Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 29 Sep 2021
The World for People who Think

Science & Technology
Map

Brain

'We've never seen that before': Experiment with drug Ketamine reveals possible 'reset button' inside the brain


RT
Tue, 16 Jun 2020 15:51 UTC
brain test
© Pixabay / aytuguluturk
A recent experiment conducted during research into Huntington's disease shows the anesthetic Ketamine may trigger a 'reset' of electrical activity in our brains, providing a possible explanation for the so-called 'K-hole.'

Huntington's disease is an inherited, degenerative neurological disorder that results in the death of brain cells, leading to impaired coordination which can eventually render those living with the condition unable to speak.

In order to better understand this and a host of other neurological diseases and psychiatric conditions, researchers examine the mechanics of our neural pathways and, in particular, their reaction to certain therapeutic medicines, such as ketamine.

Ketamine is an anaesthetic with pain-numbing and dissociative effects, making it a popular medicine as well as a recreational drug. However, recent tests performed on sheep found that when the animals were given high doses, brain activity stopped completely, and almost instantaneously.
      Read More...
Mars

Unusual green glow spotted in Mars' atmosphere

Mike Wall
Space.com
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 21:47 UTC
Mars
© ESA
Artist's illustration of the European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter detecting the green glow of oxygen in the Martian atmosphere. This emission, spotted on the dayside of Mars, is similar to the night glow seen around Earth's atmosphere from space.
The European Space Agency's Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spotted an emerald glow in Mars' wispy atmosphere, marking the first time the phenomenon has been spotted on a world beyond Earth, a new study reports.

"One of the brightest emissions seen on Earth stems from night glow. More specifically, from oxygen atoms emitting a particular wavelength of light that has never been seen around another planet," study lead author Jean-Claude Gérard, of the Université de Liège in Belgium, said in a statement.

"However, this emission has been predicted to exist at Mars for around 40 years — and, thanks to TGO, we've found it," Gérard said.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

      Read More...
Nuke

2017 Radioactive cloud over Europe likely from civilian source


University of Münster
Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:43 UTC
Air Filters
© Dorian Zok/LUH
The scientists carried out the isotope measurements using such air filters.
A mysterious cloud containing radioactive ruthenium-106, which moved across Europe in autumn 2017, is still bothering Europe's radiation protection entities. Although the activity concentrations were innocuous, they reached up to 100 times the levels of what had been detected over Europe in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident. Since no government has assumed responsibility so far, a military background could not be ruled out.

Researchers at the Leibniz University Hannover and the University of Münster now found out that the cloud did not originate from military sources - but rather from civilian nuclear activities. Hence, the release of ruthenium from a reprocessing plant for nuclear fuels is the most conclusive scenario for explaining the incident in autumn 2017. The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.
      Read More...
Attention

Weakening of Earth's magnetic field probed


Sputnik News
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 18:27 UTC
Earth’s magnetic field
© Aubert et al./IPGP/CNRS Photo library
A simulation of the Earth’s magnetic field.
Geophysicists have been puzzling over a gradual weakening of the Earth's magnetic field in an area stretching from Africa to South America, which has resulted in technical disturbances in satellites orbiting Earth.

Scientists have resorted to data from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Swarm constellation to probe the disturbing weakening of Earth's magnetic field in the area known as the "South Atlantic Anomaly".

Jurgen Matzka, from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, and a team of experts from the Swarm Data, Innovation and Science Cluster (DISC) have been using data from ESA's Swarm satellite constellation to identify and measure the different magnetic signals that comprise Earth's magnetic field.
"The new, eastern minimum of the South Atlantic Anomaly has appeared over the last decade and in recent years is developing vigorously. We are very lucky to have the Swarm satellites in orbit to investigate the development of the South Atlantic Anomaly. The challenge now is to understand the processes in Earth's core driving these changes," said Matzka.
      Read More...
Bullseye

The human body provides biomimetic inspiration


Evolution News
Mon, 15 Jun 2020 18:02 UTC
venus de milo head
© Livioandronico2013 / CC BY-SA.
Venus de Milo
As symbols of the perfection of human form, one might consider the Venus de Milo or Michelangelo's David. But those don't show the insides, where exceptional designs can be found. As physiologists gain deeper knowledge at smaller and smaller scales, down to the cellular and molecular levels, they find an abundance of design inspirations. Here are some of the most recent examples that have come to light.

Hair

Scientists at Queensland University have made carbon nanodots out of human hair. Carbon nanodots are "highly luminescent carbon nanomaterial from which flexible light-emitting devices" can be fabricated. To produce the carbon nanodots, "they developed a two-step process that involved breaking down the hairs and then burning them at 240 degrees Celsius." Now isn't that a clever way to put wasted hair to use? Think of all that hair being swept up on the floors of barber shops and beauty salons. Why not make light of it?
      Read More...
Rocket

SpaceX launches 58 Starlink satellites and 3 Planet SkySats, nails rocket landing

Amy Thompson
Space.com
Sat, 13 Jun 2020 15:42 UTC
rocket launch arc
© SpaceX
SpaceX successfully launched its first rideshare mission into orbit today (June 13), lofting a new batch of 58 Starlink internet satellites along with three small Earth-observation satellites before nailing a Falcon 9 rocket landing at sea.

It was a mostly clear morning, with just a few clouds above the launch pad here at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at liftoff. Onlookers were treated to an awesome view in the predawn sky — the glow from the rocket's engines were visible well into the flight as it launched at 5:21 a.m. EDT (0921 GMT).

