
2. Stay hydrated
Just like people, dogs need to stay hydrated in hot weather. Carry water and a bowl for your dog when going out to prevent dehydration.
3. Harness your dog
Harnesses are recommended over collars, especially in hot weather, as collars can restrict airflow and hinder a dog’s ability to cool down through panting.
4. Watch out for symptoms of heatstroke and stroke
Heatstroke can affect any dog, with certain breeds and conditions increasing the risk. Look for signs like excessive panting, breathing difficulties, fatigue, and more.
5. Remember that the sidewalk can be hot for your feet.
Test pavement temperature with your hand before letting your dog walk on it. Hot pavements can burn your dog’s paws, so stick to grass or cooler surfaces.
6. Try paddling
Give your dog access to water for a cool dip. A paddling pool or water play can help them cool off and have fun.
7. Be careful when traveling by car
Avoid leaving your dog in a hot car and take precautions for car journeys to ensure your dog’s comfort and safety.
8. Offer frozen treats
Provide your dog with frozen treats to help them cool down. Avoid harmful foods and opt for ice in their water or frozen toys.
9. Have the person lie down on a damp towel
Use a damp towel to help your dog relax and cool down after a hot day.
10. Get a haircut
Trimming your dog’s hair can help keep them cool, especially in hot weather. Proper grooming can assist in heat dissipation and prevent overheating.
For more tips and information on caring for your dog in hot weather, visit the Dogs Trust website.
About our experts
Victoria Phillips Veterinary Manager at Dogs Trust, with 18 years of experience in the veterinary field.
Fantasy is loved by all: it’s fun, intriguing, and messes with our minds.
There are various types of optical illusions, and science often struggles to explain why they deceive human perception. Our brains interpret information from our eyes and fill in the gaps to create what we see in our minds. However, this interpretation is not always accurate.
We’ve compiled some of our favorite visual tricks to challenge your brain.
Checker Shadow Illusion
Photo credit: Edward H. Adelson/Wikipedia
In the image above, rectangles A and B are the same color, although it seems impossible. To demonstrate this fact, here is a rectified image.
Photo credit: Edward H. Adelson/Wikipedia
It’s an example of a contrast illusion where two areas of the same color appear different based on circumstances.
In the checkered shadow illusion, the shadow cast by the green shape seems to darken light areas, creating a surprising effect. Vision scientists created this illusion, and it was developed by Edward Howard Adelson in 1995 to showcase the capabilities of the human visual system in interpreting image information.
Instead of being a flaw, this illusion highlights the effectiveness of our visual perception.
Cafe Wall Illusion
The Cafe Wall illusion. Straight lines appear to be non-straight. Photo credit: Fibonacci/Wikipedia
The Café Wall illusion is a geometric optical illusion where the straight boundaries between dark and light blocks appear curved.
Our brains perceive white areas as larger than black areas in a phenomenon known as the radial illusion. This perception can be changed by swapping white and black colors for lower-contrast colors.
When the color is changed, the lines appear straighter. Photo from Fibonacci/Wikipedia
This illusion, known by various names, was named “café wall illusion” by scientist Richard Gregory, inspired by the design on a café in Bristol, England.
Richard Gregory standing outside the café that inspired the name behind the café wall illusion. Photo by Stephen Battle/Wikipedia
Penrose triangle
3D illustration of the Penrose triangle. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
The Penrose triangle is a geometric optical illusion paradox as it is an impossible 3D object that cannot exist physically. Scientist Lionel Penrose popularized it in the 1950s, and similar versions existed earlier, such as the Reutersvard triangle illusion.
One of the well-known impossible objects, it features prominently in the works of artist MC Escher, like “Relativity” and “Belvedere.”
The Penrose Triangle sculpture in East Perth, Australia, showcases its shape from different perspectives. Photo credit: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikipedia
Motion-induced blindness
Observing the green dot in the center animation can make the stationary yellow dot appear to vanish. Animation: Mlechowicz/Wikipedia
The Bonnet illusion, known as “motion-induced blindness,” is a recently discovered optical illusion. A moving pattern rotates around a flashing green dot in the center of the screen, causing yellow dots within the pattern to disappear and reappear at random intervals if stared at for about 10 seconds.
The reasons behind this illusion are complex, but the lack of focus while viewing a moving image plays a significant role.
Necker Cube
The Necker Cube Illusion: Multiple possible interpretations. Photo credit: Getty Images
The Necker Cube is a shape with multiple perspectives, known as “multistable,” rather than an illusion itself. It lacks visual clues about its orientation, allowing for various interpretations by the brain.
Most individuals perceive the bottom left face of the cube as the front, likely due to our inclination to view things from above straight on, leading to this preferred interpretation.
Similar to Rubin’s Vase Illusion, where a single image can appear as either two faces or a vase, the Necker Cube demonstrates multistability.
An example of a Rubin vase. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
Sparkling grid illusion
The shimmering grid illusion. Dark dots appear and disappear where the grey lines intersect. Photo credit: Tó campos1/Wikipedia
The shimmering grid illusion challenges your brain by making black dots appear on a grid where white circles intersect, only to quickly disappear. This effect, known as the Hermann grid illusion, is a more recent version of a discovery made by Rudimar Hermann in 1870.
Peripheral drift illusion
Peripheral drift illusion – Colorful magenta dots grow larger and drift outwards as you move your eyes from one dot to another. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
The peripheral drift illusion, seen most clearly in circular designs, was described in 1999 by Jocelyn Forbert and Andrew Herbert. They found that the effect intensifies when the eyes are in motion or blinking.
Forbert and Herbert suggest that a combination of factors, including eye movements, light intensity differences, and depth perception, contribute to this illusion.
The motion illusion of spinning snakes created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka. Photo credit: Trent Steele/Wikipedia
Rabbit and duck illusion
The oldest known example of the rabbit-duck illusion (1892). Photo by Fliegende Blätter/Wikipedia
The rabbit and duck illusion is a type of ambiguous drawing where two objects can be seen, known as a “figure-ground configuration.” Originally published in a German humor magazine, this illusion had the caption “Which animals are most similar? A rabbit and a duck.”
Our brain’s perception is influenced by various factors, including creativity, leading to different interpretations. Another example of this phenomenon is the classic painting of two faces that can also be seen as a vase.
Color constancy
The Roman Originals dress demonstrates how humans perceive color differently. Photo by PA/Alamy
In 2015, a viral debate arose over the colors of a dress in a Cheshire store – some saw it as black and blue, while others as white and gold.
The differences in color perception can be attributed to the brain’s response to different colors under varying lighting conditions, as proposed by neuroscientists Bevil Conway and Jay Knights. Your perception of the dress’s color may vary based on whether you believe the image was taken in natural or artificial light.
Despite the dress manufacturer confirming it as black and blue, the white and gold interpretations made it a well-known example of human color vision discrepancies.
Ponzo illusion
In the Ponzo illusion, both blue horizontal lines are the same length. This illusion shows how the human mind judges the size of an object based on its background. Photo courtesy of Getty Images
The Ponzo illusion is a geometric optical illusion named after Italian psychologist Mario Ponzo, though he did not claim its discovery.
There are several explanations for why the top line appears longer than the bottom one, including the brain perceiving the top line as further away due to converging lines towards a vanishing point.
A team of British and American paleontologists has analysed the fossil record of ammonites (marine mollusks best known as snails) from the Late Cretaceous period (105 to 66 million years ago), a period that some scientists characterise as a period of decline before their complete extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The study suggests that, far from disappearing before this, ammonites were still going strong around the world during the Late Cretaceous.
An ammonite basking in the sun from the Late Cretaceous period. Image courtesy of Callum Pursall.
Ammonites thrived in the Earth’s oceans for more than 350 million years before becoming extinct in the same chance event that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Some paleontologists argue that the extinction of ammonites (the last major lineage of ammonoids) was inevitable, and that ammonite diversity declined long before their extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.
But new research suggests that ammonites’ fate is not sealed; rather, the final chapter of their evolutionary history is more complicated.
“Understanding how and why biodiversity has changed over time is extremely difficult,” said Dr Joseph Flannery Sutherland, a palaeontologist from the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol.
“The fossil record tells us part of the story, but it’s often an unreliable narrator.”
“Patterns of diversity may simply reflect sampling patterns — essentially when and where new fossil species were discovered — rather than actual biological history.”
“Analysing the extant Late Cretaceous ammonite fossil record as if it were a complete global story is probably why previous researchers have thought of ammonites as being in a long-term ecological decline.”
To overcome this problem, Dr. Flannery Sutherland and his colleagues have built a new database of Late Cretaceous ammonite fossils to fill sample gaps in the record.
“We used museum collections to provide new sources of specimens rather than relying on what has already been published,” said researcher Cameron Crossan of the University of Bristol.
