Science & Technology

Comet 01-ASAS-SN brightens unexpectedly

Signe Dean
Science Alert
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 17:10 UTC

There are countless chunks of icy debris swirling around the Oort cloud on the outskirts of the Solar System. But it's always exciting when one of those comes in our direction for a rare flyby.

In July, astronomers discovered a brand new comet zooming through the inner regions of our space bubble. Since that time it's been steadily getting brighter, and now is about the best time to finally catch a glimpse of it in the night sky.

The comet C/2017 O1 ASAS-SN was first detected on 19 July by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae, the same system that brought us new discoveries about the mysterious Tabby's star, massive space explosions, and stars shredded by black holes.

Now, for the first time, the survey has discovered a comet which Northern Hemisphere stargazers can readily spot in the sky with the help of a backyard telescope or even just binoculars.

Comet O1 ASAS-SN is a long-period comet, and it probably takes at least several thousand years to cruise around the Sun and come back - so being able to spot it right now is a wonderful treat.

HIV gene therapy could literally end fatal brain disease

Chelsea Gohd
Futurism
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC

HIV GENE THERAPY

Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare disorder caused by a gene mutation. Children who inherited this gene took part in a new study testing the effectiveness of a new gene therapy that gets some surprising help from HIV.

ALD causes nerve cells in the brain to die. Children with the disorder typically begin to show symptoms at age 7 and afterward stop being able to both walk, talk, eat, see, hear, or even think. After diagnosis, most don't survive more than 5 years. Previous treatment methods include a bone-marrow transplant, which is only possible with a compatible donor, or a cord blood transplant, which is only possible if it was saved at birth. It is significant and promising, then, that for the first time ever, the disease was suppressed using gene therapy.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, included 17 boys between the ages of 4 and 13, as one in every 20,000 boys inherits the disease, and two years after gene therapy, 15 of the boys were functioning without any obvious ALD symptoms.

Is asking whether we live in a simulation scientific?

Dom Galeon
Futurism
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 14:07 UTC

Late last month, Science Advances published a study by Zohar Ringel from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and Dmitry Kovrizhin of the University of Oxford disproving the idea that humanity exists in a simulated universe inside the hard drive of an uber-advanced super/quantum computer belonging to some being from the future - extraterrestrial or otherwise.

Both Ringel and Kovrizhin have since come out to say they were surprised by the headlines generated by their study on simulation theory because, as Ringel told New Scientist, whether or not we live in a computer simulation is not even a scientific question.

Although versions of it existed earlier, simulation theory was made popular in 2003 by Oxford philosopher Nicholas Bostrom. That year, he published a paper that basically proposed the idea that an extremely powerful computer could model the entire mental history of humankind.

Some types of UFOs and mysterious booms may be the secret SR-72

Paul Seaburn
Mysterious Universe
Sat, 30 Sep 2017 01:00 UTC

Have you seen a UFO streaking across the sky far faster than any normal jet is capable of? Heard mysterious booms that no one can explain and government officials refuse to acknowledge? Congratulations! You may be one of the first civilians to have witnessed or experienced the long-rumored SR-72 'Son of Blackbird' spy plane which has been expected for years as the replacement for the legendary SR-71 Blackbird which spied on the Soviet Union, North Korea and North Vietnam and was feared and respected by MiG-25 pilots who could never outpace, out-climb or out-maneuver them.

Aerospace Daily & Defense Report has confirmed sightings of an SR-72 demonstrator or prototype accompanied by two T-38 jets in late July landing at the U.S. Air Force's Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, home of the infamous Skunk Works, Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs division. At the SAE International Aerotech Congress and Exhibition in Ft. Worth, Texas, this week, Orlando Carvalho, executive vice president of aeronautics at Lockheed Martin, would not discuss the SR-72 specifically, but had this to say about what its capabilities might be:

"Hypersonics is like stealth. It is a disruptive technology and will enable various platforms to operate at two to three times the speed of the Blackbird. Operational survivability and lethality is the ultimate deterrent. Security classification guidance will only allow us to say the speed is greater than Mach 5."

