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Algorithm can predict Alzheimer's with 99% accuracy


Kaunas University of Technology
Fri, 03 Sep 2021 17:19 UTC
MRI Scan
© Kaunas University of TechnologyAlgorithm developed by Lithuanian researchers can predict possible Alzheimer’s with nearly 100 per cent accuracy
Researchers from Kaunas universities in Lithuania developed a deep learning-based method that can predict the possible onset of Alzheimer's disease from brain images with an accuracy of over 99 per cent. The method was developed while analysing functional MRI images obtained from 138 subjects and performed better in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity than previously developed methods.

According to World Health Organisation, Alzheimer's disease is the most frequent cause of dementia, contributing to up to 70 per cent of dementia cases. Worldwide, approximately 24 million people are affected, and this number is expected to double every 20 years. Owing to societal ageing, the disease will become a costly public health burden in the years to come.

"Medical professionals all over the world attempt to raise awareness of an early Alzheimer's diagnosis, which provides the affected with a better chance of benefiting from treatment. This was one of the most important issues for choosing a topic for Modupe Odusami, a PhD student from Nigeria", says Rytis Maskeliūnas, a researcher at the Department of Multimedia Engineering, Faculty of Informatics, Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Odusami's PhD supervisor.
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Microscope 1

Scientists watch bacteria fix broken DNA in real time to see exactly how it's done

Mike Mcrae
Science Alert
Sun, 05 Sep 2021 06:59 UTC
RecA filament
© David GoodsellIllustration of the RecA filament
Fixing breaks in genes with speed and perfection can be a matter of life and death for most organisms. Even the simplest changes in a sequence risk catastrophe, especially if the altered code is responsible for a critical function.

Over the past half a century, biologists have studied the mechanisms involved to piece together most of the major steps involved in making faithful repairs in DNA. Yet, one part of the process has remained frustratingly unclear.

By marking key enzymes and DNA with fluorescent tags and watching the repair process unfold in real-time in an Escherichia coli model, researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden have filled in missing details on how bacteria find the templates they rely on to keep genetic repairs error-free.

One trick most living things use to keep their code in order is the process of homologous recombination, the biological equivalent of comparing two distinct versions of a script to make sure a copy hasn't mistakenly introduced any errors.
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Cassiopaea

Supernova event triggered by collision with compact object, first time ever observed


Sci News
Sat, 04 Sep 2021 20:16 UTC
supernova
© Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSFFast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA.
Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron star — spiraled its way into the core of a companion star in the VT 1210+4956 system and caused it to explode as a supernova.

"Theorists had predicted that this could happen, but this is the first time we've actually seen such an event," said Dillon Dong, a graduate student at Caltech.

Dong and colleagues first detected radio emission from VT 1210+4956 in VLASS data.

Comment: At least two other nova events have been reported recently: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Igloo

Texas cold snap linked to 40 years of increasing snowfall in Arctic & disruptions in stratospheric polar vortex - increase in extreme cold events likely - study

Adam Vaughan
New Scientist
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:00 UTC
Arctic air mass global cooling ice age
© Goddard Earth Observing System/NASAMap showing the extreme cold associated with the Arctic air mass, with the darkest blue regions indicating surface temperatures of -35°C
The extreme cold snap that left millions of people in Texas without power last winter appears to have been made more likely by melting Arctic sea ice thousands of kilometres away, research suggests.

For the past decade, evidence has been building in support of the counterintuitive idea that some of the recent cold winter spells at mid-latitudes in North America and Eurasia are linked to the Arctic warming faster than the rest of the world due to climate change.


Comment: In 2019, snowfall in the Arctic reached record levels and then devastated wildlife because it failed to melt by summer, and in 2018 Arctic and Antarctic sea ice also reached record levels; this, and a wealth of other data, demonstrate that, overall, the Arctic is not 'warming'.


Comment: What is important to note is that scientists appear to be no longer able to ignore the global cooling occurring on our planet. As for what's causing it: The rise in polar vortex events - a term unknown to most people 20 years ago - appears to be related to the increasingly meandering jet stream, the stalling Gulf Stream, Earth's weakening magnetosphere, and all of this and more is thought to be connected to our quieting Sun: For more on the shift occurring on our planet, check out SOTT radio's:

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Beaker

'Return of the God Hypothesis' explains why science can no longer ignore intelligent design

Granville Sewell
The Federalist
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 17:41 UTC
meyer god
When the emperor Napoleon asked the great French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace why the Creator was never mentioned in his manuscript "A Treatise of Celestial Mechanics," Laplace is alleged to have replied, "I had no need of that hypothesis."

Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer's new book, Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe, documents the history of the fall of the God hypothesis in science during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. But the hypothesis is back, Meyer explains, detailing three scientific discoveries of the last 100 years that are fueling its "return."

