The largest planet in the Solar System is now officially the local big dog when it comes to collecting moons, with a dozen new satellites confirmed to be in orbit around Jupiter. The addition of these 12 previously unknown moons brings the gas giant’s total count to 92, overtaking Saturn’s impressive stash of 83 orbiting bodies.

In reality, both planets are likely to be accompanied by even more moons, yet spotting these miniature celestial bodies poses a considerable challenge to astronomers. Those that are small enough to have evaded detection up to now can probably only be seen using extremely powerful telescopes that don’t have a wide enough field of view to take in the entire Jovian system, while the extreme glare given off by Jupiter only complicates matters.

Unphased by these difficulties, Dr Scott Sheppard has spent the past couple of years tracking the orbits of the 12 new moons, which have now been published by the Minor Planet Center (MPC). A previous batch of Jovian moons – also discovered by Sheppard – was published back in 2018.

Of the dozen new satellites, nine are located among the distant clusters of moons that orbit Jupiter in retrograde, meaning they circle the planet in the opposite direction to the inner moons. Small in size, these back-tracking objects all take at least 550 days to complete one orbit.

The remaining three moons were discovered within the groups of prograde satellites that lie between the large, close-in Galilean moons and the far-out retrograde objects. Two are located in the Himalia group, which orbits Jupiter at a distance of between 11 and 12 million kilometers (6.8 to 7.5 million miles), with the other belonging to the Carpo group, located some 17 million kilometers (10.6 million miles) from the planet.

The orbits of Jupiter's moons. The larger, prograde Galilean moons are depicted in purple, with the Himalia group in blue and Carpo in cyan. The green orbit represents Valetudo, while the outer retrograde moons appear in red. Image credit: Scott Sheppard

All 12 of Jupiter’s new accessories take more than 340 days to complete an orbit and are too small to warrant an official name. These mini moons are thought to be the leftovers of much larger satellites that shattered millions of years ago after colliding with another object.

Though astronomers can’t say exactly what it was that smashed into these ancient moons, Sheppard’s 2018 discoveries contained a clue in the shape of an unusual moon called Valetudo. Bucking the Jovian trend, Valetudo travels prograde despite the fact that its orbit crosses those of the distant retrograde moons.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that swimming upstream increases your chances of bumping into someone, and some astronomers therefore speculate that Valetudo may be the remnants of a larger object that once tore through Jupiter’s retrograde moon clusters like a wrecking ball.

Source

Humans’ curiosity has seen the space industry explode in the 21st century, as thirst for adventure, discovery, and internet memes has grown. Rocket launches are now ferrying satellites into orbit, sending rovers to Mars, and even giving William Shatner a harrowing account of the overview effect. Great things have been achieved off of humans’ forays into space, but all the while that we’re blasting off from planet Earth, we've not massively improved our understanding of what effect all that fire and fuel has on our planet.

Well, except for that time we saw a frog blasted off to another dimension.

This photo shows the world's unluckiest frog.

In 2013, the LADEE spacecraft blasted off in Virginia, flinging an unsuspecting frog into the air. NASA later commented: "The photo team confirms the frog is real."

"The condition of the frog, however, is uncertain."

Image credit: Chris Perry/NASA

Now, new research has done just that, highlighting the need for proper management of the upper atmosphere environment if we’re to avoid accidentally breaking open the ozone layer in our pursuit of discovery.

“Gases and particulates are emitted by rockets directly into the middle and upper atmosphere, where the protective ozone layer resides,” write the authors on a new paper. “These emissions have been shown to damage ozone,” something that we’re mere decades away from fixing after it was torn apart by the boom in aerosols back in the late 70s.

The Montreal Protocol was adopted in 1987 to reverse the hole burned into the ozone layer by humans' emissions, but just as full recovery is in our sights, scientists are warning that overlooking the impact an uptick in rocket launches could have on the upper atmosphere could see us slip back. 