“By doing this, we’re confident that we’ll get a more accurate picture of the biodiversity before it went extinct.”
The paleontologists used the database to analyze how ammonite speciation and extinction rates changed in different regions of the planet.
If ammonites had declined throughout the Late Cretaceous, their extinction rate would have generally been higher than their speciation rate in every region the team studied.
What the researchers found instead was that the balance between speciation and extinction has shifted through geological time and between different geographic regions.
“These differences in ammonite diversification around the world are an important reason why the story of the Late Cretaceous has been misunderstood,” said Dr James Witts, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“The fossil record in some parts of North America is very well-sampled, but looking at it alone it might seem like North America was struggling while other parts were thriving.”
“Their extinction was an accident, not a foreseeable event.”
To understand why ammonites continued to thrive throughout the Late Cretaceous, scientists investigated factors that may have changed ammonite diversity over time.
They were particularly interested in whether ammonite speciation and extinction rates were driven primarily by environmental conditions such as ocean temperature and sea level, or by biological processes such as pressure from predators and competition between ammonites themselves.
“We found that the causes of ammonite speciation and extinction were as geographically diverse as their rates,” said Dr. Colin Myers, a paleontologist at the University of New Mexico.
“You can’t look at the whole fossil record and say, for example, that diversity is entirely driven by changes in temperature.”
“In reality it was more complicated and it depended on where in the world they lived.”
Team result Published in a journal Nature Communications.
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JT Flannery Sutherland others2024. Late Cretaceous ammonites show regional heterogeneity in drivers of diversification. Nat Community 15, 5382; doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-49462-z
Archaeologists from the University of Sydney say eyelets were a new innovation used to decorate clothing for social and cultural purposes, and mark a major shift in clothing from protection to an expression of identity. Dr Ian Gilligan.
Eyelet needles are among the most iconic Paleolithic artifacts and are traditionally considered rare evidence of prehistoric clothing, especially tailoring. Image by Mariana Ariza.
Archaeologists have traditionally associated the emergence of tailored clothing with the invention of the eye needle, made from bone.
The first occurrence of eyed needles in the archaeological record from northern mid-latitude environments during the last glacial period is consistent with their primary function of providing thermal protection.
of The oldest eyed needle They appeared in Siberia by 40,000 years ago, in the Caucasus by 38,000 years ago, in East Asia by 30,000 years ago, and in Europe by 26,000 years ago.
“Eye hook tools are an important prehistoric development because they record a shift in the function of clothing from utilitarian to social purposes,” Dr Gilligan said.
“From stone tools that allowed humans to craft animal hides for insulation, to bone awls and awls to create decorative, form-fitting clothing, why did we start wearing clothes to express ourselves and impress others?”
In the new paper, Dr Gilligan and his colleagues reinterpret the evidence from recent discoveries about the development of clothing.
“Why do we wear clothes? We think it's part of being human. But when we look at different cultures we see that people were able to fully exist and function in society without clothes,” Dr Gilligan said.
“What intrigues me is how clothing has moved from being a physical necessity in certain environments to being a social necessity in all environments.”
“One of the most iconic Paleolithic artifacts of the Stone Age, eyed needles, are difficult to make compared to bone awls, which were sufficient to make tight-fitting clothing.”
“A bone awl is a tool made from a sharpened animal bone.”
“An eyed needle is a modified bone awl with a perforated hole (eye) to facilitate the attachment of tendons and threads.”
“There is evidence that bone awls were already being used to make tailored clothing, so the invention of the eyed needle may have reflected the creation of more complex, layered garments, and the attachment of beads and other small ornaments to decorate garments.”
“We know that up until the last Ice Age, clothing was only used on an ad-hoc basis.”
“The classic tools that we associate with it are hide scraping tools and stone scraping tools, and we see that they appeared and disappeared at different stages during the last Ice Age.”
The researchers argue that traditional methods of body decoration, such as body painting with ochre or deliberate scarring, would have been impossible in the cold regions of Eurasia during the late last Ice Age, where people would have needed to wear clothes at all times to survive, so clothing became a decorative item.
“That's why the appearance of needles with eyes is particularly significant, as it shows that clothing was used as decoration,” Dr Gilligan said.
“Needles with eyes would have been especially useful for the very fine stitching required to decorate clothing.”
Clothing therefore evolved to serve not only the practical needs of protection against the external elements and comfort, but also social and aesthetic functions for individual and cultural identity.
“The regular wearing of clothing allowed larger and more complex societies to form. People migrated to areas with colder climates and at the same time were able to work together in tribes and communities based on common clothing styles and symbols.”
“The technologies associated with clothing production have contributed to more sustainable lifestyles, facilitating the long-term survival and prosperity of human societies.”
Team paper Published in the journal Scientific advances.
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Ian Gilligan others2024. The evolution of Paleolithic eyed needles and clothing. Scientific advances 10(26); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adp2887
Mammoth (Mammutus primigenius) is isolated Wrangel Island Mammoths were discovered off the coast of Siberia approximately 10,000 years ago and survived for over 200 generations before going extinct approximately 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary events leading up to their extinction, scientists analyzed the genomes of 21 Siberian mammoths and found that mammoth populations recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable for the next 6,000 years.
Three mammoths (Mammutus primigenius) walks up a snow-covered hill with snow-capped mountains rising behind him above a dense green forest of fir trees. Image by Daniel Eskridge.
“We can confidently reject the idea that the population was so small that it was destined to go extinct for genetic reasons,” said Dr Love Dalen, an evolutionary geneticist at the National Academy of Sciences of Canada. Center for PaleogeneticsIt is a joint collaboration between the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Stockholm University.
“This means that it was probably just a chance event that caused the mammoths to go extinct, and if that chance event hadn't occurred, mammoths would still be around today.”
“In addition to shedding light on the population dynamics of woolly mammoths, analysis of the Wrangel Island mammoths could inform conservation strategies for this currently endangered animal.”
“The mammoth is an excellent system for understanding the ongoing biodiversity crisis and what happens from a genetic perspective when a species experiences a population bottleneck, because it reflects the fate of many modern populations,” said Dr Marianne DeHask, also from the Centre for Palaeogenetics.
To understand the genomic impact of the Wrangel Island bottleneck on mammoth populations, the researchers analyzed the genomes of 21 woolly mammoths, 14 from Wrangel Island and seven from the mainland population that existed before the bottleneck.
Overall, the samples span the woolly mammoth's existence over the past 50,000 years and provide insight into how the animal's genetic diversity has changed over time.
Compared to their mainland ancestors, the genomes of the Wrangel Island mammoths showed signs of inbreeding and low genetic diversity.
In addition to the overall low genetic diversity, Major histocompatibility complexA group of genes known to play important roles in the immune response of vertebrates.
The scientists showed that the genetic diversity of the population continued to decline, albeit at a very gradual rate, throughout the 6,000 years that the mammoths lived on Wrangel Island, suggesting that the population size remained stable until the end.
They also showed that the island's mammoth population gradually accumulated moderately deleterious mutations over its 6,000-year existence, but that the most deleterious mutations were slowly eliminated.
“If an individual had a highly deleterious mutation, they would basically not be able to survive, so over time those mutations would slowly disappear from the population. But we know that mammoths accumulated mildly deleterious mutations almost all the way up until their extinction,” Dr DeHask said.
“It's important to remember that current conservation programs will not be enough to simply re-establish populations to a reasonable size. They also need to be actively and genetically monitored, as these genomic effects could last for more than 6,000 years.”
The mammoth genomes analyzed in this study span a long period of time, but do not include the last 300 years of the species' existence.
However, the authors plan to excavate fossils from the final stages of the mammoth and analyze its genome sequence in the future.
“What happened to them at the end is still a mystery. We don't know why they went extinct after surviving fairly well for 6,000 years, but we think it was probably a sudden event,” Dr Dallen said.
“I think there's still hope we can figure out why they went extinct, but I can't make any promises.”
A neuroscientist who helped develop a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has been indicted on fraud charges.
The charges relate to allegations that the scientists fabricated research images and data that they may have used to win grant funding.
Manipulation of research images is a growing concern in the scientific community.
A neuroscientist who contributed to the development of a potential Alzheimer’s disease treatment is facing fraud charges after a federal grand jury indictment on Thursday.
The indictment alleges that Wang Huaoyang, a professor of medicine at the City University of New York, engaged in fraudulent activities, including falsifying research images and data to secure grant funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Wang worked with Cassava Sciences, a pharmaceutical company based in Austin, Texas, on the development of simufilam, a drug candidate for Alzheimer’s disease. The indictment states that Wang received around $16 million in grant funding from Cassava for early-stage drug development.
