Science! (6 Viewers)

[Sailorsaint]

Giant 'Giga-Goose' Once Thundered Across Prehistoric Australia

On the prehistoric plains of Australia shone a golden age for giant flightless birds.

www.sciencealert.com

Of course there would be a 7 foot goose in the outback.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Mourners can now speak to an AI version of the dead. Will it help anyone?

Eternos says its technology will allow grieving families ‘to engage with life experiences and insights’

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Five children who were born deaf have had their hearing restored in both ears after taking part in an “astounding” gene therapy trial that raises hopes for further treatments.

The children were unable to hear because of inherited genetic mutations that disrupt the body’s ability to make a protein needed to ensure auditory signals pass seamlessly from the ear to the brain.

Doctors at Fudan University in Shanghai treated the children, aged between one and 11, in both ears in the hope they would regain sufficient 3D hearing to take part in conversations and work out which direction sounds were coming from.

Within weeks of receiving the therapy, the children had regained hearing, could locate the sources of sounds, and recognised speech in noisy environments. Two of the children were recorded dancing to music, the researchers reported in Nature Medicine.……

Gene therapy trial gives deaf children hearing in both ears

Study participants born unable to hear could locate sound sources, recognise speech and dance to music after treatment

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Women make fewer mistakes and have better mental agility while on their period despite feeling worse than at any other time during their menstrual cycle, research suggests.

The research, conducted by the UCL Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH), found that women’s reaction times, accuracy and attention to detail were heightened while menstruating, challenging current hypotheses regarding how women perform in sports during their period.

The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, involved the analysis of data from 241 participants (including 96 who were male and 47 women who were not regularly menstruating due to their contraception, for comparative purposes) completing a battery of cognitive tests, two weeks apart, and the collection of reaction time and error data.


Participants also recorded their moods and filled in a questionnaire regarding their symptoms, while period-tracking apps were used to estimate which phase of their cycle the participants were in when they took the tests. The tests covered reaction times, attention, ability to relate to visual information, and anticipation of when something might happen, and were designed to mimic mental processes during sports.

There was no group difference in reaction times and accuracy between the male and female participants, but the women who regularly menstruated were found to have performed better during their period compared with any other phase of their menstrual cycle, displaying faster reaction times and making fewer errors. This is despite the participants reporting feeling worse during their period, and believing this to have negatively affected their performances.…..

Women perform better in cognitive tests when menstruating, study finds

‘Surprising’ results in tests could change assumptions about female athletes’ abilities during their period, says author

www.theguardian.com

 

[Nisey55]

Women make fewer mistakes and have better mental agility while on their period despite feeling worse than at any other time during their menstrual cycle, research suggests.

The research, conducted by the UCL Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH), found that women’s reaction times, accuracy and attention to detail were heightened while menstruating, challenging current hypotheses regarding how women perform in sports during their period.

The study, published in the journal Neuropsychologia, involved the analysis of data from 241 participants (including 96 who were male and 47 women who were not regularly menstruating due to their contraception, for comparative purposes) completing a battery of cognitive tests, two weeks apart, and the collection of reaction time and error data.


Participants also recorded their moods and filled in a questionnaire regarding their symptoms, while period-tracking apps were used to estimate which phase of their cycle the participants were in when they took the tests. The tests covered reaction times, attention, ability to relate to visual information, and anticipation of when something might happen, and were designed to mimic mental processes during sports.

There was no group difference in reaction times and accuracy between the male and female participants, but the women who regularly menstruated were found to have performed better during their period compared with any other phase of their menstrual cycle, displaying faster reaction times and making fewer errors. This is despite the participants reporting feeling worse during their period, and believing this to have negatively affected their performances.…..

Women perform better in cognitive tests when menstruating, study finds

‘Surprising’ results in tests could change assumptions about female athletes’ abilities during their period, says author

www.theguardian.com

Subconscious animal instinct? Scent of blood can draw predators, animals have to protect themselves and their offspring.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Astronomers have detected carbon in a galaxy observed just 350m years after the big bang, in observations that raise the possibility that the conditions for life were present almost from the dawn of time.

The observations, made by the James Webb space telescope, suggest that vast amounts of carbon were released when the first generation of stars exploded in supernovae. Carbon is known to have seeded the first planets and is a building block for life as we know it, but was previously thought to have emerged much later in cosmic history.

“This is the earliest detection of an element heavier than hydrogen ever obtained,” said Prof Roberto Maiolino, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge and a co-author of the findings. “It’s a massive discovery.”


“The finding of a large amount of carbon in such a distant galaxy implies that life could have potentially emerged very early in the universe, really close to cosmic dawn.”

The very early universe was almost entirely made up of hydrogen, helium and tiny amounts of lithium. Every other element – including those that formed the Earth and humans – was formed in stars and released during supernovae, when stars explode at the end of their lives. With every new generation of stars, the universe was enriched with progressively heavier elements until rocky planets formed and life became a possibility.

Carbon is a fundamental element in this process, since it can clump into grains of dust in a swirling disc around stars, eventually snowballing into the earliest planets. It was previously thought that carbon enrichment occurred about 1bn years after the big bang.

The latest research dates the earliest carbon fingerprint to just 350m years, suggesting that carbon was released in large quantities in the supernovae of the very first generation of stars in the universe. This doesn’t change estimates for when life began on Earth, about 3.7bn years ago, but suggests some of the criteria for life emerging elsewhere in the universe was present far earlier than expected.

