Science & TechnologyS


Brain

Scientists identify part of brain that inhibits fear, hope for PTSD breakthrough


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 10:44 UTC
Brain
© U.S. Air Force
Scientists have found the part of the brain that inhibits fear, a breakthrough that could help with the treatment of PTSD and other psychiatric issues.

A team from Texas A&M University identified a region of the thalamus, called the nucleus reuniens, which inhibited fear in rats. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.

Lead researcher Stephen Maren, a psychological and brain sciences at Texas A&M University, said the finding "points us to parts of the brain that are important for the inhibitory function of fear, which could be an avenue to new drugs, therapies, and interventions for psychiatric disorders."

Psychiatric disorders are currently treated with drugs that target all of the brain's neurons. A more targeted approach would be more beneficial.
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Fire

The deepest volcanic eruption ever documented left an amazing sight on the ocean floor

Maddie Stone
Gizmodo
Thu, 25 Oct 2018 13:31 UTC
volcano
© Courtesy Bill ChadwickA lava flow detected in the Mariana back-arc that’s evidence for the deepest historic eruption ever detected.
Sometimes science is all about being in the right place at the right time. Such was the case with the "fortuitous" discovery of a wild lava garden nearly three miles underwater, which scientists are pointing to as evidence of the deepest recent undersea eruption ever documented.

Researchers got their lucky break exploring the central Mariana back-arc, a poorly-explored expanse of the western Pacific located not far from the Marianas Trench, with an autonomous underwater vehicle in 2015.

They were looking for hydrothermal vents, but at a depth of about 14,000 feet (4300 meters), the robot came across a glassy black lava flow that formed drip castle-like mounds and long, worm-like extrusions.
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Satellite

NASA's asteroid belt mission declared over after spacecraft runs out of fuel


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2018 10:37 UTC
Dawn 1
© NASA/JPL-CaltechDawn was the first spacecraft to orbit a celestial body between Mars and Jupiter.
After 11 years, 4.3 billion miles (6.9 billion kilometers) and two planetary orbits, NASA's Dawn mission has been declared over after the craft failed to communicate with Earth for two days in a row.

The 11-year mission to investigate "time capsules from the solar system's earliest chapter" in the asteroid belt concluded after Dawn finally ran out of hydrazine fuel, which meant it could no longer turn to face Earth, to communicate, or the sun, to recharge.


The probe, currently in orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres, missed communications with NASA's Deep Space Network on Wednesday and Thursday; and mission managers were forced to confirm the end of the mission.

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Info

The appendix implicated in Parkinson's disease

Aimee Cunningham
Science News
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 01:17 UTC
Appendix Tissue
© V. Labrie/Van Andel Research InstituteCLUMPS FOUND HERE - Globs of alpha-synuclein protein (red) found in appendix tissue from healthy individuals add to evidence that the gut plays a role in the development of Parkinson’s disease.
The appendix, a once-dismissed organ now known to play a role in the immune system, may contribute to a person's chances of developing Parkinson's disease.

An analysis of data from nearly 1.7 million Swedes found that those who'd had their appendix removed had a lower overall risk of Parkinson's disease. Also, samples of appendix tissue from healthy individuals revealed protein clumps similar to those found in the brains of Parkinson's patients, researchers report online October 31 in Science Translational Medicine.

Together, the findings suggest that the appendix may play a role in the early events of Parkinson's disease, Viviane Labrie, a neuroscientist at the Van Andel Research Institute in Grand Rapids, Mich., said at a news conference on October 30.

Parkinson's, which affects more than 10 million people worldwide, is a neurodegenerative disease that leads to difficulty with movement, coordination and balance. It's unknown what causes Parkinson's, but one hallmark of the disease is the death of nerve cells, or neurons, in a brain region called the substantia nigra that helps control movement. Lewy bodies, which are mostly made of clumped bits of the protein alpha-synuclein (SN: 1/12/2013, p. 13), also build up in those neurons but the connection between the cells' death and the Lewy bodies isn't clear yet.
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Heart

Spinal implant helps three paralyzed men walk again, helped regrow damaged nerves

Pallab Ghosh
BBC
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 12:00 UTC
spinal implant
Sebastian, Gertan and David have all benefited from the work of Dr Courtine
Three paralysed men, who were told they would spend the rest of their lives in a wheelchair, are able to walk again thanks to doctors in Switzerland.

An electrical device inserted around the men's spines boosted signals from their brains to their legs.

And it also helped damaged nerves in the spinal cord to regrow.

The researchers hope that this unexpected bonus will enable some paralysed people ultimately to regain independent movement.

BBC News has had exclusive access to the patients in the clinical trial, the results of which are published in the journal Nature.