The three are: 1) the discovery that the secret of life is the information contained in living things, 2) the discovery that the laws and constants of physics in our universe are extremely "fine-tuned" for life and 3) the discovery that the universe had a beginning.

While no one today claims it is needed to explain celestial mechanics, the "God hypothesis" was never truly replaced by plausible explanations for the origin and evolution of life. It was simply banished from science by arbitrary fiat, fueled by the successes of science in other areas.

Charles Darwin's extremely implausible explanation for the origin of species, which becomes more implausible with every new biological and biochemical discovery, remains popular in the scientific world today only because — no matter how implausible and how inconsistent with the evidence — it must be true because it is the only alternative anyone can imagine to the "unscientific" theory of intelligent design.
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Nebula

Genes can respond to coded information in light signals - or filter them out entirely

North Carolina State University
Science Daily
Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC
gene dna helix
New research from North Carolina State University demonstrates that genes are capable of identifying and responding to coded information in light signals, as well as filtering out some signals entirely. The study shows how a single mechanism can trigger different behaviors from the same gene -- and has applications in the biotechnology sector.

"The fundamental idea here is that you can encode information in the dynamics of a signal that a gene is receiving," says Albert Keung, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at NC State. "So, rather than a signal simply being present or absent, the way in which the signal is being presented matters."

For this study, researchers modified a yeast cell so that it has a gene that produces fluorescent proteins when the cell is exposed to blue light.

Comment: One wonders whether other stimuli, such as sound, could also be used to elicit controlled responses: And check out SOTT radio's:

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Butterfly

More fantastic molecular machine videos from Wehi

Casey Luskin
Evolution News
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 06:41 UTC
molecular machine
© Veritasium/YouTubeScreenshot
Recently I posted a short piece about a spectacular video from Veritasium animating various molecular machines. Soon thereafter an EN reader wrote to let me know that the producers of that video are an Australian group called Wehi, or the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, which has a YouTube channel with many additional fantastic videos animating cellular and biochemical processes. I've linked to some of them below for your convenience:

Comment: For further insight into the proofs supporting intelligent design, see: And check out SOTT radio's:


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Rocket

China may upgrade existing rockets to speed up plans for a human Moon mission

Eric Berger
Ars Technica
Thu, 02 Sep 2021 15:08 UTC
March 5 rocket china
© Xinhua/Sun HaoChina's Long March 5 rocket made its debut in November, 2016.
China appears to be accelerating its plans to land on the Moon by 2030 and would use a modified version of an existing rocket to do so.

The chief designer of the Long March family of rockets, Long Lehao, said China could use two modified Long March 5 rockets to accomplish a lunar landing in less than a decade, according to the Hong Kong-based online news site, HK01. He spoke earlier this week at the 35th National Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition in China. The full video can be found here.

During Lehao's speech, he said one of these large rockets would launch a lunar lander into orbit around the Moon, and the second would send the crew to meet it. The crew would then transfer to the lander, go down to the Moon's surface, and spend about six hours walking on its surface. Then part of the lunar lander would ascend back to meet the spacecraft and return to Earth.

Comment: In their 2019 mission to the dark side of the moon, China has already demonstrated that its space capabilities are world class, and there's reason to believe they may even soon exceed that of the US, which, incidentally has been suffering a number of set backs lately:

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Satellite

Amazing Hubble telescope photo shows space 'sword' piercing huge celestial 'heart'

Mike Wall
Live Science
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 11:56 UTC
Herbig-Haro object HH111
© ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. NisiniThis image by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, features the Herbig-Haro object HH111, which lies about 1,300 light-years from Earth. Herbig-Haro objects consist of young stars blasting superheated jets through surrounding clouds of dust and gas.
A flaming blue sword seems to pierce a giant cosmic heart in a gorgeous new photo captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The "sword" is composed of twin jets of superheated, ionized gas that are rocketing into space from opposite poles of a newborn star called IRAS 05491+0247. The "heart" is the cloud of leftover dust and gas surrounding the protostar, according to Hubble team members.

This dramatic interaction between jets and cloud creates an uncommon celestial sight known as a Herbig-Haro object. The one photographed here by Hubble is named HH111, and it lies about 1,300 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Orion.

Hubble captured the image using its Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument, which observes in both optical and infrared (heat) wavelengths of light.
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Galaxy

Best of the Web: Enigmatic ancient brown dwarf discovered in solar neighborhood suggests more 'accidents' may be lurking in our galaxy - NASA

Tony Greicius
NASA
Tue, 31 Aug 2021 12:00 UTC
galaxy
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLAThis mosaic shows the entire sky imaged by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Infrared light refers to wavelengths that are longer than those visible to the human eye. Many cosmic objects radiate infrared, including gas and dust clouds where stars form, and brown dwarfs.
Brown dwarfs aren't quite stars and aren't quite planets, and a new study suggests there might be more of them lurking in our galaxy than scientists previously thought.

