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Brain

Piece of mind? Man incapable of feeling fear after having part of his BRAIN surgically removed


RT
Fri, 11 Jun 2021 17:11 UTC
brain mri
© REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri
A man who struggled with anxiety claims that he lost the ability to feel fear after undergoing brain surgery, giving him stoic powers when faced with life's many dangers, such as muggers and spiders.

Jody Smith, 32, says that he's not "afraid" of anything anymore - an unexpected result of having his right amygdala cut out. The New York City resident suffered from brief panic attacks that would occur several times throughout his day. The periodic nervousness led to a serious episode in which he blacked out and began crawling around his neighbor's yard. Smith says that he barely remembers the incident. After consulting with a specialist, he was diagnosed with epilepsy.

He spent two years trying to treat his seizures with medication, but to no avail. Brain surgery was his last hope. Before the procedure could go ahead, doctors implanted probes inside Smith's brain so they could locate where the seizures were coming from. Smith was then instructed to intentionally have a seizure so that his doctors could pinpoint the area of his brain that needed to be scooped out. He said that he purposefully "tortured" himself, mostly by playing loud music and depriving himself of sleep, in hopes of triggering an epileptic reaction. At one point his doctors even encouraged him to drink beer to accelerate the process.
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Comet 2

New Comet C/2021 K2 (MASTER)

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Thu, 10 Jun 2021 18:00 UTC
CBET 4975 & MPEC 2021-L89, issued on 2021, June 09, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~19.0) on CCD images taken on May 23.0 UT with the "Mobile Astronomical System of the Telescope-Robots" (MASTER) auto-detection system (double 0.40-m f/2.5 reflector) at the South African Astronomical Observatory. The object was reported by MASTER as a new NEO candidate and has been found to show cometary activity by CCD astrometrists elsewhere. The new comet has been designated C/2021 K2 (MASTER).

Stacking of 35 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2021, June 02.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.61-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 15" arcsecond in diameter elongated toward PA 180 (Observers E. Guido, M. Rocchetto, E. Bryssinck, M. Fulle, G. Milani, C. Nassef, G. Savini, A. Valvasori).

Our confirmation images (click on the images for a bigger version; made with TYCHO software by D. Parrott)

Comet C/2021 K2 (MASTER)
© Remanzacco Blogspot
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Cassiopaea

Hundreds of extragalactic fast radio bursts detected by single telescope in Canada

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Wed, 09 Jun 2021 12:00 UTC
Fast Radio Burst
© B. Marcote et al. / Nature 2020
This black-and-white Image shows further detail on the FRB's host galaxy. The FRB's position is marked. The inset zooms in on the star-forming region, showing it in higher contrast. Here, the FRB's position is marked with a red circle.
In just its first year of operations, a Canadian radio telescope has quadrupled the number of detections of strange cosmic signals known as extragalactic fast radio bursts.

Between 2018 and 2019, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) detected 535 new signals. The new, expanded fast radio burst (FRB) catalog will allow scientists to better analyze statistical data.

In turn, this will help us to understand where these mysterious bursts originate, and use them as a tool to understand the wider Universe.

"Before CHIME, there were less than 100 total discovered FRBs; now, after one year of observation, we've discovered hundreds more," said astrophysicist Kaitlyn Shin of MIT and the CHIME collaboration.

Comment: See also:

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Telescope

'Weird' exoplanet TOI-1231 b has 'unknown' atmosphere, might aid in hunt for alien life

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Thu, 10 Jun 2021 17:00 UTC
exoplanet
© NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artist’s rendering of TOI-1231 b, a Neptune-like planet about 90 light-years away from Earth.
The planet, some 90 light-years away from Earth, has a temperature similar to our own planet, exciting scientists.

A recently-discovered planet is intriguing scientists in their hunt for extraterrestrial life.

Exoplanet TOI-1231 b, orbiting a red dwarf star every 24 days, was found by researchers from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of New Mexico to have an atmosphere approximately 330 Kelvin or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. In layman terms, this makes it one of the coolest small exoplanets accessible for atmospheric studies out of any discovered before.

