Science & TechnologyS


Heart

Assuming design, researchers achieve a breakthrough in understanding circulatory system

Brian Miller
Evolution News
Wed, 08 May 2024 07:00 UTC
Red Blood Cells
© Discovery Institute.
Medical researchers Gregory Sloop, Gheorghe Pop, and John St. Cyt published an article in the journal BIO-Complexity that describes how their design-based framework for studying the circulatory system led to a breakthrough in understanding the regulation of blood viscosity. Sloop is a pathology professor at Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, Pop is a professor emeritus at the Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and St. Cyr is a medical and surgical consultant. The authors also explain how the standard evolutionary framework misdirected earlier researchers.

The article is titled "The Hematocrit and Blood Viscosity are Modulated to Maintain Constant Wall Shear Stress in the Carotid Sinus." It reports how the investigators experimentally demonstrated that the circulatory system regulates the proportion of blood composed of red blood cells (aka the hematocrit) to maintain a constant shear stress on the blood vessels. Increasing the hematocrit increases the viscosity which increases the shear stress. This insight explained previously unexpected observations.

Comment: See also:

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Igloo

The Gulf Stream stopped pumping nutrients during the last ice age — and the same could be happening now

Sasha Pare
Live Science
Thu, 09 May 2024 18:19 UTC
Atlantic currents slowed dramatically during the Younger Dryas period. By reconstructing those ancient ocean conditions, scientists think they can forecast changes over the next century.
Gulf Stream
© NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization StudioNASA visualization showing the Gulf Stream as it unfurls from the Florida Straits across the North Atlantic Ocean. The current is colored according to sea surface temperature. Red is equivalent to around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) while green is equivalent to roughly 55 F (13 C).
The Gulf Stream slowed dramatically at the end of the last ice age with dire effects on organisms in the Atlantic, scientists have found. This discovery could help researchers forecast how Atlantic currents will change in response to climate change today.

The Gulf Stream is a warm ocean current that originates in the Florida Straits between Florida and Cuba, before skirting the U.S. East Coast and Canada and crossing the North Atlantic to Europe. The heat it carries maintains temperate conditions in Europe and to some extent North America. The current forms part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which transports balmy waters from the Southern Hemisphere to the north and then back down toward Antarctica in a giant loop.

Previous models showed the Gulf Stream is weakening and the AMOC may be close to collapse, with grave implications for the climate. Now, a new study published Thursday (May 9) in the journal Science has found that a decline in the Gulf Stream potentially spells trouble for ocean critters that depend on the nutrients the current transports from the tropics to the North Atlantic.

The authors based their conclusions on fossil and sediment records from a brief cooling event between 12,900 and 11,700 years ago, known as the Younger Dryas. The cold snap temporarily reversed a period of global warming during the transition from the Pleistocene epoch to the current Holocene epoch.
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Microscope 1

Research shows some Alzheimer's cases may be caused by copies of a single gene


Fox News
Wed, 08 May 2024 18:32 UTC
brain tissue close up alzheimer's
© AP Photo/David Duprey, FileFor the first time, researchers have identified a genetic form of late-in-life Alzheimer’s disease — in people who inherit two copies of a worrisome gene.
An estimated 15% of Alzheimer's patients carry 2 copies of the APOE4 gene

.For the first time, researchers have identified a genetic form of late-in-life Alzheimer's disease — in people who inherit two copies of a worrisome gene.

Scientists have long known a gene called APOE4 is one of many things that can increase people's risk for Alzheimer's, including simply getting older. The vast majority of Alzheimer's cases occur after age 65. But research published Monday suggests that for people who carry not one but two copies of the gene, it's more than a risk factor, it's an underlying cause of the mind-robbing disease.

The findings mark a distinction with "profound implications," said Dr. Juan Fortea, who led the study the Sant Pau Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain.