The indictment accuses Wang of fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements. It claims that Wang manipulated images of Western blots, a laboratory technique used to detect proteins, to support his research and grant applications.
The indictment also suggests that Wang provided false information to scientific journals to support his research on symphyllum, a drug currently in late-stage clinical trials.
Despite the charges, Wang did not respond to requests for comment. His research has faced scrutiny in the past, leading to retractions of multiple studies and an investigation by CUNY.
Cassava Sciences confirmed that Wang was not involved in their latest clinical trials and emphasized that his research focused on early-stage drug development.
The scientific community has expressed growing concerns about research misconduct and the manipulation of data and images. Instances of research misconduct, such as the allegations against Wang, have led to retractions of studies and raised questions about the integrity of scientific research.
CUNY has stated that they will cooperate fully with the federal investigation into Wang’s alleged misconduct until the matter is resolved. The university acknowledges the seriousness of the charges and the impact they may have on the scientific community.
The case highlights the importance of maintaining integrity and transparency in scientific research to ensure the credibility and validity of scientific discoveries.
Retraction Watch has reported on the retraction of several academic papers authored by Wang, further underscoring the need for accountability and ethical practices in scientific research.
A recent study indicates that the impact rate on Mars may be two to ten times higher than previously thought, depending on the size of the meteorite.
Mars. The entire Valles Marineris system is visible in the center of the scene. Image courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
“Mars may be more geologically active than previously believed, which could have implications for the age and evolution of its surface,” stated Dr. Ingrid Dover of Brown University.
“Our findings, although based on a limited number of examples, suggest that current estimates of the impact rate on planets are much higher than what can be observed from images alone.”
Dr. Dauber and his team utilized sensitive seismometers on NASA’s InSight lander to discover eight new impact craters caused by meteorites that were previously unknown from orbit.
The frequency of these cosmic impacts challenges existing notions of how frequently meteorites collide with the Martian surface and indicates the need to revise current Martian crater models to accommodate higher impact rates, particularly from smaller meteorites.
This revelation has the potential to reshape our understanding of the Martian surface and the impact history not only of Mars but of other planets as well, as the Martian surface continues to be shaped by small meteorite impacts.
“This will necessitate a reassessment of the models used by the scientific community to estimate the ages of planetary surfaces across the solar system,” Dr. Dover added.
Of the craters discovered, six were in close proximity to the stationary InSight lander’s location.
The two distant impacts identified in the data were the largest ever detected by scientists, even after years of observation from orbit.
These two larger impacts, each resulting in football field-sized craters, occurred just 97 days apart, underscoring the increased frequency of such geological events.
“An impact of this magnitude might be expected once every few decades or even once in a lifetime, but to have it occur twice within 90 days is highly unusual,” Dr. Dover remarked.
“It’s possible it’s a mere coincidence, but the likelihood of that is slim.”
“It’s more probable that the two large impacts are linked, or the impact rate on Mars is significantly higher than previously assumed.”
“Planetary impacts occur regularly throughout the solar system.”
“Our interest lies in studying these impacts on Mars to compare and contrast them with those on Earth.”
“This is crucial for understanding our solar system, its constituents, and the population of objects that impact it – not just as a threat to Earth, but historically as a hazard to other planets too.”
Ingrid J. Dover et al. 2024. Seismologically detected craters on Mars: Enhanced recent impact flux? Scientific Advances 10(26); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk7615
This weekend, there will be a passing asteroid near Earth, which poses no threat. With the right equipment and timing, you may be able to catch a glimpse of it.
The asteroid, known as 2024 MK, will be at its closest point to Earth on Saturday morning, passing at a distance about three-quarters of the way from Earth to the moon. It was first spotted two weeks ago by an observatory in South Africa and measures approximately 393 to 853 feet (120 to 260 meters) wide.
According to Davide Farnocchia, an asteroid expert at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, smaller objects pass by Earth regularly. Asteroids of this size come close to Earth roughly every 25 years.
“We may witness this event a few times in our lifetime, but it’s not a common occurrence,” he noted.
The 7,579-foot (2,310-meter) asteroid made a safe pass near Earth on Thursday, but it was too distant to be visible without specialized telescopes.
To see the asteroid on Saturday, skywatchers will need small telescopes as it won’t be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. It will move swiftly across the southern sky, making it challenging to spot.
Nick Moskovitz, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory, mentioned, “The asteroid will move rapidly through the star field.”
For the best chance of seeing the asteroid, observers in the Southern Hemisphere should look high overhead. People in the US may have better luck spotting it on Saturday night when it might be less bright, but easier to see without the sun’s glare.
If you miss this event, mark your calendars for April 13, 2029, when the asteroid Apophis will pass close to Earth and be visible to the naked eye from parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
The trunk, situated at the bottom of the Crew Dragon spacecraft beneath the astronauts’ seating area, typically carries cargo. It is equipped with solar panels for power supply “during flight and while on station,” as mentioned by the astronauts on the SpaceX website.
This part of the spacecraft will detach just before re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Despite expectations of complete incineration in the atmosphere, the discovery of this section and other parts suggests some components may survive the fiery descent.
SpaceX has not yet responded to inquiries for comments.
The debris Klontz found was charred and covered in woven carbon fiber, weighing approximately 90 pounds. Initially, it seemed too cumbersome for one person to handle, raising safety concerns.
“It’s a sight rarely seen by the general public,” said Klontz. “You’ve seen spaceships and such on TV, but witnessing it up close is a different experience.”
Several small pieces have also been discovered in local residents’ gardens in nearby towns, as reported by local news outlets.
“NASA has not reported any structural damage or injuries due to this finding,” stated the agency in an official release.
NASA verified that the debris originated from the fuselage of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule.Glamping Collective
According to NASA, the debris is from SpaceX’s Crew 7 mission, launched on August 26, 2023, and returned after six months of space station operation.
NASA also reported finding sections of a trunk believed to be from a previous SpaceX mission in a farmer’s field in Saskatchewan, Canada, last month.
In another incident, debris from an unmanned SpaceX mission delivering supplies to the space station landed in Saudi Arabia, NASA disclosed.
Instances of wreckage from the Crew Dragon fuselage falling in Colorado last year, as well as a similar occurrence in Australia in 2022, were also noted by NASA.
In March, a metallic space debris fragment (unrelated to SpaceX spacecraft) that collided with a home in Naples, Florida, came from a cargo pallet intentionally released from the International Space Station.
A metal object used to attach batteries for the International Space Station to a cargo pallet crashed into a home in Naples, Florida, on March 8.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The Florida family who owns the home is suing NASA, alleging damages and mental stress caused by the incident.
In regards to the lawsuit, NASA’s space operations spokesman Jimi Russell stated via email that “it is not appropriate for NASA to comment on pending litigation.”
While it is common for space agencies and companies to incinerate defunct equipment in the atmosphere, occasional parts do survive re-entry. With most of Earth covered by oceans, the risk of space debris falling in inhabited areas is low, but recent events have raised concerns about potential risks as space launches increase in frequency.
If anyone encounters what they suspect to be SpaceX debris, NASA encourages them to contact SpaceX’s debris hotline at 1-866-623-0234 or recovery@spacex.com.
The Crew Dragon capsule, still attached to its fuselage, is currently docked at the International Space Station and is set to return to Earth with its crew later this summer, according to NASA.
This unusual object was discovered on a mountain trail in North Carolina.Glamping Collective
NASA intends to collaborate with SpaceX to explore “further solutions in understanding the discovered debris.”
“NASA and SpaceX are committed to ensuring the safety of the public, astronauts, and ground crew,” NASA affirmed.
The space junk fragment is currently showcased in a glass case at The Glamping Collective; thus far, neither SpaceX nor NASA has requested its removal, according to Klontz.
“Every time I see it, I’m amazed,” shared Klontz. “To imagine that it was launched from Florida, journeyed into space, returned, and part of it flew over North Carolina is truly incredible.”
It has been suggested by expert nutritionists Dr. Emily Leeming and Nutritional Psychologist Kimberly Wilson that many individuals are experiencing accelerated brain aging due to a lack of dietary fiber. This deficiency in fiber may be a contributing factor to the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Dementia, a neurodegenerative disease resulting in memory loss, is considered a model of accelerated brain aging, according to Wilson. This emphasizes the importance of dietary fiber for maintaining brain health and activity.
Leeming and Wilson point out that most adults in the UK do not consume an adequate amount of fiber, with the recommended daily intake being at least 30g. However, data shows that British adults only consume around 19g per day, while U.S. adults consume even less at 15g per day. The high cost of fiber-rich foods compared to less healthy options is one reason why individuals may not be meeting their fiber requirements.
Why is Fiber Important for Brain Health?