The Vika: Mythical monster rat found in the Solomon Islands

Paul Seaburn
Mysterious Universe
Thu, 28 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC

A favorite tale among residents of the Solomon Islands is the legend of the mythical monster rat known as Vika, who can climb trees, break open rock-shelled nuts with its teeth and cause cats to die in fright with just a look. That last legend is mine, but the rest are no longer scary campfire tales - the mythical Vika has been discovered alive and well on Vangunu Island.

"When I first met with the people from Vangunu Island in the Solomons, they told me about a rat native to the island that they called vika, which lived in the trees."

Mammalogist Tyrone Lavery reports in the Journal of Mammalology first came to the Solomon Islands in 2010 to look for new species in this isolated country of 900 islands east of Papua New Guinea and best known to most people for the World War II naval battles fought there, especially on Guadalcanal. Lavery immediately heard rumors of a giant tree-climbing nut-cracking rat but he doubted its existence, thinking at first that the native people were making up stories about common black rats.

"If you're looking for something that can live in 30-foot-tall trees, then there's a whole new dimension that you need to search."

For more of this article, go here.

Uncovering deep sleep's role in visual learning

Maria Cohut
Medical News Today
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 11:37 UTC

A new study looks into the mechanism behind sleep-dependent neuroplasticity in the process of assimilating new visual information.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have conducted a study in mice to investigate how deep sleep influences visual learning. Brain activity during this phase of sleep is crucial to consolidating new visual information, they found.

An important part of how we relate to the world is perceptual learning, which refers to our ability to "make sense" of various stimuli - visual, auditory, or related to taste, smell, and touch - through repeated exposure to them.

Perceptual learning improves the way in which we relate to stimuli, helping us to unpick ambiguous ones. Research had already shown that for consolidating perceptual learning, immersion in slow-wave - or non-rapid eye movement (NREM) - sleep is required.

Stephen Hawkins vs METI: Is it safe to call Aliens?

Christianna Reedy
Futurism
Sun, 24 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC

Calling All Aliens

As autumn brings with it cooler temperatures and clearer night skies, Douglas Vakoch, president of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), wants you to take the opportunity to survey the glory of our galaxy - and to contemplate the existence of alien life.

"You look at the night sky - virtually all of those stars have planets," Rosenberg said in an exclusive interview with Futurism. "Maybe one out of five has it at just the right zone where there's liquid water. And so we know there are a lot of places that there could be life. Now the big question is, are they actually trying to make contact, or do they want us to try?"

Global wind speeds slowing since 1960, but nobody knows why

Joe Dodgshun
Horizon-Magazine
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:44 UTC

© Pixabay/Free-Photos
The average terrestrial wind speed has slowed down half a kilometre per hour every decade since the 1960s.

Wind speeds around the world seem to be decreasing in a phenomenon known as 'stilling' and European scientists are hoping to find out why.

Few people have probably noticed, but the world's winds are getting slower. It is something that cannot be picked up by watching the billowing of dust or listening to the rustle of leaves on nearby trees.

Instead, it is a phenomenon occurring on a different scale, as the average global wind speed close to the surface of the land decreases. And while it is not affecting the whole earth evenly, the average terrestrial wind speed has decreased by 0.5 kilometres per hour (0.3 miles per hour) every decade, according to data starting in the 1960s.

Known as 'stilling', it has only been discovered in the last decade. And while it may sound deceptively calm, it could be a vital, missing piece of the climate change puzzle and a serious threat to our societies.

Dr Cesar Azorin-Molina, a climatologist at Sweden's University of Gothenburg and lead researcher of the EU-funded STILLING project, believes there is an urgent need to determine the causes of stilling in a changing climate.

