A fifth force may exist that disrupts the predictions general relativity makes outside our own galaxy, on cosmic-length scales. University of Pennsylvania astrophysicist, Bhuvnesh Jain, says the nature of gravity is the question of a lifetime. As scientists have been able to see farther and deeper into the universe, the laws of gravity have been revealed to be under the influence of an unexplained force.

Two branches of theories have sprung up, each trying to fill its gaps in a different way. One branch — dark energy — suggests that the vacuum of space has an energy associated with it and that energy causes the observed acceleration. The other falls under the umbrella of "scalar-tensor" gravity theories, which effectively posits a fifth force (beyond gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces) that alters gravity on cosmologically large scales.

"These two possibilities are both radical in their own way," Jain said. "One is saying that general relativity is correct, but we have this strange new form of energy. The other is saying we don't have a new form of energy, but gravity is not described by general relativity everywhere."

Jain's research is focused on the latter possibility; he is attempting to characterize the properties of this fifth force that disrupts the predictions general relativity makes outside our own galaxy, on cosmic length scales.

By analyzing a well-studied class of stars in nearby galaxies, Jain and his colleagues have produced new findings that narrow down the possibilities of what this force could be. Their findings are a vindication of Einstein's theory of gravity.

Having survived a century of tests in the solar system, it has passed this new test in galaxies beyond our own as well.In 1998, astrophysicists made an observation that turned gravity on its ear: the universe's rate of expansion is speeding up. If gravity acts the same everywhere, stars and galaxies propelled outward by the Big Bang should continuously slow down, like objects thrown from an explosion do here on Earth.

This observation used distant supernovae to show that the expansion of the universe was speeding up rather than slowing down. This indicated that something was missing from physicists' understanding of how the universe responds to gravity, which is described by Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Jain's breakthrough came about when he and his colleagues realized they could use the troves of data on a special property of a common type of star as an exquisite test of gravity.

Astrophysicists have been pursuing tests of gravity in the cosmos for many years, but conventional tests require data on millions of galaxies. Future observations are expected to provide such enormous datasets in the coming data. But Jain and his colleagues were able to bypass the conventional approach.

One of the most widely used commercial chemicals to kill bedbugs are not effective because the pesky insects have built up a tolerance to them, according to a team of researchers from Virginia Tech and New Mexico State University.

Millions of dollars have been spent on insecticides to kill the bugs that have wreaked havoc on everything from hotels in New York City to homes in Los Angeles. But this is the first study to show that overuse of certain insecticides has led to an increased resistance to the compounds, making them much less effective than advertised.

"While we all want a powerful tool to fight bed bug infestations, what we are using as a chemical intervention is not working as effectively it was designed and, in turn, people are spending a lot of money on products that aren't working," said Troy Anderson, an assistant professor of entomology in the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Volcanic eruptions at the bottom of the sea are at the heart of how the Earth works, yet we know surprisingly little about them.

But now, thanks to a network of seafloor sensors connected to the internet, scientists are starting to get a glimpse of the fundamental processes that shape our planet.

This "ocean observatory" is situated atop an underwater mountain range off the coast from Oregon and Washington, and can measure everything from the rumbles of deep-sea earthquakes to the chemical burps of volcanic vents. And it just went online this month, The New York Times reported.

About 70% of the volcanism on Earth occurs underwater, yet it's traditionally been hard to study, said Deborah Kelley, the University of Washington scientist who directs the US part of the observatory (Canada directs the other part).

Now, for the first time, "we can see how a volcano lives and breathes and impacts our planet," Kelley told Business Insider, adding "It's basically the internet on the seafloor."

In the words of Trenton Tye (aka The Blacksmith), why don't these dumb things die?

Below: AE911Truth's original response to Tye's video, from December 18, 2015

A new study discovered that a planet previously thought to be a loner actually orbits a star 1 trillion kilometers away from it. It takes it a million Earth years to orbit its sun, making it the largest solar system found to date.

The giant gas planet - identified only as 2MASS J2126−8140 by scientists - lies 100 light years away from Earth. It's around 12 to 15 times the mass of Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System.

Recent news about tainted water in Flint, Michigan, and other parts of the country have called into question the safety of the nation's drinking water supply. Adding to this, a new study finds that pollutants from household wastewater—pharmaceuticals and consumer product chemicals—can make their way into people's private wells, and that backyard septic systems are likely to blame. The findings reinforce growing concerns about the health risks posed by unregulated chemicals in drinking water.