Wilson describes fiber as an underappreciated protector of the brain. When gut bacteria metabolize fiber, they produce short-chain fatty acids which play a crucial role in protecting the brain. These fatty acids can cross the blood-brain barrier and prevent toxic substances from passing through, highlighting the importance of fiber in maintaining brain health.
Tips for Increasing Fiber Intake
Leeming emphasizes the importance of including fiber-rich foods in the diet to improve gut health and overall well-being. Some tips for increasing fiber intake include focusing on fiber-rich foods like rye bread and beans, snacking on nuts, adding vegetables to meals, and consuming dark chocolate and root vegetables with the skin on.
Increasing fiber intake can also lower the risk of various health conditions, including colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. It can also support a healthy gut microbiome, which is essential for overall health.
Learn More About Our Experts
Kimberly Wilson is a licensed psychologist with a Masters in Nutrition and is a published author of books on healthy brain development and the impact of food on mental health.
Dr. Emily Leeming is a Registered Dietitian and Research Fellow with expertise in the impact of diet on the gut microbiome. She has published a book on the science of diet for gut health.
Astronomers used images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to create a new 3D visualization of the Pillars of Creation, three towers of gas and dust within the Eagle Nebula.
The Pillars of Creation are three towers of gas and dust located about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.
These are fascinating but relatively small features of the Eagle Nebula (also known as Messier 16), discovered in 1745 by Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Roy de Chéseaux.
The Pillars of Creation are approximately 4-5 light years long, and the nebula is 55-70 light years wide.
They are caused by massive, newly formed, blue-white O and B type stars emitting intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds that blow away less dense material from around them.
“By flying between the pillars, viewers will experience the 3D structure of the pillars and see how they look different in Hubble's visible light view and Webb's infrared light view,” said Dr. Frank Summers, principal visualization scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
“This contrast helps us understand why we need multiple space telescopes to observe different aspects of the same object.”
“The four pillars of creation are made mostly of cold molecular hydrogen and dust, eroded away by violent winds and intense ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars.”
“Protruding from the top of the pillar is a finger-like structure larger than our solar system. Embedded within this finger may be a newborn star.”
“The tallest pillar stretches for three light years, which is three-quarters of the distance between the Sun and the next nearest star.”
Mosaic of visible (Hubble) and infrared (Webb) light images of the same frame from the Pillars of Creation visualization. Image credit: Greg Bacon / Ralf Crawford / Joseph DePasquale / Leah Hustak / Christian Nieves / Joseph Olmsted / Alyssa Pagan / Frank Summers, STScI / NASA Universe of Learning.
The film takes visitors through a 3D structure of the Pillars of Creation.
“Making the Pillars of Creation in 3D was always something we had in mind,” said Dr Greg Bacon, also of the Space Telescope Science Institute.
“By combining the Webb data with the Hubble data, we were able to get a much more detailed look at the pillars.”
“Understanding the science and knowing how to best represent it enabled our small, talented team to rise to the challenge of visualizing this iconic structure.”
This new visualization allows viewers to experience how two of the world's most powerful space telescopes work together to provide a more complex and holistic portrait of the pillar.
Hubble will observe objects glowing in visible light at thousands of degrees, while Webb's infrared vision is sensitive to cooler objects at temperatures of hundreds of degrees, allowing it to penetrate the obscuring dust and see the stars embedded in the pillar.
“The combined observations from NASA's space telescopes across many wavelengths of light expand our understanding of the universe,” said Dr. Mark Crumpen, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters.
“The Pillars of Creation region continues to provide us with new insights that improve our understanding of how stars form.”
“This new visualization now allows everyone to experience this rich and captivating landscape in a new way.”
Do you think you understand your pets well? What if they could actually talk to you? Veterinarian Jess French Researchers believe that humans may soon be able to communicate with animals, with potential for it to be a significant technological advancement in the near future.
In an interview with BBC Science Focus at the Cheltenham Science Festival, French explained that while humans primarily rely on visual cues, many animals have stronger senses like smell and hearing. She mentioned that artificial intelligence (AI) could be trained to understand animal communication using data and footage of animal interactions.
French envisions a future where this technology could revolutionize how we interact with our pets, potentially changing the way we take our dogs to the vet. While it may not translate a dog’s thoughts into human language, it could help pick up on signals that humans might miss, acting as a more silent version of Dr. Dolittle.
French believes that AI could help bridge the gap between animals “speaking” and humans understanding them, especially in species like whales, bats, parrots, and elephants. This technology can identify and analyze animal noises faster and more accurately than a human could.
She also mentioned that AI could enhance our ability to detect sounds outside the range of human hearing, like bat calls, and even signals in smells beyond what humans can perceive. This advancement in technology could help us better communicate with various animal species.
French highlighted that cats might already be communicating with humans in subtle ways, and AI could help in deciphering their signals. Cats, like other animals, could benefit from AI-powered communication, enabling humans to understand their behaviors and needs better.
She emphasized the importance of using this technology to learn more about animals worldwide, even if it means hearing messages we may not want to hear, such as the impact of human actions on animal populations.
About our expert: Jess French is a veterinarian, zoologist, and presenter known for her work on children’s television shows like BBC’s CBeebies. In addition to her media work, French has authored educational books for children, with her latest publication being The Animal Body Book: An Inside Guide to the World of Animal Anatomy.
I I’m so grateful for my dual citizenship now. The horror of Scotland’s dismal performance at Euro 2024 was tempered by Canada’s heroic play in the inaugural Copa America and by the Edmonton Oilers, a Canadian hockey team that’s reached its third Stanley Cup final in 18 years – a team so thoroughly Canadian that it has a fossil fuel in its name.
Thank you, NHL 93 and 94 on the Mega Drive. Not only were those two games the twin-headed epitome of sports gaming perfection, but they’re also the reason I can walk into any pub in Canada and bluff my way through a conversation about Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, and Mark Messier. I could also make the case for why Jeremy Roenick is the most underrated hockey player of his generation, if only because NHL 94 combined the four horsemen of the apocalypse into one. He was on par with Barry Sanders in Madden, Kylian Mbappe in any FIFA, the Stockton/Malone combo in NBA Jam, and other insanely good players whose teams you couldn’t beat.
The Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers will play in 3D. Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/AP
I hadn’t played NHL in decades, but inspired by the Oilers’ near-victory, I decided to fire up NHL 24 on my Xbox, and I was instantly neurotic. What happened to the simple game on the Mega Drive, where you skate to one side, shoot at the back post, and get one-timers into the net 4 out of 5 times? Now it’s hyper-realistic, with 50-meter control options and loads of icy inertia. In the first game, I felt like a Rebel soldier during the Empire’s attack on Hoth.
So, back to the beginning. Master the basics with free skating. Then move on to the awesome 1v1v1 mode, where three people shoot at the same goal in a variety of snowy, convenient locations. This is the perfect place to start mastering the individual skills that matter in a game where creating scoring chances is surprisingly easy, but actually scoring is like threading a needle. With the puck. While sliding. And while getting hit.
Once you’ve mastered basic individual skills, move on to a 3v3 NHL three-match. You score your team’s first goal and feel great. Then the game stops, the Hawk mascot starts dancing in frustration and you start playing as the Blackhawks. This is how it should be at the Euros. Can you imagine a beleaguered Gareth Southgate trying to explain why he chose Hartlepool’s Hangus the Monkey over Harry Kane? Or how well Scotland would have performed with the Gunnersaurus in place of the injured Kieran Tierney?
I got overconfident and tried my first trick deke move, lost the ball, Hawk got the puck, and the mascot scored on me. A mascot! And I got two points! Why? Apparently we were playing MONEY PUCK, which is a rhyming slang for what I was yelling at the screen. But I put in the hours and soon got a mascot to play on my team. And it’s fun!
I was ready to play online. But things have changed because I’m one of those people with an old EA account linked to an email address I no longer have access to. I went through 7 layers of hell that is EA Online Support and submitted a ticket asking them to link another account to my Xbox One. I was told I needed to wait 6 minutes. That’s not too bad. The number 6 shows up on the screen but doesn’t change. For 10 minutes. And then it finally switched over.
Up to 8.
So 10.
So it’s 11.
Hell, EA took all the money they ripped people off of Fifa Ultimate Team and spent it on time travel. Wait a few days and you’ll see how the dinosaurs went extinct (and probably starve to death while waiting for help from EA).
NHL 94 on the Mega Drive – Ahh, the good old days. Photo: EA
After decades, I finally connected with a human being. To access my account, I need to correctly answer six personal questions. Six! No way. The Canadian citizenship test was easier than this. Six personal questions? More than I asked my wife before we got married. Two questions are enough to access my bank account. Frustrated, I tried to prove my identity, offering to hold out my finger since I wouldn’t need it to play NHL 24 online anyway.