Comment: There are also epigenetic factors that may trigger the onset of Alzheimer's the researchers may be overlooking:

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Tornado1

Recognizing a 'radar-confirmed tornado'

Brian Lada
Accuweather
Mon, 06 May 2024 20:14 UTC
tornao supercell radar images samples
From left to right: classic supercell (North Carolina), low precipitation supercell (Nebraska), high precipitation supercell (Iowa).
Dual-polarization radar is at the forefront of weather technology. Learn what a debris ball is and how weather forecasters use it to confirm a damaging tornado has touched down.

When the rain starts to fall, people immediately look to the weather radar to see how long it will last. But when severe weather strikes, meteorologists can use this technology to pinpoint the precise location of damaging tornadoes and give more accurate warnings to those in their path.

The average person and weather enthusiast can follow along on social media with reports in real-time as volatile weather unfolds -- and terms like "radar-confirmed tornado" are often thrown out by meteorologists. But what exactly does that mean? And how do you recognize it?

Comment: More from the National Weather Service:



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Brain

Researchers discover the dial in the brain that controls the immune system

Giorgia Guglielmi
Nature
Wed, 01 May 2024 17:42 UTC
brain regulate immune system response
© Voisin/Phanie/Science Photo LibraryA population of neurons in the brain stem, the stalk-like structure that connects the bulk of the brain to the spinal cord, acts as the master dial for the immune system.
Scientists identify the brain cells that regulate inflammation, and pinpoint how they keep tabs on the immune response.

A population of neurons in the brain stem, the stalk-like structure that connects the bulk of the brain to the spinal cord, acts as the master dial for the immune system.Credit: Voisin/Phanie/Science Photo Library

Scientists have long known that the brain plays a part in the immune system — but how it does so has been a mystery. Now, scientists have identified cells in the brainstem that sense immune cues from the periphery of the body and act as master regulators of the body's inflammatory response.

The results, published on 1 May in Nature1, suggest that the brain maintains a delicate balance between the molecular signals that promote inflammation and those that dampen it — a finding that could lead to treatments for autoimmune diseases and other conditions caused by an excessive immune response.

Comment: The good news is that health-giving vagus nerve stimulation is possible with proper breathwork.

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Tsunami

US DARPA Manta Ray military drone passes first ocean test


ITV
Fri, 03 May 2024 13:56 UTC
Manta Ray drone DARPA
© Northrop GrummanThe Manta Ray craft being towed in preparation for testing.
A giant Manta Ray style underwater drone that could one day carry out long-distance missions around the world, has been successfully tested in the US.

The prototype, which is several times larger than a small boat, completed full-scale testing off the coast of Southern California over the last three months.

US aviation giant Northrop Grumman made the drone with funding from the government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) programme.

Comment: The following video of a US Unmanned Underwater Vehicle emerged online just a few days ago and, whilst there is apparently nothing secret about the technology or its uses, the workers tasked with dealing with it seemed to be relatively eager to dissuade the curious public:

See also:

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Microscope 1

For the first time in one billion years, two lifeforms have truly merged into one organism

Laura Baisas
Popular Science
Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:54 UTC
cell new organelle nitrogen fixer
© Tyler CoaleA light microscopy image shows the marine algae Braarudosphaera bigelowii, which is a potentially large evolutionary step. This algae absorbed a bacterium called UCYN-A and formed a new organelle called a nitroplast. The black arrow is pointing to the nitroplast.
Evolution is quite a wondrous and lengthy process, with some random bursts of activity that are responsible for the diversity of life on our planet today. These can happen on large scales like with the evolution of more efficient limbs. They also occur at microscopic cellular level, such as when different parts of the cell were first formed.