A new study offers a tantalizing explanation for how a peculiar cosmic object called WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 - nicknamed "The Accident" - came to be. The Accident is a brown dwarf. Though they form like stars, these objects don't have enough mass to kickstart nuclear fusion, the process that causes stars to shine. And while brown dwarfs sometimes defy characterization, astronomers have a good grasp on their general characteristics.

Or they did, until they found this one.

Comment: Regarding brown dwarfs and why they don't shine, Pierre Lescaudron in his book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection details that it's actually due to their low electrical activity; he also theorizes that our Sun may even be twinned with one:
Enter Nemesis

As everybody knows, our solar system is powered by a single star, the Sun. Well, it is assumed that ours is a single-star solar system because we see only one sun rise each morning. However, this is actually quite a peculiar configuration, since most stars astronomers have observed are part of multi-star systems (most often binary).

Based on data from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, it's estimated that over 80% of all stars may be in either binary or multiple-star systems.1 Grazia and Milton, who studied the 60 star systems nearest to our own reached a comparable conclusion:
61% of the 60 nearest stars are components of a double (binary) or triple star system.2
A twin-star model for our own solar system is a tantalizing prospect, not least because it could account for many 'anomalies' exhibited by the single-star hypothesis. As stated by the Binary Research Institute (BRI):
... elliptical orbit equations have been found to be a better predictor of precession rates than Newcomb's formula, showing far greater accuracy over the last hundred years. Moreover, a moving solar system model appears to solve a number of solar system formation theory problems including the sun's lack of angular momentum. For these reasons, BRI has concluded our sun is most likely part of a long cycle binary system.3
Bear in mind that the binary systems identified above are composed of stars bright enough to be detected with a telescope. This means that the percentage of binary systems may be even higher, since some systems can include 'unlit' stars, like so-called 'brown dwarfs', for example.

For plasma cosmologists, a binary system is the logical way for individual stars to cope with high electric stress, causing any given star to go through a process of fission (i.e. splitting into two or more parts).4 When a sphere is divided into two equally-sized spheres, the total mass will remain the same (no matter disappears) but the total surface area of this pair will be about 26% larger than the area of the original single sphere.5 This increases the total surface area exposed to the electric field and thus decreases the current density (amperes per square meter). Thus, electrically-induced fission enables stars to reduce the electric stress they are subjected to by spreading it between two or more stars.

Because of the lower level of electric stress exerted on a binary system after fission, brown dwarfs (stars exposed to a weak electric field, hence their reduced brightness) should be quite common in binary systems:
If the members of a resulting binary pair turn out to be unequal in size, the larger one will probably have the larger current density - but still lower than the original value. (This assumes that the total charge and total driving current to the original star distributes itself onto the new stars proportionally to their masses.) In this case, the smaller member of the pair might have such a low value of current density as to drop it, abruptly, to 'brown dwarf' or even 'giant gas planet' status.6
It's clear that binary stars are very common, probably even more common than acknowledged in the scientific literature. So, is our Sun one more anomaly in the rather anomalous universe depicted by mainstream science? Is our Sun really single?

A significant clue that our star may in fact be part of a binary system appeared in Nature on March 19th,1982,7 when the paleontologists David Raup and Jack Sepkoski unveiled a cyclical pattern of mass-extinction events in the fossil record.8 Their research revealed that over the last 250 million years, the Earth regularly experienced mass extinctions [...]
  1. 1 Cruttenden, W., Lost Star, p.111
  2. 2 De Grazia, A. & Milton, E.R., Solaria Binaria, p.17
  3. 3 'Introduction to Binary Companion Theory', Binary Research Institute. See here: www.binaryresearchinstitute.org/bri/research/introduction/theory.shtml
  4. 4 Scott, D. The Electric Sky, p. 157-159
  5. 5 Scott, D.E., 'Electric cosmology - Stellar Evolution', The Electric Sky, online version. See: electric-cosmos.org/hrdiagr.htm
  6. 6 Scott, D., The Electric Sky, p.158
  7. 7 Raup, D. & Sepkoski, J., 'Mass extinctions in the marine fossil record', Science, Volume 215, Issue 4539, pp. 1501-1503
  8. 8 According to calculations made by Raup & Sepkoski, the probability of a 27-MY mass extinction cycle being due to random chance is less than 1%.
For further insight, check out his new book Cometary Encounters: Flash-Frozen Mammoths, Mars-Earth Discharge, Comet Venus and the 3,600-Year Cometary Cycle.

See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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