I tried to imitate Karen and said I wanted to speak to a manager, politely explaining that I was writing an article about the game. My “helper” said she would raise a ticket with the team and someone would get in touch. In the end, no one contacted me. Later, I realized there was an old case on my account from 2021. Clicked through the transcript. Same issue, still not fixed then.
My virtual hockey adventures will likely continue for a few more decades. I never have Something that happened on the Mega Drive.
VOR NVS is located on the edge of the village of Navas del Rey in Spain
Ignacio Evangelista
These isolated structures were once vital pillars of aviation navigation, but are little known today due to their remote location. Ignacio Evangelista’s The stunning shot highlights these beacons, known as VORs (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range Stations), and the role they play in charting routes in the skies for aircraft.
VOR CMA
Ignacio Evangelista
VORs are essentially giant antennas that send out radio signals from remote locations to help planes locate and stay on course by flying from VOR to VOR. You can think of the signals as “breadcrumbs,” Evangelista says. The separation is necessary to avoid broadcast interference between VORs.
Stations like the ones mentioned here are disappearing as they are increasingly being replaced by satellite-based GPS, but while GPS is a more accurate means of navigation, VORs provide a backup during events like solar storms and GPS interference that could wreak havoc without them, Evangelista said.
Vol Brai
Ignacio Evangelista
Their locations are public, so anyone can find the remaining VORs simply by using a GPS — “an interesting technical gyre,” in Evangelista’s words — which prompted him to document some of the more photogenic stations before they disappear forever.
Seen from above, the first two stations are in Spain: VOR NVS, located on the edge of the village of Navas del Rey, 50km from Madrid, VOR CMA, 1.5km from the village of Calamocha, and the last one, VOR BRY, located on the edge of the French village of Bray-sur-Seine.
Bill Gates argues that artificial intelligence will assist, not hinder, in achieving climate goals, despite concerns about new data centers depleting green energy supplies.
The philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder stated that AI could enhance technology and power grids’ efficiency, enabling countries to reduce energy consumption even with the need for more data centers.
Gates reassured that AI’s impact on the climate is manageable, contrary to fears that AI advancements might lead to increased energy demand and reliance on fossil fuels.
“Let’s not exaggerate this,” Gates emphasized. “Data centers contribute an additional 6% in energy demand at most. But it’s likely around 2% to 2.5%. The key is whether AI can accelerate the reduction to 6% or beyond. The answer is, ‘Definitely.’
Goldman Sachs estimates that AI chatbot tool ChatGPT’s electricity consumption for processing queries is nearly ten times more than a Google search, potentially causing carbon dioxide emissions from data centers to double between 2022 and 2030.
Experts project that developed countries, which have seen energy consumption decline due to efficiency, could experience up to a 10% rise in electricity demand from the growth of AI data centers.
In a conference hosted by his venture fund Breakthrough Energy, Gates told reporters in London that the additional energy demand from AI data centers is likely to be offset by investments in green electricity, as tech companies are willing to pay more for clean energy sources.
Breakthrough Energy has supported over 100 companies involved in the energy transition. Gates is heavily investing in AI through the Gates Foundation Trust, which has allocated about a third of its $77 billion assets into Microsoft.
However, Gates’ optimism about AI’s potential to reduce carbon emissions aligns with peer-reviewed papers, suggesting that generative AI could significantly lower CO2 emissions by simplifying tasks like writing and creating illustrations.
AI is already influencing emissions directly, as demonstrated by Google using deep learning techniques to reduce data center cooling costs by 40% and decrease overall electricity usage by 15% for non-IT tasks.
Despite these advancements, concerns remain about the carbon impact of AI, with Microsoft acknowledging that its indirect emissions are increasing due to building new data centers around the world.
Gates cautioned that the world could miss its 2050 climate goals by up to 15 years if the transition to green energy is delayed, hindering efforts to decarbonize polluting sectors and achieve net-zero emissions by the target year.
He expressed concerns that the required amount of green electricity may not be delivered in time for the transition, making it challenging to meet the zero emissions goal by 2050.
Gates’ warning follows a global report indicating a rise in renewable energy alongside fossil fuel consumption, suggesting that meeting climate goals requires accelerated green energy adoption.
According to court documents released on Friday, Tesla Inc. states that Elon Musk has emerged victorious in a legal battle over his $56 billion compensation package. This victory comes after shareholders voted in favor of the pay, despite a judge previously setting it aside earlier this year.
The company’s submission comes following Tesla shareholders’ approval of his stock option package for 2018, conducted two weeks ago. This decision was made after a Delaware judge voided the compensation in January due to alleged mismanagement by Musk during negotiations and misleading shareholders about critical details.
The ongoing lawsuit has strained Musk’s relationship with Tesla, as the company grapples with declining sales and mounting competition. Musk has hinted at developing products outside of Tesla if he fails to secure a larger ownership stake.
In its proposal, Tesla has outlined to Delaware Chancery Court Judge Katherine McCormick how the final order should be drafted to implement her January ruling. The company argues that the order should declare “judgment is entered in favor of the defendants.”
Shareholders’ lawyers are urging the judge to uphold the previous ruling that invalidated Musk’s compensation package. They are seeking a directive for Tesla to issue billions of dollars in Tesla stock to cover legal expenses.
Tesla has suggested a fair fee of up to $13.6 million.
McCormick has instructed both parties to prepare briefs discussing the impact of the shareholder vote on the case and to schedule oral arguments on the matter in late July or early August.
Oral arguments on costs are set for July 8, with a decision likely to be reached after several weeks. Even if the January ruling remains unchanged, McCormick may acknowledge that the shareholder vote indicates little merit in winning the case, as Tesla shareholders appear to desire substantial compensation, which could undermine the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fee claim based on the value they have provided by overturning the compensation packages.
What’s the best way to pet a cat? Answer: Probably not the way you do it. You might think petting is a tried-and-true way to bond with your cat, but there’s no guarantee that your cat will enjoy the physical contact.
As Dr. Lauren Finca, a cat behavior expert from Nottingham Trent University explains: “While some cats do enjoy being petted, most cats would dislike the type of petting we typically prefer. The reason cats tolerate petting so well is likely due to the benefits of the relationship with their owner – think of the food, treats and affection you give your cat.”
“When it comes to petting, it’s best to remember that cats are not naturally social or tactile animals.”
In short, if you suspect your cat is only resisting your petting because he wants another bite of dinner, you’re probably totally right — especially if you’re constantly touching his butt.
“Certainly, from a scientific perspective, we know very little about this. It’s often assumed that cats like to be stroked at the base of their tails, but research shows that this is actually Elicit the most negative behavioral responses from cats” says Finca.
…
About Dr. Lauren Finca
Dr Lauren Finca is a feline behaviour expert at Nottingham Trent University. She has been involved in academic research into cats for over 10 years.
Finca is also a specialist consultant for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and works with the International Council for Cat Care (ICatCare) and the International Society of Feline Medicine (ISFM) on a range of behavioural and welfare projects.
If you’ve ever made it a goal to change your appearance, you’re not alone. Around 43% of UK adults have the goal of losing weightFor many, these goals can extend to more extreme methods of altering their appearance, such as cosmetic or plastic surgery.
But when does this common and widespread desire for self-improvement and betterment become something more sinister? 3 percent of the general populationThis can lead to a constant desire to modify or change one’s physical appearance, a condition known as body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).
People with BDD believe that they have significant physical flaws or defects that, to other people, may be minor or even non-existent.
Rebecca*, a 36-year-old woman, strongly believes she looks like she has a “moon face” because she can’t help but look in the mirror at the acne scars that cover her skin.
Or Tyson*, the 17-year-old who spends hours every day in the gym trying to build muscle mass because he feels he looks like a “toothpick.”
Tyson and Rebecca have been told time and time again by family, friends, and medical professionals that what they see is different from what others see, but they don’t believe it. Seeing is believing, right? But what if your eyes can deceive you?
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Long Attachment
BDD isn’t a new condition: It was first described by Italian psychiatrist Enrico Morselli in 1891, long before we became obsessed with our TikTok feeds.
He described people with “body dysmorphic disorder” (the former name for BDD) as people who are “suddenly overcome by the fear that their body may be deformed in the midst of everyday life, while talking, while reading, while sitting at a table – in fact anywhere and at any time throughout the day.”
BDD is thought to be caused by a complex interplay of biopsychosocial factors, including genetic factors, differences in brain structure and function, and a history of adverse childhood experiences such as bullying, abuse or neglect, which can lead individuals to feel ashamed about themselves and their bodies.
This tendency is often manifested or exacerbated by societal pressures around appearance — in fact, research supports the idea that attractive people often enjoy social advantages, such as being perceived as more trustworthy, healthy, confident, and intelligent.
