Science & Technology

Gamma rays 10 times more energetic than thought possible detected

Michael Irving
New Atlas
Sun, 23 May 2021 12:00 UTC

Astronomers have detected the highest-energy light ever seen, streaming in from near the center of the Milky Way. Hundreds of gamma ray signals were detected with ultra-high energies, with the most powerful signals crossing the Peta-electronvolt (PeV) threshold - much higher than thought possible in our galaxy.

Gamma rays are the most energetic type of electromagnetic radiation, released during extreme events like supernovae, matter-antimatter annihilation, and the activity of objects like pulsars. They're often detected with energies in the Giga-electrovolt (GeV) range, but they've been known to occasionally top the Tera-electronvolt (TeV) mark, which is 1,000 GeV.

Comment: See also:

And check out SOTT radio's:

Milky Way not unusual, surprising astronomers

Ingrid McCarthy
Astro 3D
Tue, 25 May 2021 12:00 UTC

© Jesse van de Sande/European Southern Observatory
Galaxy UGC 10738, seen edge-on through the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, revealing distinct thick and thin discs.

The first detailed cross-section of a galaxy broadly similar to the Milky Way, published today, reveals that our galaxy evolved gradually, instead of being the result of a violent mash-up. The finding throws the origin story of our home into doubt.

The galaxy, dubbed UGC 10738, turns out to have distinct 'thick' and 'thin' discs similar to those of the Milky Way. This suggests, contrary to previous theories, that such structures are not the result of a rare long-ago collision with a smaller galaxy. They appear to be the product of more peaceful change.

Comment: It's possible that the reason galaxies are found to form in similar ways is because the forces acting on them are also very similar; and for more clues on that we need look to Electric Universe theory:

Also check out SOTT radio's:

IDF brags of waging 'first AI war,' lending credence to view that Gaza serves as testing ground for Israel's fighting techniques

RT
Fri, 28 May 2021 12:43 UTC

The 11-day flare-up between Israel and Hamas was dubbed the "first AI war" by Israel's military, which bragged about using advanced computing technologies to sift through the staggering amount of intelligence it collects on Gaza.

"For the first time, artificial intelligence (AI) was a key component and power multiplier in fighting the enemy," a senior officer in the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) Intelligence Corps said, as cited by Israeli media.

The elite intelligence Unit 8200 used programs called "Alchemist," "Gospel" and "Depth of Wisdom," to further boost an already overwhelming superiority that IDF has over militants in the blockaded Gaza enclave. AI-powered analysis was applied to vast amounts of data collected through satellite imaging, surveillance cameras, interception of communications and human intelligence, according to the Israeli military.

Comment: A different take on Israel's AI breakthrough:

New Comet C/2021 K1 (ATLAS)

Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Fri, 28 May 2021 18:29 UTC

CBET 4968 & MPEC 2021-K89, issued on 2021, May 27, announce the discovery of a new comet (magnitude ~17.0) on CCD images taken on May 14.5 UT with the 0.5-m reflector + CCD in the course of the ATLAS-HKO (T05) survey. The object was originally found by Peter Veres of Minor Planet Center (MPC) as unusually bright among the MPC's isolated tracklet file (ITF) and linked to the detections from May 22 (F51) and May 14 (T08). A review of the ATLAS images revealed the cometary nature of this object.

As with the ATLAS observations, this object was reported without comments by Pan-STARRS1 1.8-m Ritchey-Chretien reflector at Haleakala on May 22.6 UT (mag 17.6-18.0), submitted as two separate objects on the same night. This object has been found to show cometary appearance also by CCD astrometrists elsewhere after it was posted on the MPC's PCCP webpage. The new comet has been designated C/2021 K1 (ATLAS).

