Science! (3 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

Microplastic pollution has been discovered lodged deep in the lungs of living people for the first time. The particles were found in almost all the samples analysed.

The scientists said microplastic pollution was now ubiquitous across the planet, making human exposure unavoidable and meaning “there is an increasing concern regarding the hazards” to health.

Samples were taken from tissue removed from 13 patients undergoing surgery and microplastics were found in 11 cases. The most common particles were polypropylene, used in plastic packaging and pipes, and PET, used in bottles. Two previous studies had found microplastics at similarly high rates in lung tissue taken during autopsies.

People were already known to breathe in the tiny particles, as well as consuming them via food and water. Workers exposed to high levels of microplastics are also known to have developed disease.

Microplastics were detected in human blood for the first time in March, showing the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.

“We did not expect to find the highest number of particles in the lower regions of the lungs, or particles of the sizes we found,” said Laura Sadofsky at Hull York medical school in the UK,a senior author of the study. “It is surprising as the airways are smaller in the lower parts of the lungs and we would have expected particles of these sizes to be filtered out or trapped before getting this deep.”

“This data provides an important advance in the field of air pollution, microplastics and human health,” she said. The information could be used to create realistic conditions for laboratory experiments to determine health impacts…….

Microplastics found deep in lungs of living people for first time

Particles discovered in tissue of 11 out of 13 patients undergoing surgery, with polypropylene and PET most common

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

People who listen to podcasts are more likely to be curious, more open to experience and less neurotic on average than non-listeners, a new study suggests.

Researchers surveyed 306 people from more than 10 countries on their podcast listening habits, comparing their listening habits with measures of personality.

They found that people who reported ever having listened to a podcast scored more highly for openness to experience, interest-based curiosity, and need for cognition – a measure reflecting an individual enjoyment of “effortful cognitive endeavours”.

Podcast listeners were also less likely to score highly for neuroticism, the tendency to experience negative emotions.

“That’s quite different from social media use,” said study co-author Dr Stephanie Tobin, a senior lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. “There’s a positive association between neuroticism and using social media,” she said…….

Podcast listeners likely to be more curious and less neurotic – study

Researchers found correlations between podcast listening habits and personality traits

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

Buried in forest litter or sprouting from trees, fungi might give the impression of being silent and relatively self-contained organisms, but a new study suggests they may be champignon communicators.

Mathematical analysis of the electrical signals fungi seemingly send to one another has identified patterns that bear a striking structural similarity to human speech.

Previous research has suggested that fungi conduct electrical impulses through long, underground filamentous structures called hyphae – similar to how nerve cells transmit information in humans.

It has even shown that the firing rate of these impulses increases when the hyphae of wood-digesting fungi come into contact with wooden blocks, raising the possibility that fungi use this electrical “language” to share information about food or injury with distant parts of themselves, or with hyphae-connected partners such as trees.

But do these trains of electrical activity have anything in common with human language?…..

Mushrooms communicate with each other using up to 50 ‘words’, scientist claims

Professor theorises electrical impulses sent by mycological organisms could be similar to human language

www.theguardian.com

 

[bonnjer]

Psst! Wanna see an actual Hubble image of a planet forming around a nearby star?

We now know of over 5,000 exoplanets, worlds orbiting other stars. The vast majority of those were discovered via the transit method, where the planet causes a mini-eclipse and blocks a little bit of its host star’s light. This is an indirect method; we don’t see the planet itself, just the...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Yatman]

An extremely rare type of helium that was created soon after the Big Bang is leaking out of Earth's metallic core, a new modeling study suggests.

Helium-3 is "a wonder of nature, and a clue for the history of the Earth, that there's still a significant amount of this isotope in the interior of the Earth,"...

nothing to see here, mind your own business

.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Scientists have developed a blood test that can predict whether someone is at high risk of a heart attack, stroke, heart failure or dying from one of these conditions within the next four years.

The test, which relies of measurements of proteins in the blood, has roughly twice the accuracy of existing risk scores. It could enable doctors to determine whether patients’ existing medications are working or whether they need additional drugs to reduce their risk.

“I think this is the new frontier of personalised medicine, to be able to answer the question, does this person need enhanced treatment? And when you’ve treated someone, did it actually work?” said Dr Stephen Williams at SomaLogic in Boulder, Colorado, who led the research…..

New blood test predicts risk of heart attack and stroke with twice previous accuracy

New technique, already available in US, could aid in development of cardiovascular drugs

www.theguardian.com

 

[Yatman]

for annual physicals, i always request a c-reactive protein score on the blood panel, just to keep track

this new technique sounds like a very enhanced dataset

encouraging; hope it's available soon and not overly co$tly

 

[Optimus Prime]

In 2018, NASA astronomers found the first evidence of water ice on the moon. Lurking in the bottom of pitch-black craters at the moon's north and south poles, the ice was locked in perpetual shadow and had seemingly survived untouched by the sun's rays, potentially for millions of years.