Rocket launches require fuel for propulsion, and while the exact recipe used varies depending on the rocket, the common culprits are all capable of putting gases and particulates in the stratosphere. It’s a unique form of anthropogenic pollution as it’s able to infiltrate multiple layers of the atmosphere, with estimates putting around two-thirds of a launch’s emissions at heights above 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Earth’s surface, which is effectively the start of the ozone layer.

At such great heights, even small amounts of exhaust byproduct can have damaging effects as they see an increased lifespan here, explain the authors. And the pollution isn’t a one way street, either, as even re-entry sees “potentially significant amounts of nitrogen oxide gases” leaked into the atmosphere.

“The gases and particulates emitted by rockets as they punch through the stratosphere contribute to climate change and ozone depletion,” explain the study authors. “Greenhouse gas emissions from present-day rocket launches are insignificant compared to emissions from all other human activities, but could grow to equal the size of the aviation industry in coming decades.”                                                                   

To avoid reaching this point, the researchers urge that discussion around best practices for the industry not be squashed by the deep emotional investment many feel around space exploration. Rockets are a perfect example of a "charismatic technology", say the researchers, where the promise of what it might achieve can see our imaginations run away with themselves as we ignore the realities of its downsides.

If we’re going to be dipping in and out of the atmosphere with increasing frequency in years to come, they are suggesting that the near-Earth environment be subject to regulation in the same way that the surface of the planet is. 

“Externalisation of costs in environmental damage is a common pattern of global industrialisation,” write the authors. “Fortunately, there are many practical approaches from other areas of environmental impact to ensure potential ozone destruction can be avoided in launch development.”

If the space industry is to continue to grow and function in the long-term, moving forward in tandem with environmental regulation and atmospheric research could create a clearer picture of the impact of launches on stratospheric ozone. If future launches are conducted with “careful experiment and constant monitoring”, we can better understand their overall climate effect and innovate solutions that enable us to explore other planets without destroying our own.

Find an extensive list of proposed changes in the study, published in the Journal Of The Royal Society Of New Zealand.

Source

The only known filmed interview with Georges Lemaître, the Catholic priest and physicist who originally proposed the Big Bang theory back in 1931, has finally been rediscovered – nearly 60 years after it was originally aired on Belgian TV.

“What a gem, this interview,” Thomas Hertog, cosmologist and professor of theoretical physics at KU Leuven, told Belgium’s Flemish-language broadcaster VRT. “The vision of what the Big Bang was and was not that Lemaître expresses in this interview is very fascinating and very deep.”

While a short clip of the footage has been widely available for decades, the full interview was thought to be lost shortly after it originally aired. In fact, it hadn’t gone anywhere – it was still in the VRT archives, just hidden under layers of administrative mishaps.

“Unfortunately, due to a number of factors, the interview went undiscovered: the film sheet was miscategorized and Lemaître's name was misspelled,” Kathleen Bertrem of VRT Archive told VRT. “At the broadcaster, every film received a film card after broadcast. Substantive and technical data were noted on this sheet and then added to the catalogue. In this way the film collection was searchable.” 

“If there ever was a broadcast with Georges Lemaître, we should be able to find it in this paper catalogue,” she explained. “But no one knew about the incorrect classification and spelling error, so it [was] like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Now found, the interview – originally conducted in French, with Flemish subtitles – has been transcribed and translated into English by physicists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Vatican Observatory. 

“Georges Lemaître is undeniably one of the key physicists of the [20]th century and an important figure of the history of astronomy,” the researchers write. “A video interview of Georges Lemaître talking about his work is a historical gem. As such, we aim to make this recording as accessible as possible for the astronomy community, and the general public at large.”

“To our knowledge, it is the only video interview of Georges Lemaître in existence,” they add.

The 20-minute-long interview, featuring Lemaître discussing his ideas with Belgian journalist Jérôme Verhaeghe, was originally broadcast on February 14, 1964 – just three months before the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation would confirm his theory as the best explanation of the origins of the universe. 