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Galaxy

"An illusion": Grave doubts over LIGO's 'discovery' of gravitational waves

Michael Brooks
New Scientist
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 12:00 UTC
LIGO's detectors
© Enrico SacchettiLIGO's detectors
The news we had finally found ripples in space-time reverberated around the world in 2015. Now it seems they might have been an illusion

THERE was never much doubt that we would observe gravitational waves sooner or later. This rhythmic squeezing and stretching of space and time is a natural consequence of one of science's most well-established theories, Einstein's general relativity. So when we built a machine capable of observing the waves, it seemed that it would be only a matter of time before a detection.

In point of fact, it took two days. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory collaboration, better known as LIGO, switched on its upgraded detectors on 12 September 2015. Within 48 hours, it had made its first detection. It took a few months before the researchers were confident enough in the signal to announce a discovery. Headlines around the world soon heralded one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the past century. In 2017, a Nobel prize followed. Five other waves have since been spotted.

Or have they? That's the question asked by a group of physicists who have done their own analysis of the data. "We believe that LIGO has failed to make a convincing case for the detection of any gravitational wave event," says Andrew Jackson, the group's spokesperson. According to them, the breakthrough was nothing of the sort: it was all an illusion.

Comment: When science claims to have discovered something it barely understands, it's OK to be skeptical. Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Satellite

Soyuz rocket failure: Roscosmos publishes video from on-board cameras showing exact moment of malfunction


RT
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 13:15 UTC
Soyuz rocket malfunction
© Roscosmos
Russian space agency Roscosmos has published footage, captured by the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket's on-board cameras, showing the moment the rocket fails mid-air, forcing the crew to make an emergency landing.

The video, released on Thursday, confirms that the dramatic mid-air failure was caused by a malfunction in the detector that signals separation of the rocket's first and second stages.

The footage first shows the vehicle's regular flight. However, about 2 minutes after takeoff, the rocket spins out of control. This exact moment is seen in the video.


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Galaxy

Scientists capture first ever image of supermassive black hole at center of Milky Way


Astronomy
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 15:54 UTC
image super massive blackhole
© ESO/Gravity Consortium/L. CalçadaUsing the ESO’s sensitive GRAVITY instrument, researchers have confirmed that the enormous object at the heart of our galaxy is — as scientists have assumed for many years — a supermassive black hole.
Scientists have finally confirmed that the massive object at the heart of our galaxy is, in fact, a supermassive black hole.

Researchers used the European Southern Observatory's sensitive GRAVITY instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to observe infrared radiation flares coming from the accretion disc around Sagittarius A* - the massive object at the center of our galaxy. Scientists think that most galaxies have a supermassive black hole at their center, but they'd never before had the data and observations to prove it.

To measure the effects of gravity near to a black hole, scientists needed to observe an object actually traveling close to it. They found their mark in a small star called S2 whose orbit takes it deep within Sagittarius A*'s gravity well every 16 years. As they watched, they saw three bright flares traveling around the black hole's event horizon at about 30 percent of the speed of light - around 216 million miles per hour.

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Brain

Kaspersky Labs warns neural implants will lead to 'brain-hacking & memory black market'


RT
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:43 UTC
brain cyber hacking neural implants
© Getty Images / Images Etc Ltd
The human brain may become the next frontier in hacking, cybersecurity researchers have warned in a paper outlining the vulnerabilities of neural implant technologies that can potentially expose and compromise our consciousness.

While basic brain implants are already here, current science indicates we are on the brink of mastering the chemistry of memory. Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) therapy involves implanting a device into the body to send electrical impulses to electrodes specifically placed to treat neurological diseases like Parkinson's. "Memory implants" like those featured in dystopian TV series Black Mirror will most likely be built on existing DBS architecture. Kaspersky Labs collaborated with Oxford University to test these systems for security flaws before we start linking our consciousness to them, and their report is quite illuminating.
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Chalkboard

Fine structure constant - Why the number 137 is one of the greatest mysteries in physics

Paul Ratner
Big Think
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 06:28 UTC
Famous physicists like Richard Feynman think 137 holds the answers to the Universe.
Number 137
© Big Think
  • The fine structure constant has mystified scientists since the 1800s.
  • The number 1/137 might hold the clues to the Grand Unified Theory.
  • Relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics are unified by the number.
Does the Universe around us have a fundamental structure that can be glimpsed through special numbers?

The brilliant physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988) famously thought so, saying there is a number that all theoretical physicists of worth should "worry about". He called it "one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics: a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man".

That magic number, called the fine structure constant, is a fundamental constant, with a value which nearly equals 1/137. Or 1/137.03599913, to be precise. It is denoted by the Greek letter alpha - α.

What's special about alpha is that it's regarded as the best example of a pure number, one that doesn't need units. It actually combines three of nature's fundamental constants - the speed of light, the electric charge carried by one electron, and the Planck's constant, as explains physicist and astrobiologist Paul Davies to Cosmos magazine. Appearing at the intersection of such key areas of physics as relativity, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics is what gives 1/137 its allure.
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