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DARPA is developing an implant that can read brain signals in real-time

Meghan Neal
Motherboard
Fri, 25 Oct 2013 14:02 UTC
Brain Implant
© Flickr

The latest project from the futurists at DARPA takes a detour from the agency's typical dabblings in autonomous robots and artificially intelligent computers to focus on the health of actual humans. The agency announced its latest moonshot initiative today, a $70 million project to develop a new implantable electronic device that can be used to treat some of the mental disorders plaguing the US military.

The ambitious goal is to create a medical device within five years that can be implanted in the skull to monitor, analyze, and respond to real-time information on the brain, somewhat like a pacemaker for grey matter. That new level of insight into the human mind could lead to more effective treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders, researchers hope.

The Defense Department has good reason to devote such a large chunk of change to advancing neuroscience. Today, the leading cause of soldiers' hospital stays isn't physical injuries, but mental conditions like post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, DARPA said in its announcement.

The agency is turning to technology to better understand these problems. The project is part of the White House's BRAIN initiative to research the mind to uncover new treatments for mental health. President Obama's budgeted $100 million for the first year, half of which will go to DARPA.
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Binoculars

Newly-discovered monkey which purrs like a cat and other strange new creatures found in the Amazon

Anthony Bond
The Mirror, UK
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:13 UTC
The Caquetta titi monkey is one of 441 new species discovered by teams of scientists in remote areas of the jungle
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© Thomas Defler / WWFCallicebus Caquetensis
A monkey that purrs like a cat has been discovered in the depths of the Amazon rainforest.

The Caquetta titi monkey is one of 441 new species discovered during the past three years by teams of scientists.

The discovery has been described by wildlife experts as "remarkable" .

Scientist Thomas Defler, who was one of the team who spotted the animal in Colombia, told Sky News: "When they feel very content they purr towards each other."

The new animal is one of about 20 species of titi monkey which all live in the Amazon Basin.

A total of 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians and 18 birds were also discovered during the study. The monkey was the only new mammal to be found.

Other discoveries included a vegetarian piranha and a tiny frog, described as being the size of a thimble.

Damian Fleming, from the World Wildlife Fund, said: "The richness of the Amazon's forests and freshwater habitats continues to amaze the world.

"With an average of two new species identified every week for the past four years, it's clear that the extraordinary Amazon remains one of the most important centres of global biodiversity."
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Info

Your face may have been sculpted by junk DNA

Colin Barras
New Scientist
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 08:20 UTC
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© H. Morrison, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, University of EdinburghA mouse embryo: red indicates where a gene regulatory sequence is active.
Even the prettiest faces are built using junk. In mice, the shapes of the face and skull are finely tuned by junk DNA, so called because it was initially thought to lack function since it doesn't encode proteins. The same junk DNA sequences are found in humans, so they are probably also shaping our faces.

This finding could help us make sense of some congenital conditions, such as cleft palates, that can develop even when the genes that shape the face appear to be working normally.

There is a huge degree of variation in human faces but, as family resemblances show, the overall shape is heavily constrained by genetics. However, so far, geneticists have identified only a small number of genes that influence the shape. These explain just a tiny fraction of the variation seen in human faces.

According to Axel Visel of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and his colleagues, more variation is controlled by distant-acting enhancers. These are short sequences of DNA, in non-coding regions of the genome, that can influence the activity of the facial genes, even if they are a long way along the DNA strand.

"Enhancers are part of the 98 per cent of the human genome that is non-coding DNA - long thought of as 'junk DNA'," says Visel. "It's increasingly clear that important functions are embedded in this 'junk'."


Comment: For more information on Junk DNA and how to protect it, see On viral 'junk' DNA, a DNA-enhancing Ketogenic diet, and cometary kicks

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Alarm Clock

Waiting for the big one: giant oarfish start shock waves in LA

Steve Connor, Tim Walker
The Independent, UK
Thu, 24 Oct 2013 08:46 UTC
'Messenger from the sea god's palace' washed up more than 10 times in year before Japanese tsunami - now two have been found off California

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An oarfish washed up on a California beach
Long, slender and snake-like, the giant oarfish is rarely found fewer than 200 metres from the surface of the ocean. Yet in the year leading up to the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, between 10 and 20 of the deep sea creatures washed up dead along the coast of Japan. Ancient Japanese fishermen's lore suggests the oarfish - known as the "messenger from the sea god's palace" - rises to the surface to warn of impending earthquakes.

Which is why people in Southern California are a little nervous at the news that, this month alone, at least two oarfish have been sighted on their beaches without any visible signs of injury or disease, leading to speculation that they were affected by some deep underwater disturbance.

Rachel Grant, a lecturer in animal biology at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, said there might be some truth to the Japanese legend, and she has begun a study to test the idea. "It's theoretically possible because when an earthquake occurs there can be a build-up of pressure in the rocks which can lead to electrostatic charges that cause electrically-charged ions to be released into the water," Dr Grant said. "This can lead to the formation of hydrogen peroxide, which is a toxic compound. The charged ions can also oxidise organic matter which could either kill the fish or force them to leave the deep ocean and rise to the surface."

Comment: See also.Second rare oarfish washes up in Southern California

18-foot oarfish caught by Catalina marine science instructor in California

Something amiss deep down? Bizarre-looking oarfish washes ashore on Cabo San Lucas beach

Appearance of "Earthquake fish" spook Japanese

Rare "King of Herrings" Found off Swedish Coast

England: Monster of deep washes up on beach

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Donut

You the taxpayer are funding the Agri-business takeover of our food supply

Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News
Wed, 23 Oct 2013 20:12 UTC
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Who Controls the World's Food Supply?