Stacking of 44 unfiltered exposures, 60 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2021, May 27.3 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 20" arcsecond in diameter and a tail 30" long in PA 245 (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)

Had COVID? You'll probably make antibodies for the rest of your life

Ewen Callaway
Nature
Fri, 28 May 2021 18:05 UTC

bone marrow plasma cell antibodies covid

© Dr Gopal Murti/Science Photo Library
A bone marrow plasma cell (artificially coloured). Such cells, which produce antibodies, linger for months in the bodies of people who have recovered from COVID-19.

People who recover from mild COVID-19 have bone-marrow cells that can churn out antibodies for decades, though viral variants could dampen some of the protection they offer.

Many people who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 will probably make antibodies against the virus for most of their lives. So suggest researchers who have identified long-lived antibody-producing cells in the bone marrow of people who have recovered from COVID-19¹.

The study provides evidence that immunity triggered by SARS-CoV-2 infection will be extraordinarily long-lasting. Adding to the good news, "the implications are that vaccines will have the same durable effect," says Menno van Zelm, an immunologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

Comment: Once again the argument for allowing natural herd immunity to develop, rather than forced hijacking of the body's own defences, is made.

Beware of Covid PCR testing and the relentless "Vaccinate Vaccinate Vaccinate" campaign

Scientists sound grave warning about unprecedented mercury accumulation in deep Pacific Ocean trenches

PhysOrg
Fri, 28 May 2021 17:58 UTC

mercury accumulation ocean trenches sea life

© Anni Glud, SDU
On board the German research vessel Sonne off the coast of Chile, ready to take samples from 8 kilometers depth in the Atacama Trench system.

A newly released scientific paper in Nature Publishing's Scientific Reports Journal has revealed unprecedented amounts of highly toxic mercury are deposited in the deepest trenches of the Pacific Ocean.

The study, a multi-national effort involving scientists from Denmark, Canada, Germany and Japan, reports the first-ever direct measurements of mercury deposition into one of the logistically most challenging environments to sample on Earth, and the deepest at eight to 10 kilometers under the sea.

Lead author Professor Hamed Sanei, Director of the Lithospheric Organic Carbon Laboratory (LOC) at the Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, stated the amount of mercury discovered in this area exceeds any value ever recorded in remote marine sediments, and is even higher than many areas directly contaminated by industrial releases.

Salmon virus originated in Atlantic farms, spread to wild pacific salmon

University of British Columbia
Phys.org
Wed, 26 May 2021 12:00 UTC

Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) - which is associated with kidney and liver damage in Chinook salmon — is continually being transmitted between open-net salmon farms and wild juvenile Chinook salmon in British Columbia waters, according to a new genomics analysis published today in Science Advances.

The collaborative study from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative (SSHI) — a partnership between Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), Genome BC and the Pacific Salmon Foundation — traces the origins of PRV to Atlantic salmon farms in Norway and finds that the virus is now almost ubiquitous in salmon farms in B.C.

Comment: See also:

Resetting the biological clock

University of Groningen
Wed, 26 May 2021 19:33 UTC

Simple Science Summary

The cells in our body follow a 24-hour cycle, the circadian clock. Disruptions of this cycle, for example by working night shifts, can cause disease. In recent years, it has become clear that the clock can be disrupted in individual organs or tissues. To study and potentially cure problems with the clocks inside our cells, Dutch and Japanese scientists created a compound that will elongate the 24-hour cycle and that can be activated or deactivated using light. They showed that it is possible to change the 24-hour cycle in cells or tissues to a 28-hour cycle by activating the compound. After deactivation, the cells and tissues returned to a near-normal cycle. The compound can be used to investigate the clocks inside our cells and may eventually be used to treat diseases that are caused by a disrupted clock.

© Illustration Issey Takahashi
Reversible modulation of the circadian clock using chronophotopharmacology. Using light to interconvert two isomers of a photo-responsive small molecule, it is possible to pace cellular time. While irradiation with violet light extends the normal 24-hour clock to 28-hour, green light switches off this effect and brings the clock back to normal.