This increases your chances of finding love, getting a job, or even earning a higher salary.
This often has a negative impact on the minds of people with BDD, making them feel like they have less chance of succeeding in life.While we cannot ignore that these benefits of beauty exist in our society, the pursuit of beauty at all costs can be harmful to both our physical and mental health.
read more:
Unrealistic perfection
Although BDD existed before the development of social media, social media has certainly played a role in increasing the prevalence and severity of BDD.
The emphasis on sharing the “perfect” selfie, the use of filters, the various ways to augment or enhance an image, and powerful algorithms that ensure you (or your disability) are served up with the content that interests you most are the perfect combination to increase the focus on appearance.
Heavy social media use and photo editing have been linked to an increased risk of developing BDD, comparing appearances, and interest in undergoing surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
This relationship arises in a variety of ways. First, our perception of attractiveness and beauty is often influenced by our “visual diet.” After an extended period of consuming curated content showcasing the best angles, lighting, makeup and outfit choices, and artificial enhancements through the addition of filters, our perception of beauty can start to become biased towards highly idealized and edited images.
As a result, viewers may feel pressured to fit into this newly formed ideal of beauty and may attempt to conform by applying filters to themselves or seeking cosmetic procedures to better meet this standard.
Unfortunately, the positive effect a filter has on your self-image only lasts while it’s applied; once the filter is removed or you see yourself in the mirror in the real world, you may find yourself feeling unattractive or unacceptable.
An estimated 3 percent of people suffer from body dysmorphic disorder. – Photo credit: Getty
There is also an increased pressure to build a “personal brand” online, which can extend beyond just posting the “perfect” photos to achieving the most beautiful feed, the right captions, hashtags and themes. This can lead to a lack of authenticity and cause a widening disconnect between your “online self” and your “real self.”
Some people say their use of social media has increased social anxiety in their daily lives. They fear they will unintentionally “catfish” others who have become accustomed to looking a certain way in the online world. Thus, a personal brand or polished online persona can lead to feelings of embarrassment and shame about their true appearance and personality.
Once BDD has developed, the disorder is often maintained by harmful patterns of thinking and behavior.
For example, engaging in excessive behavior to check, camouflage, or change one’s appearance, including prolonged observation of oneself in the mirror or taking photographs from different angles, hiding oneself with loose clothing, hats, scarves, or glasses, beauty treatments, new hairstyles, or cosmetic procedures.
Many of these are common everyday behaviors that people undertake for self-expression and self-improvement. However, when taken to an extreme, these behaviors can lead to an excessive focus on appearance.
One study compared the mirror-gazing patterns of people with and without BDD and found that even healthy people who stared at themselves in the mirror for more than 10 minutes experienced heightened awareness of their “flaws” and increased levels of distress.
People with BDD experienced this intense distress even after only looking at themselves briefly, for around 25 seconds. These findings support the idea that people with BDD have different patterns of visual processing when looking at faces, often focusing on small details and individual features rather than the overall picture.
Similarly, if someone without BDD looks at themselves long enough, they too will begin to see themselves in parts rather than as a whole, which is one reason why the “Zoom effect” and the proliferation of video calls during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased self-image distress for many people.
read more:
Extreme Measures
People with BDD seek out beauty and cosmetic treatments at a much higher rate than the general population to help them feel better about themselves.
These high rates make sense: For Rebecca, who is concerned about the scars on her face, dermatological treatments like chemical peels and anti-wrinkle injections seem like the obvious solution.
Unfortunately, while most people who seek cosmetic surgery are satisfied with the results, studies have shown that this is not the case for people with BDD. In up to 91 percent of casesBecause your symptoms don’t change, you continue to focus on the areas that were treated and continue to work on ways to hide, check up, or cover up your “flaws.”
After undergoing cosmetic surgery, your concerns may change. People who were concerned about having a “hooked” nose before surgery may develop new concerns after rhinoplasty (nose surgery) about their nose appearing larger as a result of the surgery and about others criticizing them for having the surgery.
In other cases, BDD symptoms may actually worsen after treatment, making someone who is already self-conscious and vulnerable even more so.
Nearly three in ten adult men over the age of 18 have experienced insecurity about their body image.
It is an ethical and professional obligation for cosmetic surgeons to identify BDD in their patients before performing procedures, as patients with BDD may sue, complain, or demand compensation for procedures that do not meet their expectations.
It may be disheartening to learn that cosmetic surgery may not be the answer to your intense and painful obsession with appearance, but the good news is that effective, evidence-based treatments exist.
The National Institute for Health and Technology Assessment First-line treatment for BDD should include cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and response prevention (CBT-ERP) and the addition of psychiatric medication for moderate to severe cases.
CBT for BDD involves identifying unhelpful stereotypes and expectations you have about yourself and your appearance (such as “I have to always be well-dressed when I leave the house” or “No one will love me with a nose this size”) and learning new ways to move away from these thoughts or develop more flexible, helpful thought processes (such as “I want to find a partner who is attracted to my values, interests, and passions, not the look of my nose”)
Adding ERP involves gradually exposing the patient to situations, environments, or people that they would normally avoid, while at the same time trying not to engage in the compulsive behavior.
For example, Rebecca might work on gradually eliminating cosmetics from her daily routine so she can go out without wearing heavy makeup to hide her skin, while Tyson might work on reducing his training schedule or going to the beach with his friends without having to cover up with a t-shirt.
These exposure exercises are designed to help individuals learn that what they fear most (being judged or ridiculed for their appearance) may not happen. Through exposure rather than avoidance, they can begin to live more productive, fulfilling, and joyful lives.
If you’re reading this and you feel like you’re worrying a little too much about the way you look, here are some things you can try…
How to Worry Less About Your Appearance
Mirror hygiene
Set a limit on the amount of time you spend looking at yourself. Unless you’re doing it for a specific purpose like putting on makeup or shaving, staring at yourself for more than 10 minutes can cause stress. Don’t avoid mirrors, but only look at them when necessary.
Engage in hobbies that have nothing to do with appearance
BDD is often associated with an excessive focus on appearance at the expense of other activities. Spending time with friends and family and doing the activities you love can boost your self-esteem and help you realize that your strengths go beyond just your appearance.
Social Media Detox
Look at your social media and notice how much of the content you’re consuming is highly edited images or content promoting fitness, beauty or cosmetic procedures. Unfollow or hide any content that makes you feel self-conscious, or set limits on the time and amount of time you spend on social media.
Stop looking for reassurance
Try not to talk to others about your appearance. Asking for feedback on your appearance can make you feel bad, whether the answer is positive or negative. Focus the conversation on more interesting topics.
Rather than chasing the perfect body, maybe it’s time to discover a broader sense of self-worth that can withstand the inevitable challenges of aging and growing up that we all experience, whether we like it or not.
*Names and descriptions do not reflect actual clients.
Similar to childbirth, the process of dying involves stages and noticeable progressions. The speed at which this process occurs varies from person to person, just like in childbirth. In some cases, medical support may be necessary to ensure that dying, or childbirth, is as safe and comfortable as possible.
As death nears, most individuals lose interest in eating and drinking. This is a normal occurrence, and sometimes only a small amount of food may be welcomed when regular meals become overwhelming.
Dying individuals often experience extreme fatigue due to a lack of energy. While sleep usually helps to replenish energy and aid in recovery, in the final stages of life, the impact of sleep diminishes as the body weakens towards death.
Individuals approaching death spend less time awake and more time in a state of apparent unconsciousness. When they do wake up, many report feeling as though they had peacefully slept without any sense of being unconscious.
If the dying person relies on regular medications to manage symptoms, it is important to transition to medications that can be administered without the person needing to be awake. Skin patches, syringe pumps, or suppositories can be considered. It’s crucial to note that loss of consciousness is typically a result of the dying process itself rather than the medication.
What happens in the final moments?
As death progresses, heart rate decreases, blood pressure drops, skin temperature decreases, and fingernails darken. Internal organs also slow down as blood pressure declines. Restlessness, confusion, and periods of deepening consciousness may occur during this time.
While there are no established methods for studying the experiences of dying individuals, recent studies suggest that the unconscious brain may respond to noise as death approaches. Breathing patterns in an unconscious person are governed by the brain stem’s respiratory center, leading to heavy breathing and occasional saliva flow.
Breathing patterns may shift from deep to shallow and fast to slow until breathing eventually slows, becomes shallow, pauses, and ceases altogether. Following a few minutes without oxygen, the heart stops beating.
Recognizing common patterns of dying and understanding its stages can help companions comprehend what is happening, alleviate fears of unlikely complications, and empower them to seek medical assistance if necessary to manage symptoms and ensure a peaceful passing. Additional information can be found in BBC Short Films on Death.