When the United States was founded in the 1700s, and when Thomas Jefferson served as President of the United States, about 90% of the U.S. population was employed in agriculture.

By the time of the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln served as President of the United States, about 50% of the population was employed in agriculture.

After the industrial boom, brought about by World War II, the percentage of those employed in agriculture started dropping significantly.

Today, in 2013, less than 1% of our population is employed in agriculture and most of the food sold in the U.S., and even around the world, is controlled by just a handful of companies.

At the bottom of the food chain, of course, are the seeds. No seeds, no food.

This is where the most consolidation has occurred in the past few years:
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Bug

New flu virus found in Peruvian bats

Rachael Rettner
LiveScience
Wed, 23 Oct 2013 10:02 UTC
Flu Virus
© U.S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionA representation of the structure of a generic flu virus.
A brand new flu virus has been found in Peruvian bats, according to a new study from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus, called A/bat/Peru/10, belongs to a family of flu viruses known as influenza A, which mainly infect birds, but can also infect other animals, including people.

Influenza A viruses are named for two proteins on the virus' surface, hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N), such as H1N1. Previously, there were 17 known types of H proteins and 10 known types of N proteins.

But the proteins on the surface of A/bat/Peru/10 are so distinct, that the researchers designated it a new virus: H18N11.

Last year, the same group of researchers identified a distinct influenza A virus, H17N10, in fruit bats living in Guatemala.
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Galaxy

The Milky Way does the Wave

Sid Perkins
ScienceShot
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 17:45 UTC
Milky Way
© Infospeed/iStockphoto
Stars in our part of the Milky Way seem to be doing "the wave," a new study suggests. The finding comes from an analysis of the motions of more than 70,000 red giant stars that lie within 6500 light-years of Earth - a distance that, in one direction, reaches about one-fourth of the way to the center of the galaxy.

Above the horizontal plane that slices through the center of the galaxy, stars closer to the center of the galaxy than the sun are, in general, moving away from the plane at speeds of 10 kilometers per second or less. Meanwhile, those farther from the galactic center than the sun are moving toward the plane - in some cases, as fast as 17 kilometers per second. All together, the complexity of motions observed by the team is similar to that seen among molecules in a gas with a sound wave passing through it, the researchers report this month in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

As of yet, the reasons for these anomalous motions aren't clear, the researchers note. The "wave" may indeed be a ripple caused by a long-ago collision with a small companion galaxy, or it may result from perturbations in pressure triggered as the Milky Way's spiral arms (artist's concept above) push their way through space as the galaxy rotates.
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Bizarro Earth

Antarctic ozone hole hits 2013 peak size

Tia Ghose
LiveScience
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:07 UTC
Ozone Hole
© NOAAThe ozone hole reached its biggest extent for the year on Sept. 26, 2013.
The Antarctic ozone hole reached its biggest extent for the year on Sept. 26, 2013, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced yesterday.

At its maximum, the ozone hole over the South Pole measured a whopping 7.3 million square miles (18.9 square kilometers), making it almost twice the area of Europe. [See the ozone hole form over Antarctica]

The ozone hole is a region of the stratosphere, the second layer up in Earth's atmosphere, where the concentration of ozone, a molecule made of three oxygen atoms, is less than 220 Dobson units (a measure of the density of a gas in an entire column of the atmosphere). The ozone layer, which stretches between 12 miles to 19 miles (20 to 30 km) above the Earth's surface, provides the planet with an invaluable service: Ozone absorbs ultraviolet light, which can help cause skin cancer and sunburn. It is also the culprit behind damage to plants and plankton.

In the 1980s, scientists first detected a depletion of ozone concentrations over Antarctica. The hole forms every year above Antarctica between September and November. The hole developed because of the proliferation of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals that were once widely used in refrigerants. In several chemical reactions, CFCs bind to oxygen atoms, breaking ozone down into ordinary oxygen molecules.
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Info

No known hominin is ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans


University of Indiana
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:35 UTC
Neanderthals Teeth
© Aida Gómez-RoblesThis image shows diversity in premolar and molar morphology in Neanderthals, modern humans and potential ancestral species.
Bloomington, Indiana -- The search for a common ancestor linking modern humans with the Neanderthals who lived in Europe thousands of years ago has been a compelling subject for research. But a new study suggests the quest isn't nearly complete.

The researchers, using quantitative methods focused on the shape of dental fossils, find that none of the usual suspects fits the expected profile of an ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.

They also present evidence that the lines that led to Neanderthals and modern humans diverged nearly 1 million years ago, much earlier than studies based on molecular evidence have suggested.

The study, which will be published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was carried out by an international team of scholars from The George Washington University, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Austria, Indiana University and Atapuerca Research Team in Spain.

"Our results call attention to the strong discrepancies between molecular and paleontological estimates of the divergence time between Neanderthals and modern humans," said Aida Gómez-Robles, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral scientist at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of The George Washington University.

"These discrepancies cannot be simply ignored, but they have to be somehow reconciled."
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Comet 2

Comet C/2012 X1 (LINEAR), trailing ISON by 3 months, 'explodes' - 100x increase in brightness

Anura Guruge
nhlife.wordpress.com
Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:43 UTC
This 'LINEAR' C/2012 X1 was discovered after C/2012 S1 - i.e., ISON. 'S' vs. 'X'. This 'LINEAR' (and there are a lot of comets discovered by LINEAR) is still in the asteroid belt. It will not make perihelion till February 21, 2014. So it is trailing ISON by 3 months.

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