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Organic compounds recently discovered by Curiosity Rover consistent with presence of early life on Mars


Phys.org
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity
© NASA
This self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines dozens of exposures taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 177th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars (Feb. 3, 2013), plus three exposures taken during Sol 270 (May 10, 2013) to update the appearance of part of the ground beside the rover.
Organic compounds called thiophenes are found on Earth in coal, crude oil and oddly enough, in white truffles, the mushroom beloved by epicureans and wild pigs.

Thiophenes were also recently discovered on Mars, and Washington State University astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch thinks their presence would be consistent with the presence of early life on Mars.

Schulze-Makuch and Jacob Heinz with the Technische Universität in Berlin explore some of the possible pathways for thiophenes' origins on the red planet in a new paper published in the journal Astrobiology. Their work suggests that a biological process, most likely involving bacteria rather than a truffle though, may have played a role in the organic compound's existence in the Martian soil.

"We identified several biological pathways for thiophenes that seem more likely than chemical ones, but we still need proof," Dirk Schulze-Makuch said. "If you find thiophenes on Earth, then you would think they are biological, but on Mars, of course, the bar to prove that has to be quite a bit higher."

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Info

The future of surveillance - Potter's Marauder's Map

Dan Carroll
Carnegie Mellon University
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 17:53 UTC
Carnegie Mellon's Pei Zhang is part of a team blurring the line between science and magic with a footstep-sensing invention inspired by Harry Potter's Marauder's Map.
Marauder's Map
© Dreamstime
Harry Potter's enchanted Marauder's Map allows the titular character to see every individual in Hogwarts, displaying their name and exact location. Carnegie Mellon's Pei Zhang and Stanford University's Hae Young Noh have demonstrated a new system that uses floor vibrations to match this magical feat — and much, much more.

In lieu of spells or charms, the pair's "Marauder's Map" relies on vibrations transmitted through the floor of a structure. Devices deployed on the ground pick up the vibrations, and machine learning algorithms filter out background noise created by other objects and machinery. This essentially turns the entire structure into one gigantic sensor platform.
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Bulb

New light-activated polymer coating kills bacteria in low intensity, ambient light


SciTech Daily
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 17:40 UTC
bacteria colony

A new light-activated coating that kills bacteria could be used to coat phone screens and keyboards, as well as the inside of catheters and breathing tubes, to stop the spread of disease.
To stop the spread of disease, it could be used to coat phone screens and keyboards, as well as the inside of catheters and breathing tubes, which are a major source of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs).

The most well-known HCAIs are caused by Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile), methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). They commonly occur during in-patient medical or surgical treatment, or from visiting a healthcare setting and pose a serious health threat, making them a key priority for the NHS to address*.

The research, published today in Nature Communications, is the first to show a light-activated antimicrobial coating successfully killing bacteria in low intensity, ambient light (300 Lux), such as that found in wards and waiting rooms. Previously, similar coatings needed intense light (3,000 Lux), like that found in operating theatres, to activate their killing properties.
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Info

An ultra-precise mind-controlled prosthetic


University of Michigan
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 17:37 UTC
Joe Hamilton
© Evan Dougherty, Michigan Engineering
Joe Hamilton, a participant in the University of Michigan RPNI study, naturally uses his mind to control a DEKA prosthetic hand to pinch a small zipper on a hand development testing platform.
ANN ARBOR — In a major advance in mind-controlled prosthetics for amputees, University of Michigan researchers have tapped faint, latent signals from arm nerves and amplified them to enable real-time, intuitive, finger-level control of a robotic hand.

To achieve this, the researchers developed a way to tame temperamental nerve endings, separate thick nerve bundles into smaller fibers that enable more precise control, and amplify the signals coming through those nerves. The approach involves tiny muscle grafts and machine learning algorithms borrowed from the brain-machine interface field.

"This is the biggest advance in motor control for people with amputations in many years," said Paul Cederna, who is the Robert Oneal Collegiate Professor of Plastic Surgery at the U-M Medical School, as well as a professor of biomedical engineering.

"We have developed a technique to provide individual finger control of prosthetic devices using the nerves in a patient's residual limb. With it, we have been able to provide some of the most advanced prosthetic control that the world has seen."

Cederna co-leads the research with Cindy Chestek, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the U-M College of Engineering. In a paper published March 4 in Science Translational Medicine, they describe results with four study participants using the Mobius Bionics LUKE arm.
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Play

Episode 4 of 'Secrets of the Cell': Broken wolves and other evolutionary conundrums

David Klinghoffer
Evolutions News & Science Today
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 19:25 UTC
Wolf
© Picture-Alliance/Barcroft Images
On a new episode of Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe, the famed biochemist and intelligent design proponent briefly examines several evolutionary icons. These are living species that are considered by Darwinists as slam-dunk evidence of unguided evolution's creative power, but that turn out to be just the opposite:

Dogs, for one, in their great variety descend from wolves. Atheist biologist Richard Dawkins and others have pointed to man's best friend as confirmation that evolution creatively builds new species. Behe explains, though, that when the cell's secrets are considered — biological information at the DNA level — we discover that dogs are broken wolves. Of course that doesn't make them any less loveable. They evolved largely by losing genetic functions through mutation. As Dr. Behe explains, "The mutations don't construct new genes. Most of them break or damage preexisting genes." He gives specific illustrations. In fact, some of the things we love most about dogs are due to such "disruptions" or "degradations" of genes. In just five minutes, Behe expands his case studies of the phenomenon to polar bears and the E. coli bacteria studied in Richard Lenski's famous lab.

But the most widely advertised wonder of evolution is that it builds novelties, not that it destroys them. In that case, where do the novelties come from? Behe will answer that question in a subsequent episode.