These bright (hot) “heat rings” are a common phenomenon and indicate active lava lakes. Jupiter Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
Visible, infrared and temperature maps of Loki Patera and Dazhbog Patera. Image courtesy of Mura others., doi: 10.1038/s43247-024-01486-5.
Io is the innermost of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons and the fourth largest moon in the solar system.
Apart from Earth, it is the only known place in the solar system with volcanoes that spew hot lava like Earth’s.
Io has over 400 active volcanoes, which are caused by tidal heating due to gravity from Jupiter and the other Jovian moons.
There are many theories about the types of volcanic eruptions on the Moon, but little data to support them.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft will pass by Io in May and October 2023, coming within about 35,000 km (21,700 miles) and 13,000 km (8,100 miles), respectively.
Among Juno’s observational instruments giving a closer look at the fascinating moon was JIRAM.
JIRAM is designed to capture infrared light emitted from deep within Jupiter, studying the weather layer 50 to 70 km (30 to 45 miles) below Jupiter’s cloud tops.
However, during Juno’s long mission, the mission team also used the instrument to study moons such as Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
JIRAM images of Io showed the presence of bright rings surrounding the base of many hotspots.
“The high spatial resolution of JIRAM’s infrared images, combined with Juno’s favorable position during the flyby, revealed that Io’s entire surface is covered by lava lakes in caldera-like formations,” said Dr Alessandro Mura, a researcher at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome and Juno co-investigator.
“In the area of Io’s surface where we have the most complete data, we estimate that about 3% of it is covered by one of these lava lakes. Calderas are large depressions that form when volcanoes erupt and collapse.”
This image taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows volcanic eruptions on Io. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
JIRAM’s flyby data will not only reveal Io’s rich lava reserves, but also provide a glimpse into what’s going on beneath the surface.
Infrared images of some of Io’s lava lakes show a thin circular layer of lava at the boundary between the central crust that covers most of the lake and the lake walls.
The lack of lava flows above or beyond the lake’s edge suggests melt circulation, demonstrating a balance between the melt erupted into the lava lake and that circulated back into the subsurface system.
“We now know what the most frequent volcanic activity on Io is: huge lava lakes with magma rising and falling,” Dr Mura said.
“The lava crust collapses against the lake wall, forming the typical lava rings seen in Hawaiian lava lakes.”
“The walls are thought to be hundreds of metres high, which explains why magma is not typically observed spilling out of pateras – bowl-shaped formations formed by volcanic activity – and moving across the lunar surface.”
JIRAM data suggests that the surfaces of these Io hotspots consist largely of a rocky crust that periodically moves up and down as one continuous surface due to central upwelling of magma.
In this hypothesis, friction between the crust and the lake wall would prevent it from sliding, causing it to deform and eventually break away, exposing the lava just below the surface.
Another hypothesis, which remains valid, is that magma wells up in the middle of the lake, spreading out and forming a crust that sinks along the lake’s edge, exposing the lava.
“We’re just beginning to look at the results from JIRAM’s approach to Io in December 2023 and February 2024,” said Juno principal investigator Dr. Scott Bolton from the Southwest Research Institute.
“These observations reveal fascinating new information about Io’s volcanic activity.”
“When we combine these new results with Juno’s long-term campaign to monitor and map Io’s never-before-seen north and south pole volcanoes, JIRAM is poised to become one of the most valuable tools for learning about the workings of this tormented world.”
Paleontologists have unearthed a well-preserved collection of Cambrian trilobite fossils in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains. The 510-million-year-old specimens are among the best-preserved three-dimensional trilobite fossils ever found.
Artistic reconstruction of two species of trilobites shortly before they were buried under volcanic ash flows 510 million years ago. Image by Abderrazak El Albani, University of Poitiers.
Trilobites are extinct arthropods that dominated the marine fauna of the Paleozoic Era.
During their lifetime on Earth, which lasted much longer than the dinosaurs, they survived two major extinctions and dominated undersea ecosystems.
Trilobites are among the best-studied marine animal fossils because their hard, calcified exoskeletons are well preserved in the fossil record.
Over the past two centuries, paleontologists have described more than 20,000 species of organisms.
However, until now, comprehensive scientific understanding of this incredibly diverse group has been limited by the relative lack of soft tissue preservation.
“I've been studying trilobites for nearly 40 years but I've never felt as though I was looking at a living animal as I did in this case,” said Dr Greg Edgecombe, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“I've seen a lot of representations of the soft-body anatomy of trilobites, but the 3D preservation here is truly astounding.”
“An unexpected outcome of our research is the discovery that shallow marine volcanic ash could be a huge repository for the preservation of exceptional fossils.”
The Moroccan trilobite was encased in hot ash in seawater, so its body fossilized very quickly as the ash turned to rock.
The ash molds preserved parts of their bodies, their legs, and even the hair-like structures running along their appendages.
The trilobite's digestive tract was also preserved after being buried in the ash.
Tiny “lamp shells” attached to the trilobite's exoskeleton also remained attached by fleshy stalks, just as they were when the animal was alive.
Microtomographic reconstruction of trilobite species. Zygothera mauretanica Ventral view. Image courtesy of Arnaud Mazurier, IC2MP, University of Poitiers.
Using CT scans and computer modelling of virtual X-ray slices, the researchers found that an appendage found at the edge of the mouth had a curved, spoon-like base, but was so small that it went undetected in the less well-preserved fossils.
In fact, while trilobites were previously thought to have three pairs of head appendages behind their long antennae, this study shows that both Moroccan species have four pairs.
The fleshy leaf-like part covering the mouth, called the labia, was recorded for the first time in a trilobite.
“The results reveal in incredible detail the clustering of specialised pairs of legs around the mouth, giving us a clearer picture of how trilobites fed,” said Dr Harry Burks, a palaeontologist at the University of Bristol.
“We found that the head and body appendages had rows of densely packed spines that pointed inwards, like those of today's horseshoe crabs.”
“As a scientist who has studied fossils from different times and places, finding such amazingly well-preserved fossils in a volcanic area was a very exciting experience for me,” said geologist Professor Abderrazak El Albani of the University of Poitiers.
“I believe that pyroclastic deposits should become new research subjects because of their excellent potential for capturing and preserving biological remains, including delicate soft tissues.”
“These discoveries are expected to lead to important discoveries about the evolution of life on Earth.”
“It is well known that the best way to prevent catching a cold is to stay in shape.” write Mariam Amankerdievna Sidikova Medical, Practice and Nursing JournalLest parents overdo it, she warns that only healthy children “can get stronger with hydrotherapy.”
While exercising may be your best bet, it’s not your only cold prevention strategy. Aman Keldievna, a researcher at Samarkand State Medical University in Uzbekistan, also recommends scrubbing. “Scrubbing should be done year-round,” she says. If done correctly, “scrubbing should begin with the arms, then the legs, chest, abdomen, and back.”
The hardening doesn’t have to be water-based: Amankerdievna also approves of air hardening. “Air hardening is a gentler factor and is allowed for children in any state of health,” she writes.
Sunbathing is another option, but hardening caused by sunlight can be problematic. “Sunbathing is only possible with the doctor’s permission,” says Amankerdievna.
We all know that
If you’re a good speed reader, it’s easy to keep up with all that’s known — just read the thousands of new research papers published every week — but not everyone is good at speed reading.
As a service to slow readers, the feedback aims to summarize some things that are officially well known, as evidenced by the scientific literature (see above), each of which is documented with a sentence beginning with “It is well known that…”
Here are some well-known examples:
Forgetful functors are well known. Cary Malkiewich and Maru Sarazola Writing in a preprint study: “It is well known that stable model structures on a symmetric spectrum cannot be transferred from stable model structures on a continuous spectrum via a forgetting function.”
It’s notoriously complicated. Frank Nielsen wrote in the Journal: entropy, Mentioned One is that “it is well known that the distorted Bhattacharya distance between probability densities of exponential families corresponds to a distorted Jensen divergence induced by a cumulant function between the corresponding natural parameters, and in the limiting case, the two-sided Kullback-Leibler divergence corresponds to the inverse two-sided Bregman divergence.”
Heinz Kohut’s paper on narcissism is well known. write In the journal Psychoanalysis, Self and Contextreminds us that “it is well known that Heinz Kohut’s work on narcissism led to a reevaluation of patients’ healthy self-esteem.”
Ronald Fagin and Joseph Halpern A new approach to belief updatingNote that “it is well known that conditional probability functions are probability functions.”
And Luca Di Luzio, Admir Greggio and Marco Nardeckia write: Physics Review Dassure us “It is well known The giant vector is yearning for ultraviolet (UV) completion.”