While 0.5 kilometre per hour might barely seem enough to ruffle any feathers, he warns that prolonged stilling will have serious impacts.

'There are serious implications of wind changes in areas like agriculture and hydrology, basically because of the influence of wind on evaporation,' said Dr Azorin-Molina. 'A declining trend in wind speed can impact long-term power generation, and weaker winds can also mean less dispersion of pollutants in big cities, exacerbating air quality problems and therefore impacting human health.'

New Google AI almost perfectly mimics human speech

Brad Jones
Futurism
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 18:12 UTC

ELOCUTION LESSONS

Last year, artificial intelligence (AI) research company DeepMind shared details on WaveNet, a deep neural network used to synthesize realistic human speech. Now, an improved version of the technology is being rolled out for use with Google Assistant.

A system for speech synthesis - otherwise known as text-to-speech (TTS) - typically utilizes one of two techniques.

Concatenative TTS involves the piecing together of chunks of recordings from a voice actor. The drawback of this method is that audio libraries must be replaced whenever upgrades or changes are made.

The other technique, parametric TTS, uses a set of parameters to produce computer-generated speech, but this speech can sometimes sound unnatural and robotic.

WaveNet, on the other hand, produces waveforms from scratch based on a system developed using a convolutional neural network.

Law takes aim at stem cell treatments not approved by the FDA

Ken Carlson
The Modesto Bee
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 01:27 UTC

A new state law aims to warn consumers about potentially harmful stem cell treatments that are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Stem cell research holds promise for treating numerous medical conditions by restoring or replacing the "master cells" that mature into the bones, blood and the organs of the human body. The FDA has warned that untested stem-cell cures are being marketed to patients and may have harmful effects. FDA approval guarantees that a drug or medical treatment has gone through a rigorous review process and clinical trials.

Senate Bill 512, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week, requires medical practices to post notices and provide handouts to patients if their stem cell treatments are not FDA-approved.

Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, said more than 100 clinics in the state are offering non-approved stem cell therapies. "Patients spend thousands of dollars on these treatments, but are totally unaware of the potential risks and dangerous side effects," said Hernandez, the bill's author.

Comment:

The primary purpose of stem cells is to maintain, heal and regenerate tissues wherever they reside in your body. This is a continuous process that occurs inside your body throughout your life. If you didn't have stem cells, your lifespan would be about an hour, because there would be nothing to replace exhausted cells or damaged tissue. In addition, any time your body is exposed to any sort of toxin, the inflammatory process causes stem cells to swarm the area to repair the damage.

So far, what has been discovered is that the autologous cells, meaning your own cells, will outperform somebody else's cells inside your body. Now, this is not fully understood at this point. It may be that the environment that your cells function in, they're used to that environment. They recognize it. It's the same DNA and they can function well.

"The FDA has many decisions to make beyond just approving the drug, or not. It must decide whether pregnant women - and any other at-risk groups -...

prehistoric

Many people who are hesitant to be vaccinated for Covid-19 see the drug as a treatment or prophylactic for the disease, though so far there is no...

Good Optics

With mail in voting likely to become a thing, does it really matter any more? Stick a fork in us...this country is done.

Bezel Bub

Other comets coming sooner, although not quite as big. E.g. "Leonard" this December https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)

Tsidkenu

Tornadoes here in Aus too, as I reported here [Link]

Tsidkenu

Science & Technology

Comet 01-ASAS-SN brightens unexpectedly

HIV gene therapy could literally end fatal brain disease

Is asking whether we live in a simulation scientific?

Some types of UFOs and mysterious booms may be the secret SR-72

The Vika: Mythical monster rat found in the Solomon Islands

Uncovering deep sleep's role in visual learning

Stephen Hawkins vs METI: Is it safe to call Aliens?

Global wind speeds slowing since 1960, but nobody knows why

New Google AI almost perfectly mimics human speech

Law takes aim at stem cell treatments not approved by the FDA

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