Now, a team of scientists have detected a sign of a major life event that has likely not occurred for at least one billion years. They've observed primary endosymbiosis — two lifeforms merging into one organism. This incredibly rare event occurred between a type of abundant marine algae and a bacterium was observed in a lab setting. For perspective, plants first began to dot our planet the last time this happened. The results are described in two papers recently published in the journals Cell and Science.
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Better Earth

Best of the Web: Weak geomagnetic field coincided with significant diversification of life on Earth, new study reveals

Nature Publishing Group
Phys.org
Thu, 02 May 2024 14:32 UTC
orange aurora scotland november 2023 solar wind
© Graeme WhippsFILE: Extremely rare orange auroras danced in between reds and greens in the evening sky above Scotland during a geomagnetic storm on Nov. 25, 2023.
An unusual reduction in the strength of Earth's magnetic field between 591 and 565 million years ago coincided with a significant increase in the oxygen levels in the atmosphere and oceans, according to a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment. The authors propose that the weakening of the magnetic field may have led to the increase in oxygen, which is believed to have supported the evolution of some of the earliest complex organisms.

Between 600 and 540 million years ago, life on Earth consisted of soft-bodied organisms known as the Ediacaran fauna, the earliest known complex multicellular animals. The fossil record shows that these organisms significantly diversified in complexity and type between 575 and 565 million years ago. Previous research has suggested that this diversification is linked to a significant increase in atmospheric and oceanic oxygen levels that occurred over the same period. However, it is not yet clear why this increase in oxygen occurred.

Comment: Interestingly, theories connecting 'evolutionary leaps' and geomagnetic activity have been proposed by other researchers - such as Robert Felix with his book Magnetic Reversals & Evolutionary leaps -and, notably, our own time appears to be on the cusp of a similar shift: And check out SOTT radio's: The following discussion may also help provide further insight into the connection:



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Mr. Potato

The Policy Makers: Offshore wind is gearing up to bulldoze the ocean

David Wojick
Wattsupwiththat.com
Fri, 03 May 2024 01:13 UTC
Ocean Windmills
From CFACT

The Biden Administration has recently produced a wave of plans and regulatory actions aimed at building a monstrous amount of destructive offshore wind. No environmental impact assessment is included.


Comment: Simply put, the administration has windmills in their minds.


Time scales range from tomorrow to 2050. Here is a quick look at some of it, starting with the Grand Plan.

"Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Offshore Wind" is the grandiose title of the Energy Department's version of Biden's vision. Their basic idea is that having successfully traversed the unexpected cost crisis, offshore wind is ready to take off.

They point out that even though costs quickly jumped an average of 65%, the boom market is unchanged. The coastal States are raring to go with huge offshore wind targets and laws. In short, it is a seller's market. Cost is no object.

They note that State mandates and targets already exceed the Biden goal of 100,000 MW by 2050. But why stop there? They say that Net Zero requires an incredible 250,000 MW of offshore wind. At 15 MW a turbine, this is just under 17,000 monster towers.

The word "environmental" occurs frequently in this 62-page grand vision but it is always about environmental justice. The cumulatively destructive environmental impacts of lining our coast with towers and cables are ignored apparently not worth mentioning. Neither is cost.

Next comes transmission, where we have "AN ACTION PLAN FOR OFFSHORE WIND TRANSMISSION DEVELOPMENT IN THE U.S. ATLANTIC REGION". While the Pathways plan covers the US, this one is just about the Atlantic because that is where the big action is now.

This 110-pager is from the Energy Department and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is actually building the offshore wind monster.
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Blue Planet

Why climate change ISN'T going to end the world

Peter Hess
The Daily Mail
Thu, 02 May 2024 21:07 UTC
Professor Mike Hulme cambridge climate change climatism
© Cambridge 105 Radio/YouTubeProfessor Mike Hulme
Cambridge University professor says we need to stop obsessing about net-zero

Young people are terrified that climate change will destroy Earth by the time they grow up, but the world is not actually ending, argues Cambridge professor Mike Hulme.

Humanity is not teetering on a cliff's edge, he says, at risk of imminent catastrophe if we don't reach net-zero carbon emissions by a certain date. And he has made it his mission to call out the people who claim we are.

In his most recent book, Climate Change Isn't Everything, Hulme argued that belief in the urgent fight against climate change has shot far past the territory of science and become an ideology.

Hulme, a professor of human geography at the University of Cambridge, dubs this ideology 'climatism,' and he argues that it can distort the way society approaches the world's ills, placing too much focus on slowing Earth from warming.
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