How many of these well-known things are known to most people? The answer to that question is unknown. If you know of any well-known things that are less well-known but should be brought to our attention, please submit them (along with documentation) to Well-known things, c/o Feedback.
Fascism Disease
Reader Jennifer Skillen shared in her feedback that thinking about thinking was what sparked her mother-son shared reading sessions, which began several years ago. The Very Hungry Caterpillar And now, embrace New Scientist, It also contains other, more mature content.
“The other day, I started reading the cancer section of “How Do You Think About…?” [New Scientist, 25 May, page 42]And my son said, ‘Mom, why don’t you just read it and replace the word cancer with the word fascist?’ And I did, because I was fine with anything that concerned my son,” Jennifer says.
“To my surprise, the article was still very readable even with the substitutions. It made sense, but was very entertaining. It seems that both cancer cells and fascist cells can respond to changes in their environment and divide rapidly.”
Feedback agrees, and offers some excerpts from the article so readers can judge for themselves: “Cancer cells compete for nutrients and only the fittest survive…Cancer cells have evolved to be the best cancer cells possible, which is usually bad news.”
Jennifer and her son were wondering about other word pair substitutions that readers might have spotted. New Scientist The article states that substitutions “add meaning, increase knowledge, and make things more interesting.”
terrible
The question “what’s in it?” has generated many surprises, sometimes involving eels. Rohit Goel and his colleagues from the Pondicherry Medical School in India have uncovered one such surprise.
writing American Journal of Forensic PathologyThe researchers said:Unusual examples “The discovery of an interesting post-mortem remains: the presence of a moray eel among the corpses.”
The research team said that to their knowledge, “this is the first time such a discovery has been reported.”
Marc Abrahams is the founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founder of the journal Annals of Improbable Research. He previously worked on unusual uses of computers. His website is Impossible.
Do you have a story for feedback?
You can submit articles for Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedback can be found on our website.
AI will make it harder for students to cheat on face-to-face exams
Trish Gant / Alamy
94% of university exam submissions created using ChatGPT were not detected as generated by artificial intelligence, and these submissions tended to receive higher scores than real student work.
Peter Scarfe Professors at the University of Reading in the UK used ChatGPT to generate answers for 63 assessment questions across five modules of the university's undergraduate psychology course. Because students took these exams from home, they were allowed to look at their notes and references, and could also use the AI, which they were not allowed to do.
The AI-generated answers were submitted alongside real students' answers and accounted for an average of 5% of all answers graded by teachers. The graders were not informed that they were checking the answers of 33 fake students, whose names were also generated by ChatGPT.
The assessment included two types of questions: short answers and longer essays. The prompt given to ChatGPT began with the words, “Include references to academic literature but do not have a separate bibliography section,” followed by a copy of the exam question.
Across all modules, only 6 percent of the AI submissions were flagged as possibly not being the students' own work, although in some modules, no AI-generated work was ever flagged as suspicious. “On average, the AI answers received higher marks than real student submissions,” says Scarfe, although there was some variability across modules.
“Current AI tends to struggle with more abstract reasoning and synthesising information,” he added. But across all 63 AI submissions, the AI's work had an 83.4% chance of outperforming student work.
The researchers claim theirs is the largest and most thorough study to date. Although the study only looked at studies on psychology degrees at the University of Reading, Scarfe believes it's a concern across academia. “There's no reason to think that other fields don't have the same kinds of problems,” he says.
“The results were exactly what I expected.” Thomas Lancaster “Generative AI has been shown to be capable of generating plausible answers to simple, constrained text questions,” say researchers at Imperial College London, who point out that unsupervised assessments involving short answers are always susceptible to cheating.
The strain on faculty who are tasked with grading also reduces their ability to spot AI cheating. “A time-pressed grader on a short-answer question is highly unlikely to come up with a case of AI cheating on a whim,” Lancaster says. “This university can't be the only one where this is happening.”
Tackling it at its source is nearly impossible, Scarfe says, so the education industry needs to rethink what it assesses. “I think the whole education industry needs to be aware of the fact that we need to incorporate AI into the assessments that we give to students,” he says.
About 10,000 years ago, a handful of woolly mammoths washed up on an island off the Siberian coast in the Russian Arctic. Over the next few thousand years, this small group of perhaps eight animals grew into a stable population of 200-300 animals before going extinct about 4,000 years ago. These mammoths are the last known population of woolly mammals on Earth, and may have survived into modern times but for some bad luck.
The history of these mammoths has been clarified through genetic research. Love Darren A team from Stockholm University in Sweden and their colleagues looked at DNA from 14 mammoths from Wrangel Island and seven from the mainland, dating back to before melting ice sheets caused sea levels to rise and isolate them, covering a combined genetic history of 50,000 years.
The researchers’ analysis found that despite the small population, inbreeding wasn’t the cause of the mammoth’s extinction: While small genetic mutations accumulated, Dallen said, the population was good at eliminating larger, harmful ones.
“We can demonstrate that it’s unlikely that inbreeding or genetic disease caused the population to slowly decline and go extinct,” he said. “Despite the inbreeding, the population did well.”
Mammoth tusk found on Wrangel Island
Love Darren
But the team found that individual mammoths were affected by genetic diseases, and that this negative impact at the individual level had been ongoing for thousands of years. “This means that today’s endangered species, which in most cases were at risk of extinction until very recently, are likely to continue to suffer from genetic diseases for hundreds of generations to come,” says Dallen.
Dallen points to the Tasmanian devil as an example of a species that became isolated on a large island after mainland populations became extinct, leading to reduced genetic diversity. This in turn affects the immune system, Dallen says, which puts the species at greater risk of population decline when faced with new pathogens, such as the facial tumour disease that attacks Tasmanian devils.
“Natural selection appears to have been effective in eliminating potentially lethal mutations, but other, less severe mutations gradually increased,” they said. Adrian Lister At the Natural History Museum, London.
“We’re not sure whether this led to eventual extinction, but it’s possible that, combined with environmental changes, it did,” Lister said. “There are lessons here for monitoring the genetic health of endangered species today.”
The exact cause of the mammoths’ extinction is unknown, but interestingly, Wrangel Island contained freshwater lakes and rivers, which suggests that the mammoths may have been able to survive longer than similarly isolated groups that became extinct 5,600 years ago due to drought.
“Diseases, short-term weather events, tundra fires — all of these are thought to be random events,” Dallen says. “Because they’re random, they’re not inevitable. So if they hadn’t happened, the mammoths might have survived to this day, assuming humans hadn’t killed them when they arrived on Wrangel Island.”
Guiana Navajo Armadillo (Dasypus guianensisImage courtesy of Quentin Martinez, https://quentinmartinez.fr.
Armadillos are New World placental mammals. CingulataAlong with anteaters and sloths, they form part of a superclade that dates back 100 million years ago. Xenomorphs.
Recent studies suggest that it consists of four distinct lineages whose taxonomic status is unclear.
“It has been widely believed that the cricket armadillo ranges from northern Argentina to southern Illinois, but in recent years some scientists have presented evidence that it is in fact a complex of several different species,” said Dr. Frédéric Delschuk, research director at the CNRS.
“By studying the DNA of armadillos across their range, we were able to perform a very detailed genomic analysis and become convinced that there are in fact four different species of armadillos.”
“Under the new classification, armadillos found in the United States should be called Mexican long-legged armadillos,” added Dr Anderson Feijo, a researcher at the Field Museum.
“In addition, a new species of Guiana Navajo armadillo (Dasypus guianensis) is the first armadillo described in the past 30 years.
In this study, the researchers analyzed the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. Dasypus Armadillos were sampled throughout their range.
A combination of genetic data and physical characteristics led them to conclude that cricket armadillos are actually four genetically distinct species.
Thus, some subspecies within this species have come to be recognized as species in their own right.
The armadillo found in Mexico and the United States was formerly a subspecies of Mexican wolfnow just Mexican wolf: Mexican long-legged armadillo.
Subspecies Window StratusThe species that inhabits the central part of its range is now a distinct species, and its original name was Novemucinctas Currently limited to South America.
Meanwhile, the data showed that another branch of the armadillo phylogenetic tree did not belong to any of these three existing groups.
The area of northeastern South America known as the Guiana Shield is home to the newest armadillo species. Dasypus guianensis.
The new armadillo is slightly larger than the other three species, has a hairless shell, a robust domed skull and additional bones in its spine.
Overall, however, to the untrained eye, these four species appear very similar.
“It's nearly impossible to tell in the field,” Dr Delsac said.
a paper The findings were published in the journal. Systematic biology.
_____
Mathilde Barthes othersExon capture museomics deciphers a cricket armadillo species complex and identifies a new species endemic to the Guiana Shield. Systematic biologyPublished online June 22, 2024, doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syae027
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