The biological clock is present in almost all cells of an organism. As more and more evidence emerges that clocks in certain organs could be out of sync, there is a need to investigate and reset these clocks locally. Scientists from the Netherlands and Japan introduced a light-controlled on/off switch to a kinase inhibitor, which affects clock function. This gives them control of the biological clock in cultured cells and explanted tissue. They published their results on 26 May in Nature Communications.

Life on Earth has evolved under a 24-hour cycle; of light and dark, hot and cold. 'As a result, our cells are synchronized to these 24-hour oscillations,' says Wiktor Szymanski, Professor of Radiological Chemistry at the University Medical Center Groningen. Our circadian clock is regulated by a central controller in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a region in the brain directly above the optic nerve, but all our cells contain a clock of their own. These clocks consist of an oscillation in the production and breakdown of certain proteins.

Scientists make first observation of how the brain records memories during sleep

CBS Pittsburgh
Thu, 27 May 2021 16:36 UTC

Scientists have long known our brains need sleep to review the day's events and transfer them into longer-term memories. Students are often told to study just before turning in to maximize their recall of material for a test the next day.

But the exact way in which the brain stores our memories is poorly understood.

Now for the first time, tiny microelectrodes planted inside the brains of two people show just how the brain's neurons fire during sleep to "replay" our short-term memories in order to move them into more permanent storage. The study was published Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports.

"This study is fascinating," said Dr. Richard Isaacson, who directs the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Study says maximum human lifespan is 150

Lauren Fuge
Cosmos Magazine
Wed, 26 May 2021 18:48 UTC

An international team of researchers has developed a new way to track the biological ageing process - and the results suggest that humans can live to a maximum of 150 years old.

Why do we age?

Ageing is a gradual process that happens over our whole life, as our normal body functions slow down.

There are at least nine markers of ageing, but a common one is when our cells slowly lose the ability to produce new and healthy cells to repair damage. It is marked by a decline in physical functionality and an increased risk of chronic disease.

Researchers distinguish between chronological age, which is exactly how many years a person has been alive, and biological age, which is how old a person seems at a cellular level - that is, how close their cells are to completely ceasing all function. These two numbers are not always the same for any given person, nor is biological age always linear.

Since biological age is influenced by a range of factors such as diet, exercise, sleeping habits, genetics and more, it's difficult to calculate - but researchers are interested in measuring it in order to develop effective anti-ageing interventions.

Quote of the Day

State power has its own limits defined by the fact that it is authority that reaches people from outside. State power cannot oversee and dictate the creative states of the soul and mind, the inner states of love, freedom and goodwill. The state cannot demand from its citizens faith, prayer, love, goodness and conviction. It cannot regulate scientific, religious and artistic creation. It should not intervene in moral, family and daily private life, and only when extremely necessary should it impinge on people's economic initiative and creativity.

- Ivan Ilyin

Whats a Lizzo? Is that like a Lesbo? Asking for a friend....

Bezel Bub

New York hospitals prepare for staffing crisis as vaccination mandate forces mass firings [Link]

Serig

I think we need to start a GoFundMe so we can air drop AK-47's into Australia....

Bezel Bub

slime biden exacts no consequences for murdering 10 afghans, but punishes cowboys for riding horses

smertzasmert

Oh btw, random sort of tangential comment related to much of the "food" in this particularly fallow season. Uhm, wtf...I forgot what I wanted to...

sir_isO

Science & Technology

Gamma rays 10 times more energetic than thought possible detected

Milky Way not unusual, surprising astronomers

IDF brags of waging 'first AI war,' lending credence to view that Gaza serves as testing ground for Israel's fighting techniques

New Comet C/2021 K1 (ATLAS)

Had COVID? You'll probably make antibodies for the rest of your life

Scientists sound grave warning about unprecedented mercury accumulation in deep Pacific Ocean trenches

Salmon virus originated in Atlantic farms, spread to wild pacific salmon

Resetting the biological clock

Scientists make first observation of how the brain records memories during sleep

Study says maximum human lifespan is 150

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