“The very first stars are the holy grail of chemical evolution, since they are made only of primordial elements, and they behave very differently to modern stars,” said Dr Francesco D’Eugenio, an astrophysicist the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at Cambridge and the lead author of the findings. “By studying how and when the first metals formed inside stars, we can set a time frame for the earliest steps on the path that led to the formation of life.”……

Carbon detected in galaxy observed 350m years after big bang

Exclusive: ‘Massive’ discovery raises possibility conditions for life were present almost from dawn of time

www.theguardian.com

 

[Sailorsaint]

Five children who were born deaf have had their hearing restored in both ears after taking part in an “astounding” gene therapy trial that raises hopes for further treatments.

The children were unable to hear because of inherited genetic mutations that disrupt the body’s ability to make a protein needed to ensure auditory signals pass seamlessly from the ear to the brain.

Doctors at Fudan University in Shanghai treated the children, aged between one and 11, in both ears in the hope they would regain sufficient 3D hearing to take part in conversations and work out which direction sounds were coming from.

Within weeks of receiving the therapy, the children had regained hearing, could locate the sources of sounds, and recognised speech in noisy environments. Two of the children were recorded dancing to music, the researchers reported in Nature Medicine.……

Gene therapy trial gives deaf children hearing in both ears

Study participants born unable to hear could locate sound sources, recognise speech and dance to music after treatment

www.theguardian.com

This gives me hope that gene therapy may eventually help save my son's eyesight.

 

[longtime lurker]

A new discovery about carbon dioxide is challenging decades-old ventilation doctrine

STAT Carbon dioxide monitors have been around for decades. But in 2020, they became, almost overnight, a hot commodity. All of a sudden, people wanted them to help assess the safety of indoor space…

www.unmc.edu

 

[longtime lurker]

This gives me hope that gene therapy may eventually help save my son's eyesight.

Sailor, I don’t mean to pry, but how is your son’s eyesight currently!?

 

[longtime lurker]

 

[Sailorsaint]

Sailor, I don’t mean to pry, but how is your son’s eyesight currently!?

Still degrading, he's gone as far as he can with glasses. He can see well enough to read, but he really has to concentrate on it. He is about to turn 22, he's been dealing with this for about 8 years when it was detected. So, I'm thinking he probably has another 10 years before it gets to the point where everything is too blurry or dim to really affect him. The problem is a genetic defect passed from his mom and only affects males, OPA1. It's a depletion or lack of mitochondria in the optic nerve. There has been some research in the area and some look promising in the future.

 

[longtime lurker]

Still degrading, he's gone as far as he can with glasses. He can see well enough to read, but he really has to concentrate on it. He is about to turn 22, he's been dealing with this for about 8 years when it was detected. So, I'm thinking he probably has another 10 years before it gets to the point where everything is too blurry or dim to really affect him. The problem is a genetic defect passed from his mom and only affects males, OPA1. It's a depletion or lack of mitochondria in the optic nerve. There has been some research in the area and some look promising in the future.

Here’s to that breakthrough that I hope is on the way…..it seems like everyday there are more and more encouraging news about what we can do with medicine and techniques to restore. Thanks for the info on your son and here is to that next breakthrough coming for him.

 

[Optimus Prime]

A New York man became the first to contract a new form of ringworm transmitted through sex and considered highly contagious.

The fungus — ringworm, despite its name, is not actually a worm — was spread through sexual contact, according to a new study.

“Healthcare providers should be aware that Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII [TMVII] is the latest in a group of severe skin infections to have now reached the United States,” Dr Avrom Caplan, an assistant professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine's dermatology department said in the study.

Caplan was co-author on a case study published on Wednesday that documented the New Yorker who became infected with the fungal strain. He reportedly developed a rash on his penis, buttocks and his limbs as a result of the infection.……..

First case of ‘highly contagious’ ringworm transmitted through sex recorded in US

The condition can be treated with typical antifungal medication, but it can take weeks for rashes to disappear

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

‘We’re trying to find the shape of space’: scientists wonder if the universe is like a doughnut

Rather than stretching to infinity and beyond, the universe may have a topology that can eventually be mapped

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

What do you call the current time period — when we humans are warming the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans, altering the land and leaving a literal mark on the planet?

Not the Anthropocene, according to geologists who rejected the idea of adding a new epoch to Earth’s official geological timeline.

Yet for many activists, artists and academics outside of geology, the Anthropocene, or “Age of Humans,” is here to stay, regardless of what rock specialists have to say.

Earlier this year, a panel of geologists rejected a proposal to officially designate the past seven decades, during which humans profoundly impacted the environment, as the new chapter in the planet’s history.

But as these scientists spent years debating, the term became widely adopted outside geology to encapsulate the angst around environmental degradation — popping up in book titles, music albums and art exhibitions.

For the term’s proponents, the idea that humanity has pushed the Earth into a new geological epoch should serve as a wake-up call. “It’s only been 70 years,” said Francine McCarthy, a professor of earth science at Brock University in Ontario, referring to the start of the new proposed epoch. “We don’t have another 70 years to wait.”……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/06/10/anthropocene-epoch-human-climate-impacts/