The discovery of water ice came with a fresh mystery, however. While these polar craters are protected from direct sunlight, they are not shielded from solar wind, waves of charged particles that gush out of the sun at hundreds of miles a second.

This ionized wind is highly erosive and should have destroyed the moon's ice long ago, Paul Lucey, a planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii, told Science.

And unlike Earth, the moon no longer has a magnetic shield to protect it from the brunt of these charged particles.

How, then, had the moon's polar ice survived? A new map of the moon's south pole — and the strange pockets of magnetic field that lie there — may provide an answer.

In research presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last month, scientists from the University of Arizona shared their map of magnetic anomalies — regions of the lunar surface that contain unusually strong magnetic fields — sprinkled across the moon's south pole.

These anomalies, first detected during the Apollo 15 and 16 missions in the 1970s, are thought to be remnants of the moon's ancient magnetic shield, which likely disappeared billions of years ago, according to NASA.

The magnetic anomalies overlap with several large polar craters that sit in permanent shadow and may contain ancient ice deposits.

According to the researchers, these anomalies may be serving as tiny magnetic shields that protect lunar water ice from the constant bombardment of solar wind...........

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Sailorsaint]

In 2018, NASA astronomers found the first evidence of water ice on the moon. Lurking in the bottom of pitch-black craters at the moon's north and south poles, the ice was locked in perpetual shadow and had seemingly survived untouched by the sun's rays, potentially for millions of years.

The discovery of water ice came with a fresh mystery, however. While these polar craters are protected from direct sunlight, they are not shielded from solar wind, waves of charged particles that gush out of the sun at hundreds of miles a second.

This ionized wind is highly erosive and should have destroyed the moon's ice long ago, Paul Lucey, a planetary scientist at the University of Hawaii, told Science.

And unlike Earth, the moon no longer has a magnetic shield to protect it from the brunt of these charged particles.

How, then, had the moon's polar ice survived? A new map of the moon's south pole — and the strange pockets of magnetic field that lie there — may provide an answer.

In research presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference last month, scientists from the University of Arizona shared their map of magnetic anomalies — regions of the lunar surface that contain unusually strong magnetic fields — sprinkled across the moon's south pole.

These anomalies, first detected during the Apollo 15 and 16 missions in the 1970s, are thought to be remnants of the moon's ancient magnetic shield, which likely disappeared billions of years ago, according to NASA.

The magnetic anomalies overlap with several large polar craters that sit in permanent shadow and may contain ancient ice deposits.

According to the researchers, these anomalies may be serving as tiny magnetic shields that protect lunar water ice from the constant bombardment of solar wind...........

MSN

www.msn.com

I'm curious how you can have specifically placed, intermittent pockets of a magnetic shield. If it originates with the core, I would think it would be spread evenly over larger areas. Gonna have to do a deep dive on this.

 

[SWJJ]

I'm curious how you can have specifically placed, intermittent pockets of a magnetic shield. If it originates with the core, I would think it would be spread evenly over larger areas. Gonna have to do a deep dive on this.

Please report back your findings! I'm curious too!

 

[Optimus Prime]

I'm curious how you can have specifically placed, intermittent pockets of a magnetic shield. If it originates with the core, I would think it would be spread evenly over larger areas. Gonna have to do a deep dive on this.

 

[bonnjer]

Scientists rejuvenated the skin of a 53-year-old woman to that of a 23-year-old's in a groundbreaking experiment

The UK team used a technique developed by Nobel Award winner Shinya Yamanaka, who turned "normal" cells into stem cells back in 2006.

www.yahoo.com

 

[bonnjer]

New ‘killer’ cancer treatment stops one in three tumours from growing

A “killer” cancer treatment could stop one in three tumours growing, according to trials in those with some of the deadliest conditions.

www.yahoo.com

 

[Sailorsaint]

Scientists rejuvenated the skin of a 53-year-old woman to that of a 23-year-old's in a groundbreaking experiment

The UK team used a technique developed by Nobel Award winner Shinya Yamanaka, who turned "normal" cells into stem cells back in 2006.

www.yahoo.com

Wonder how well that would work on my 89 yr old dad with the paper skin?

 

[Tapxe]

I'm curious how you can have specifically placed, intermittent pockets of a magnetic shield. If it originates with the core, I would think it would be spread evenly over larger areas. Gonna have to do a deep dive on this.

NASA - NASA Lunar Scientists Develop New Theory on Earth and Moon Formation

New research, funded by the NASA Lunar Science Institute, theorizes that our early Earth and moon were both created together in a giant collision.

www.nasa.gov

New research, funded by the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI), hypothesizes that our early Earth and moon were both created together in a giant collision of two planetary bodies that were each five times the size of Mars.

If that is true then the moon may contain magnetic deposits possibly even with higher rare earth metal content. Would localized powerful magnetic fields then be very explainable? I'd bet some smart people really want to test all about that now.