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Microscope 1

New era in medicine? Doctors try 1st CRISPR editing in the body for blindness

Marilynn Marchione
AP
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
Dr. Jason Comander, inherited retinal disorder specialist
© AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi
Dr. Jason Comander, inherited retinal disorder specialist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston points to a model of an eye during an interview on Jan. 8, 2020. Comander's hospital plans to enroll patients in a gene editing treatment for blindness study. He said it marks “a new era in medicine” using a technology that “makes editing DNA much easier and much more effective.”
Scientists say they have used the gene editing tool CRISPR inside someone's body for the first time, a new frontier for efforts to operate on DNA, the chemical code of life, to treat diseases.

A patient recently had it done at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland for an inherited form of blindness, the companies that make the treatment announced Wednesday. They would not give details on the patient or when the surgery occurred.

It may take up to a month to see if it worked to restore vision. If the first few attempts seem safe, doctors plan to test it on 18 children and adults.

"We literally have the potential to take people who are essentially blind and make them see," said Charles Albright, chief scientific officer at Editas Medicine, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company developing the treatment with Dublin-based Allergan. "We think it could open up a whole new set of medicines to go in and change your DNA."

Dr. Jason Comander, an eye surgeon at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, another hospital that plans to enroll patients in the study, said it marks "a new era in medicine" using a technology that "makes editing DNA much easier and much more effective."

Comment: More on the highly controversial CRISPR:

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Info

Matching sex chromosomes is the secret to long life says new study

Erin Malsbury
Science Magazine
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 19:01 UTC
Mandarin ducks
© CHRIS SCHENK/MINDEN PICTURES
Sex chromosomes influence physical differences between male and female animals, such as feather patterns in mandarin ducks.
When 109-year-old Jessie Gallan was asked about the secret to her long life, she replied "staying away from men." Other people older than 100 have extolled the virtues of everything from crossword puzzles to tap dancing. One thing they don't usually mention: chromosomes. Yet, across the animal kingdom, individuals with identical sex chromosomes — including women with double Xs — live nearly 18% longer than their counterparts with mismatched chromosomes, a new study reveals.

In most animals, sex chromosomes help determine whether an individual develops as a male or female. In mammals, females typically have two identical X chromosomes, whereas males have one X and one much smaller, or "reduced," Y chromosome. Sexes of some animals, such as most male arachnids, lack a second sex chromosome entirely. These chromosomes contribute to the physical differences between males and females. Birds with ZZ sex chromosomes, for example, are male and tend to be more colorful, whereas ZWs are females with typically blander plumage.

Physical traits aren't the only differences between the sexes. Researchers hypothesize that animals with mismatched sex chromosomes, such as XY male mammals, could be more vulnerable to genetic mutations, which could result in a shorter life span. But until now, scientists haven't studied this effect across the animal kingdom.
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Calculator

Parrots are the second animal found that can grasp probabilities

David Nield
Science Alert
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 12:00 UTC
parrot
© (Amalia Bastos)
Up until now, only human beings and other great apes have demonstrated an ability to understand probabilities - being able to weigh up the odds based on the available data, or statistical inference, as it's formally called. Now, for the first time, a parrot species has demonstrated this skill.

Tests on six kea (Nestor notabilis) parrots have shown they were able to understand and act on probabilities in a variety of scenarios that have previously been tested on humans and apes.

The findings have some wide-reaching implications - from understanding more about how the minds of non-primates might work, to producing more realistic and detailed artificial intelligence systems of our own.

Comment: Considering the recent discoveries of the variety of animals that use tools, it's likely only a matter of time that other creatures are found to be able to consider probabilities: And check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: Unlocking the Secrets of Consciousness, Hyperdimensional Attractors and Frog Brains

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Galaxy

Physicists postulate new dark matter candidate

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 16:46 UTC
dark matter new form
© Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Getty Images
Something in the Universe is creating more mass than we can detect directly. We know it's there because of its gravitational effect on the stuff we can detect; but we don't know what it is, or how it got here.
Something in the Universe is creating more mass than we can detect directly. We know it's there because of its gravitational effect on the stuff we can detect; but we don't know what it is, or how it got here.

We call that invisible mass "dark matter", and physicists have just identified a particle that could be behind it.

The candidate culprit is a recently discovered subatomic particle called a d-star hexaquark. And in the primordial darkness following the Big Bang, it could have come together to create dark matter.

For almost a century, dark matter has perplexed astronomers. It was first noticed in the vertical motions of stars, which hinted that there was more mass around them than what we could see.
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Galaxy

Black hole photobombs asteroid Bennu

Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Gizmodo
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:35 UTC
black hole
© NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/MIT/Harvard
X-ray outburst from the black hole MAXI J0637-043.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft set out on September 8, 2016 to study the asteroid Bennu. But last fall, one of its experiments detected something surprising: a flare from a black hole.

OSIRIS-REx launched with a suite of instruments, including the Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer, or REXIS. The instrument, run by MIT and Harvard students and staff, is meant to measure x-rays that Bennu spits out after the Sun irradiates it. But the imager can spot other x-ray phenomenon, too, like an outburst of x-rays from MAXI J0637-043, a black hole 30,000 light-years away. The finding is detailed in a press release from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The OSIRIS-REx mission planners chose Bennu as their target because it's made up of carbonaceous material that has been barely altered since the solar system's earliest days (and the fact that it's not too far away from Earth). In addition to bringing a sample of the asteroid to Earth, the spacecraft has a host of science equipment to study the rock, including cameras, scanning instruments, and composition-measuring spectrometers such as REXIS. The REXIS experiment's primary goal is to train students how to build, operate, and manage spaceflight hardware.

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