In tests of water samples from private wells on Cape Cod, researchers at Silent Spring Institute found 27 unregulated contaminants, including a dozen different pharmaceuticals, a variety of chemicals used in non-stick coatings, flame retardants, and an artificial sweetener. The study appears online Wednesday, January 27 in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

Approximately 44 million Americans get their drinking water from private wells. Unlike public wells, private wells are not federally regulated; responsibility for ensuring the safety and quality of the water falls on individual homeowners. Because private wells tend to be shallower than public wells and are less frequently monitored, they are also more susceptible to contamination from local land use activities such as farming, residential development, and landfills. Contamination of private wells is an ongoing public health issue in many parts of the U.S., including the Midwest and California.

Scientists say they now have good evidence in animals that exposure to a toxin from algae can trigger dementia-like changes in the brain.

If the US team is right, they may have found a new route towards treating and preventing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's .

Their work, in the Proceedings B journal, lends weight to a scientific theory experts have been chasing for decades.

The story began in the 1950s on a small Pacific Island called Guam.

Quebec - The new theory for germline guidelines is based on IVF screening practices, and it's pretty damn confronting. Forget Frankenstein; this is a whole new order of difficulty with a lot of new dangers.

In a society where accountability is virtually non-existent, it's also a very high-risk issue. The ability to edit genes and deal with genetic disorders with genetic screening is either a horror story in progress or a major achievement depending on your point of view. Just about everybody has pointed out that an arbitrary determination of genetic makeup is untrustworthy by definition.

Big money will be in play, and that money usually wants to make a lot more of itself. Greed reproduces itself, too.

Given the environment of truly irrational pricing and other depraved evil spirits/scumbags in medical industries, why should these guys be allowed to participate, and make more money, editing the human race?

Not to detract from this whole new horizon of fascinating science in any way — the basic process of editing genes in IVF is supposed to manage some truly hideous, crippling, genetic conditions. Fair enough, you'd think. It's a practical way of managing a lot of otherwise catastrophic medical conditions.

Inheritable germline genetic modifications, however, raise big issues and potentially big problems. Germline is defined by Google as "a series of germ cells each descended or developed from earlier cells in the series, regarded as continuing through successive generations of an organism." Add to this new tech related to genetic modifications, which has literally exploded in the last decade or so since the Human Genome Project, and the whole issue of gene editing gets very tricky, very quickly.

That means that germline edits are permanent and will be carried on in new generations. In human terms, that could mean "selecting or de-selecting" things like human traits, according to researchers at the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University in Quebec.

Umm.... Turning human behaviors on and off? Sounds like a reliable way of causing multiple disasters, doesn't it? Some human behaviors may deserve to be turned off, but who do you trust with this ability? Big Pharma? Big Medicine? Big Politics? The usual insufferable pig-ignorant/do nothing/hate everybody "elites" of every generation? Would you trust a society which wouldn't do well in comparison with a dunghill for rational behavior of its own?

Imagine inheritable behaviors and other characteristics based on the whims of some claque of ideologically and/or money-driven people whose technical knowledge will be superseded in hours or days and whose view of humanity is as rational as a politician's understanding of ethics and accountability.

The inevitable result would be the "genetic fashions" of the day vs real human needs and rights. This would be the culture of gene editing if it doesn't have guidelines and those guidelines can't be enforced. The need for guidelines isn't in question. The question is whether those guidelines can work at all. There are real dangers in this scenario.

For months now, angry strangers have been showing up at Christina Lee and Michael Saba's front door with a curious demand: "Give me back my stolen phone!"

Sometimes, families will show up; other times, it's groups of friends or a random person with a police officer in tow, according to Fusion. Despite using different service providers, everyone who bangs on their door has been led to the suburban Atlanta home by a phone-tracking app.

The problem — as the couple desperately tries to explain visitors — is that the missing phones aren't at the house and never have been.

They are not, in fact, thieves. Saba is an engineer; Lee is a journalist.

The pair doesn't understand why exactly, but both Android and iPhone users on various networks are being directed to their house by phone-tracking apps.

People with better health are more likely to have higher levels of intelligence, according to a new study which found that genes associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and autism also affect cognitive functions.

The study, conducted by an international team led by the University of Edinburgh, analyzed data from around 100,000 people listed in the UK Biobank. The Biobank contains genetic data, and health and cognitive variables from more than 500,000 participants recruited between 2006 and 2010.

The team's mission was to investigate whether illness causes a loss of cognitive functioning, or if existing cognitive impairment symbolizes a higher risk of health problems, or if the same cause is responsible for both.

The cognitive level of the 100,000 people was assessed through mental test data - including reaction time, memory, and verbal-numerical reasoning - and compared with 22 health indicators and the results of their genome.