Comment: More from NASA's report:
The planet's red-dwarf star, though small, is quite bright in the infrared part of the light spectrum, or light beyond the red end of the spectrum that can't be seen with the naked eye. It is, however, ideal for investigation by Hubble and Webb. Also helpful: From our perspective on Earth, TOI-1231 b crosses the face of its star, which allowed its detection in the first place by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). And that crossing, called a "transit," takes nearly 3 ½ hours - plenty of time to capture and analyze starlight shining through the planet's atmosphere.

Fun facts: We might see evidence of clouds (perhaps even made of water) in this planet's atmosphere. And because this star-and-planet system is moving at a high velocity away from Earth, hydrogen atoms escaping from the planet's atmosphere might be readily detected. In other words, the planet could turn out to have a tail.

In general, such atoms are almost impossible to detect even when using space-based facilities; their presence is masked both by the outer wisps of Earth's atmosphere and by interstellar gas. But the TOI-1231 system is moving so quickly that escaping hydrogen atoms are shifted out of phase with the blocking material, where they could be detected by telescopes like Hubble.


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Cassiopaea

First evidence of cell membrane molecules in space


Astronomy
Fri, 28 May 2021 12:00 UTC
membrane
© Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock
The origin of life is one the great unanswered questions in science. One piece of this puzzle is that life started on Earth 4.5 billion years ago, just a few hundred million years after the formation of the Solar System, and involved numerous critical molecular components. How did all these components come to be available so quickly?

One potential explanation is that the Earth was seeded from space with the building blocks for life. The idea is that space is filled with clouds of gas and dust that contain all the organic molecules necessary for life.

Indeed, astronomers have observed these buildings blocks in interstellar gas clouds. They can see amino acids, the precursors of proteins and the machinery of life. They can also see the precursors of ribonucleotides, molecules that can store information in the form of DNA.

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

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Info

Light activated molecule shifts circadian clock in cells

Alla Katsnelson
Chemical & Engineering News
Tue, 08 Jun 2021 18:01 UTC
Light Activated Cells
© Chemical & Engineering News
Light can switch this azobenzene-modified version of the circadian clock regulator longdaysin between its active and inactive forms, allowing researchers to controllably shift cells’ circadian clocks by up to 4 h.
Most living things contain a circadian clock — a signaling system that keeps the cell's function tied to the periodicity of a 24-h cycle. Although scientists have identified many elements that regulate the clock's function, much about circadian rhythms and how they influence health and disease remains poorly understood.

Now, researchers have created a light-activated molecule that can reversibly shift the length of the clock's cycle in living cells and tissues. The tool provides a targeted, non-invasive way to study how the clock affects cellular physiology, says Ben Feringa, a chemist at the University of Groningen who co-led the work.

The team made use of an azobenzene moiety, which is commonly used as a photoswitch and which changes conformation upon exposure to light. Light converts azobenzene from the trans isomer, which is thermally stable, to the cis isomer, which is not. The cis isomer gradually reverts to trans on its own or can be converted photochemically. "It's just a change in geometry," Feringa says. In past work, Feringa's lab built light switches into other molecules including antibiotics and antitumor compounds.

In the new work, the researchers added an azobenzene light switch to a molecule called longdaysin that chronobiologist Tsuyoshi Hirota at Nagoya University had created previously. Longdaysin slows down the clock by interfering with the action of a key regulator of two genetic feedback loops that control the circadian clock.
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Microscope 2

Scientists in Siberia resurrect 'new species' of ancient asexual microscopic animals frozen in Russian river for 24,000 years


RT
Tue, 08 Jun 2021 11:50 UTC
Rotifera
© Wikipedia
A Rotifera (wheel animal)
Microbiologists working at one of Moscow's top research institutes have announced they were able to revive prehistoric invertebrates, invisible to the naked eye, after two dozen millennia in hibernation in Russia's frozen north.

As part of a new paper published in the Cell scientific journal on Monday, the team reported how they were able to wake up the micro-organisms, known as rotifers, from their icy slumber. Carbon dating estimates show that the aquatic animals are around 24,000 years old.