The exhaust from the rocket was illuminated by the sun, which was just below the horizon. The resulting cloud appeared as a nebula hanging in the sky.

"Liftoff of Falcon 9 and Starlink ocho," a SpaceX launch commentator said, referring to the mission's Starlink 8 in Spanish.

The launch is the second Starlink mission so far this month, with one more on the schedule for no earlier than June 22. SpaceX is taking advantage of its fleet of flight-proven Falcon 9 boosters, with plans of launching a record four times in June.
      Read More...
Attention

Norwegian scientist claims coronavirus was lab-made and 'not natural in origin'

Nickie Louise
TechStartups
Sun, 07 Jun 2020 06:10 UTC
COVID19
© TechStartups
Just after we thought the question about the origin of coronavirus has been settled, a new study from Norwegian virologist Birger Sørensen is now reigniting the debate about the possible origin of the deadly coronavirus. In a new peer-reviewed paper published together with Professor Angus Dalgleish of St George's Hospital at the University of London, Sorensen claimed the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is not natural in origin.

According to the study, which was published in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics, the authors found that the coronavirus's spike protein contains sequences that appear to be artificially inserted. "The inserted sequences should never have been published. Had it been today, it would never have happened. It was a big mistake the Chinese made. The inserted sequences have a functionality that we describe. We explain why they are essential. But the Chinese pointed to them first," Sørensen told the NRK.

The eye opening claims also found that the virus had been doctored to bind to humans: "We are aware that these findings could have political significance and raise troubling questions." The two researchers also pointed out that the virus has hardly mutated since it began to infect humans, suggesting that it was already fully adapted to humans. According to Sørensen, this is quite unusual for viruses that cross species barriers. According to Sørensen, the virus has properties that differ greatly from SARS, and which have never been detected in nature.
      Read More...
Fireball

Pro-science skeptic Dr. Marc Defant recants, now supports Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis

George Howard
The Cosmic Tusk
Mon, 08 Jun 2020 21:14 UTC
hancock defant
Dr. Marc Defant did a great thing this morning by announcing on Twitter and his blog that he had come around to support the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis. As I told Marc, my respect for his intellectual integrity soared when I saw his tweet:


Defant's reversal on the YDIH after his public skepticism is good science in action. Unlike politics, where people pick sides (and stick to them come what may), Marc clearly operates according to the best traditions and underpinnings of reason, where any position is subject to persuasion given sufficient data and appropriate interpretation.

In an admirable twist, Marc credits his reassessment of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis to a recommendation from his Joe Rogan debate adversary, Graham Hancock, to read a recent book by James Laurence Powell. It's not surprising that Defant was persuaded by the book. Dr. Powell is also a former YDIH skeptic, and Deadly Voyager has become the essential read for the subject. (Unless you care to pick your way through every paper on The Bib.)

Good for Dr. Defant, good for the YDIH, and good for Science — the system works!
      Read More...
Microscope 1

SARS antibodies found to block coronavirus infections, study shows

Cynthia Dizikes
San Francisco Chronicle
Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:09 UTC
blood samples coronavirus covid-19
© Stephen Lam, Special to The Chronicle
Vials of blood samples are seen on a rack during a baseline visit for a UCSF study to better understand the virus' effect on the human body after recovery, at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in San Francisco, on May 22, 2020.
Antibodies from people who recovered from SARS — a deadly respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus that emerged nearly 20 years ago — may be critical to fighting COVID-19, according to a study in the journal Nature.

The peer-reviewed paper reveals how an antibody discovered in a person infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus in 2003 acted as a potent blocker against SARS-CoV-2, the closely related coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

A team of international researchers, including scientists from San Francisco's Vir Biotechnology and the University of Washington, conducted the study, which was published in May.

Their finding is part of a ballooning area of inquiry by researchers, universities and drug companies around the world, and in the Bay Area, to develop antibody treatments for COVID-19, and to prevent people from getting sick in the first place.
      Read More...
Boat

Maritime mystery: Is the growing South Atlantic Anomaly causing ships to sail in circles, unable to steer?

Alexander Martin
Sky News
Thu, 04 Jun 2020 14:47 UTC
Oil Tanker Willowy, south atlantic anomaly, ships circling

Something bizarre happened to an oil tanker sailing near Cape Town on Sunday - ships were sailing in circles, unable to steer.
In the early hours of Sunday 31 May, senior officers aboard the oil tanker Willowy were called to the bridge to be told that their ship and four others in its vicinity were mysteriously sailing in circles, unable to steer, and on course to converge.

It must be easy to panic at sea. The immediate presumption was that strong currents were pushing the vessels around, but there were no such currents where the ships were sailing in the south Atlantic Ocean, west of the South African city of Cape Town.

Ships appearing to sail in circles have become an increasingly common and mysterious phenomenon near a number of ports on the coast of China, especially near oil terminals and government facilities - but nothing had been seen where the Willowy was.

Researchers monitoring these bizarre circles near the Chinese coast believe they are probably the result of systematic GPS manipulation designed to undermine a tracking system which all commercial ships are required to use under international law.

Known as AIS (automated identification system), the technology broadcasts unique identifiers from each vessel - along with the vessel's GPS location, course and speed - to other ships nearby.

These signals are even collected by satellites and used to monitor suspicious behaviour, including smuggling, illegal fishing, and - most relevantly - trade in sanctioned oil.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts