Science & Technology

Are blue-eyed redheads going extinct?

Dr Nerissa Hannink
Pursuit
Tue, 27 Mar 2018 21:14 UTC

For every 100 people in the world, only one or two will have red hair.

And when you meet a red head with blue eyes, you are looking at the rarest colour combination of all for human beings.

Around 17 per cent of people have blue eyes, and when combined with 1-2 per cent having red hair, the odds of having both traits are around 0.17 per cent. That's 13 million people, out of the 7.6 billion on Earth.

So with numbers this low, could redheads with blue eyes actually go extinct?

The reason these looks are so unusual is because they are the result of two different sets of DNA instructions, or mutations, happening in the same person, explains Professor Mark Elgar, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Melbourne.

"The mutations occurred tens of thousands of years ago, and have now become established as different versions or variants of the genes that help determine our skin and eye colour.

First biocomputer made from living human cells created by scientist

Chris Mahon
Outer Places
Tue, 27 Mar 2018 19:54 UTC

As fears over artificial intelligence continue to grow, we can at least take solace in knowing our bodies will never rise up and join the machines-we're still made of meat, which makes us difficult to hack. However, thanks to researchers from ETH Zurich, we've recently made a huge step forward in the development of biocomputers, collections of cells that are organized and manipulated to act like a very simple computer. Soon, the line between computer and human may become blurrier than ever.

The key behind the new biocomputer is nine modular cell cultures, which are arranged into 3-D lattices. Each of these little modules, which are made of human cells, is "programmed" to react to different chemical inputs, the way a normal computer reacts to electrical inputs.

The team from Zurich has even managed to structure the cells so that the biocomputer can create logic gates, which take two inputs and process them to create one output. This has allowed the team to accomplish "full-adder computations," where different cells do small parts of a calculation and then add the results together to get a complete answer.

Flat-earth rocket scientist blasts off into California sky, lands in Mojave Desert

Pat Graham and Michael Balsamo
SFGate
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 06:10 UTC

© James Quigg/Daily Press / AP
"Mad" Mike Hughes begins work on repairing a steam leak after he scrubbed his launch attempt of his steam-powered rocket near Amboy, Calif. The self-taught rocket scientist who believes the Earth is flat propelled himself about 1,000 feet into the air before a hard-landing in the Mojave Desert that left him injured Saturday, March 24, 2018. Hughes tells The Associated Press that he injured his back but is otherwise fine after Saturday's launch near Amboy, Calif.

He finally went up - just like the self-taught rocket scientist always pledged he would.

He came back down in one piece, too - a little dinged up and his steam-powered vessel a little cracked up.

Still, mission accomplished for a guy more daredevil than engineer, who drew more comparisons to the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote from his critics than he did to iconic stunt man Evel Knievel.

"Mad" Mike Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told The Associated Press that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, California.

"Relieved," he said after being checked out by paramedics. "I'm tired of people saying I chickened out and didn't build a rocket. I'm tired of that stuff. I manned up and did it."

Comment: See also:

Russian camo goes invisible in infrared remission

Sputnik
Tue, 27 Mar 2018 16:38 UTC

Step aside, Schwarzenegger, you don't need mud anymore: this new Russian camo can defeat the Predator's infrared vision no-problem.

The Russian military has new camouflage that can conceal a fighter's visibility in the infrared spectrum, says Oleg Faustov, a senior engineer with the Russian industrial design bureau TsNIITochMash who works on personnel life support systems.

Young gorillas have learnt to dismantle poachers' snares in the wild

Bec Crew
Science Alert
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 00:00 UTC

Days after a poacher's trap killed a young mountain gorilla in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park in 2012, researchers spotted something remarkable: two four-year old gorillas working together to dismantle similar snares in the area.

"This is absolutely the first time that we've seen juveniles doing that ... I don't know of any other reports in the world of juveniles destroying snares," Veronica Vecellio from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund's Karisoke Research Centre in Rwanda told National Geographic at the time.

"We are the largest database and observer of wild gorillas ... so I would be very surprised if somebody else has seen that."

Thousands of these snares are set up by local bush meat hunters to catch antelopes and other animals for eating, and while they reportedly have no interest in primates, young gorillas are sometimes unintentionally caught up and left to die.

Comment:

Scientists observed one of the fastest, brightest supernovas on record

Leah Crane
New Scientist
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 01:40 UTC

The quickest supernova we've ever seen went from invisible to extraordinarily bright in only 2.2 days. It is the first of these speedy stellar explosions that's been observed thoroughly enough to help us figure out exactly how they work.

Supernovae are massive explosions that happen when a star burns out. They usually take weeks or months after the death of the star to reach maximum brightness, and even longer to fade away. But Armin Rest at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland and his colleagues found one in data from the Kepler Space Telescope that rose to peak brightness in less than 53 hours and faded back to half that brightness in 6.8 days.

Often, quick supernovae are dimmer than their longer-lasting counterparts, so they can be explained simply by invoking a weaker mechanism like a star that only partially exploded. But this one, called KSN 2015K, was just about as bright as a regular supernova, so it needed a different explanation.

Rest and his colleagues were able to take images of the supernova once every 30 minutes, making it the most thoroughly observed of the fast supernovae. "Usually you might have 1 or 2, maybe 3 measurements in 2.2 days, but we have a whole series of really strong measurements that allow us to test different models," says Rest.

'Alien megastar' darkens again

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 11:50 UTC

© NASA/JPL-Caltech
An artist's illustration depicting a hypothetical dust ring orbiting Tabby's star, more formally known as KIC 846.

A faraway megastar that once raised questions about aliens because of its weird pattern of dimming has darkened once again.

By now, though, researchers have figured out that it's not an alien megastructure that is causing the dimming; it's just dust. Still, astronomer Tabetha Boyajian of Louisiana State University and colleagues are keeping a close eye on the far-off star, trying to figure out what the dust is and where it came from. On March 16, the brightness of the star started dipping, Boyajian and her colleagues reported on their blog. The dip in brightness was the largest observed dip in the star since 2013, Boyajian wrote.

As of March 22, the star's brightness was increasing rapidly and was almost back to normal.

'Out-of-control' Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will crash back down to Earth next weekend

Jeff Parsons
Mirror
Fri, 23 Mar 2018 11:01 UTC

© Getty
People's Republic of China (PRC) manned spacecraft (Shenzhou) docking with space station (Tiangong) in Earth orbit

The European Space Agency has revised its prediction for when free-falling Tiangong-1 will crash into Earth.

The out-of-control Chinese space station will crash down back to Earth over Easter weekend, experts have said.

According to the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, debris from Tiangong-1 will splash down between March 30 and April 2 across the northern hemisphere.

The space agency said these dates were "highly variable" and that it would be offering revised forecasts every couple of days.

"At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible," it explained in a statement .

"This forecast was updated approximately weekly through to mid-March, and is now being updated every 1~2 days."

LSD experiment: Scientists tentatively identify the brain receptor responsible for sense of self

Rafi Letzter
Live Science
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 19:24 UTC

Scientists in Switzerland dosed test subjects with LSD to investigate how patients with severe mental disorders lose track of where they end and other people begin.

Both LSD and certain mental disorders, most notably schizophrenia, can make it difficult for people to distinguish between themselves and others. And that can impair everyday mental tasks and social interactions, said Katrin Preller, one of the lead authors of the study and a psychologist at the University Hospital of Psychiatry in Zurich. By studying how LSD breaks down people's senses of self, the researchers aimed to find targets for future experimental drugs to treat schizophrenia.

"Healthy people take having this coherent 'self' experience for granted," Preller told Live Science, "which makes it difficult to explain why it's so important."

Scientists in Switzerland dosed test subjects with LSD to investigate how patients with severe mental disorders lose track of where they end and other people begin.

Mount Etna: Europe's biggest volcano 'sliding towards the sea'

Josh Gabbatiss
The Independent
Sat, 24 Mar 2018 17:50 UTC

© Getty
Mount Etna is in an almost constant state of activity, with eruptions occurring particularly regularly in recent decades

Scientists say they will 'need to keep an eye on' gradual movement as it could lead to future landslides and affect eruption forecasting

The most active volcano in Europe is slowly sliding into the sea, according to new research.

Mount Etna - located on the Italian island of Sicily - is edging towards the Mediterranean at a rate of around 14mm per year.

While its movement may seem too slow to cause any concern, scientists studying the geology of the volcano have said the situation will require careful monitoring.

"I would say there is currently no cause for alarm, but it is something we need to keep an eye on, especially to see if there is an acceleration in this motion," lead author Dr John Murray told the BBC .

This is the first time downward "basement sliding" of an entire active volcano has been directly observed.

However, studies of extinct volcanoes suggest this phenomenon can lead to "devastating" collapse of their downslope sides, resulting in landslides.

Comment: Radon, slosh dynamics and Mount Etna's unrest

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Animanarchy

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DeliciousTears

Brand new JP Sears video. Spiritual People Then vs Now: [Link]

Animanarchy

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Science & Technology

Are blue-eyed redheads going extinct?

First biocomputer made from living human cells created by scientist

Flat-earth rocket scientist blasts off into California sky, lands in Mojave Desert

Russian camo goes invisible in infrared remission

Young gorillas have learnt to dismantle poachers' snares in the wild

Scientists observed one of the fastest, brightest supernovas on record

'Alien megastar' darkens again

'Out-of-control' Chinese space station Tiangong-1 will crash back down to Earth next weekend

LSD experiment: Scientists tentatively identify the brain receptor responsible for sense of self

Mount Etna: Europe's biggest volcano 'sliding towards the sea'

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