Not only were the Russian researchers able to resurrect the rotifers, which are known for their ability to survive in extremely low temperatures, but they have even been able to show they can still reproduce asexually, without bothering to find a mate.

The samples came from the ice-rich permafrost in the middle of the Alazeya River, which flows through the Yakutia region in Far East Siberia. Studies indicate they are unable to move through frozen soil, and were therefore trapped in the sediment thousands of years in the past.

Stas Malavin, one of the researchers behind the feat, said that "this is an animal with a nervous system and brain and everything." He added that "we are quite confident that this is a new species for science," while noting its similarity to likely distant relatives still alive today.
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Sun

Existence of magnetic waves in the Sun's photosphere confirmed by astronomers

Paul M Sutter
Universe Today
Tue, 08 Jun 2021 18:19 UTC
Sun Photosphere
© Universe Today
For the first time astronomers have observed waves of magnetic energy, known as Alfvén waves, in the photosphere of the sun. This discovery may help explain why the solar corona is so much hotter than the surface.

The sun is made of plasma, and like any plasma it should support Alfvén waves. These are waves in a plasma where the ions move in response to tension from a magnetic field. First predicted over 50 years ago, astronomers had until now had been unable to see them in the sun. But recent observations of the sun's photosphere - the lowest layer of its atmosphere and the region that releases the light that we can see - have finally found them.

Magnetic fields in the sun can bundle together, forming long structures called flux tubes. These flux tubes can drive the formation of Alfvén waves. A team of researchers, led by Dr. Marco Stangalini at Italian Space Agency (ASI,Italy) with scientists from seven other research institutes and universities, including Queen Mary's Dr. David Tsiklauri and Ph.D. student Callum Boocock, used the European Space Agency's IBIS to carefully monitor the sun's photosphere.

Despite previous claims, Alfvén waves had never conclusively been found on the sun before.
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Evil Rays

People who are blind navigate better after echolocation training


New Scientist
Wed, 02 Jun 2021 11:47 UTC
Echolocation
© MattLphotography/Alamy
Echolocation is the ability to sense one’s surroundings by interpreting how sounds reflect off nearby objects
People who are blind are able to better complete various practical and navigation tasks with the help of echolocation, new research suggests.

Echolocation occurs when an animal emits a sound that bounces off objects in the environment, returning echoes that provide information about the surrounding space.

While the technique is well known in whales and bats, some people who are blind use click-based echolocation to judge spaces and improve their navigation skills.

Lore Thaler at Durham University in the UK and colleagues looked into the factors that determine how people learn this skill.

Over the course of a 10-week training programme, the team investigated how level of vision and age affect the learning of click-based echolocation, and how learning this skill affects the daily life of people who are blind.

Comment: See also: Humans can use echolocation just like bats says study

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Cassiopaea

Magnetic fields may be secret to planetary formation, supercomputer model reveals

Robin George Andrews
Quanta Magazine
Mon, 07 Jun 2021 12:00 UTC
magnetic fields
© Hongping Deng et al.
Scientists have long struggled to understand how common planets form. A new supercomputer simulation shows that the missing ingredient may be magnetism. r

Supercomputer simulations that include magnetic fields can readily form midsize planets, seen here as red dots.
We like to think of ourselves as unique. That conceit may even be true when it comes to our cosmic neighborhood: Despite the fact that planets between the sizes of Earth and Neptune appear to be the most common in the cosmos, no such intermediate-mass planets can be found in the solar system.

The problem is, our best theories of planet formation — cast as they are from the molds of what we observe in our own backyard — haven't been sufficient to truly explain how planets form. A new study, however, published in Nature Astronomy in February, demonstrates that by taking magnetism into account, astronomers may be able to explain the striking diversity of planets orbiting alien stars.

Comment: Wiki notes that 'electric and magnetic fields are generated and altered by each other', and so perhaps it's only a matter of time before mainstream scientists begin to include ideas postulated by Electric Universe theory into their equations: And check out SOTT radio's:

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