But without this crucial smoking gun, physics in the early 1960s was still somewhat split between proponents of the Big Bang theory and the rival “Steady State” theory – the idea that the continuous creation of matter results in a constant density across the expanding universe. The contrast between the two cosmological models is a topic that Lemaître goes into in some depth in the interview, saying that he “cannot picture things working that way.”

“The principle of Steady State seemed to be in opposition to the Principle of Conservation of Energy. In opposition with basically the most secure and solid thing in physics,” he tells the interviewer. “[And] for my part […] I am opposed to [that static solution] in the sense that I don’t think that it is the tendency of modern physics to admit that there are global laws in the universe, absolute laws, laws that, in Hoyle’s expression, would imply a ‘design’, would imply a plan.”

Such a viewpoint might be surprising to those used to today’s sharp science-vs-religion divide – but Lemaître hardly shies away from discussing how his religious views coexist with his scientific theories. “It is […] very special to hear it here from his own mouth, including gestures, some hesitations, and a lot of expressive facial expressions,” said Hertog. “The way he unravels the knot of the Cause of All and creates space for a scientific as well as a religious or philosophical atmosphere is nothing short of sublime.”

While technically still incomplete – the very first question asked by Verhaeghe has been cut off, leaving only Lemaître’s response to begin the footage – the discovery of the interview is nevertheless an important and valuable find.

“Lemaître and others gave us the mathematical framework that forms the basis of our current efforts to understand our universe,” Satya Gontcho A Gontcho, a scientist at Berkeley Lab who worked on the translation of the interview, said in a statement. 

“Of all the people who came up with the framework of cosmology that we’re working with now, there’s very few recordings of how they talked about their work,” Gontcho A Gontcho said. “To hear the turns of phrase and how things were discussed…It feels like peeking through time.”

Source

Your gut has an obvious job: It processes the food you eat. But it has another important function: It protects you from the bacteria, viruses, or allergens you ingest along with that food. “The largest part of the immune system in humans is the GI tract, and our biggest exposure to the world is what we put in our mouth,” says Michael Helmrath, a pediatric surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center who treats patients with intestinal diseases. 

Sometimes this system malfunctions or doesn’t develop properly, which can lead to gastrointestinal conditions like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and celiac—all of which are on the rise worldwide. Studying these conditions in animals can only tell us so much, since their diets and immune systems are very different from ours.

In search of a better method, last week Helmrath and his colleagues announced in the journal Nature Biotechnology that they had transplanted tiny, three-dimensional balls of human intestinal tissue into mice. After several weeks, these spheres—known as  organoids—developed key features of the human immune system. The model could be used to mimic the human intestinal system without having to experiment on sick patients.

The experiment is a dramatic follow-up from 2010, when researchers at Cincinnati Children’s became the first in the world to create a working intestine organoid—but their initial model was a simpler version in a lab dish. A few years later, Helmrath says, they realized “we needed it to become more like human tissue.” 

Scientists elsewhere are growing similar miniature replicas of other human organs—including the brain, lung, and liver—to better understand how they develop normally and how things go awry to give rise to disease. Organoids are also being used as human avatars for drug testing. Since they contain human cells and display some of the same structures and functions as real organs, some researchers think they’re a better stand-in than lab animals.

“It’s incredibly important that when we are trying to create these platforms for testing drug efficacy and drug side effects in human tissue models that we actually make sure that we are as close to, and as complete as, the tissue in which the drug will work eventually in our human body. So, adding the immune system is an important part of that,” says Pradipta Ghosh, director of the Humanoid Center of Research Excellence at the University of California San Diego School, which is developing human organoids to screen and test drugs. Ghosh was not involved in the study.

To grow the organoid, the scientists started with induced pluripotent stem cells, which are created from mature human cells drawn from blood or skin. These have the ability to turn into any type of body tissue. By feeding the stem cells a specific molecular cocktail, the team coaxed them into intestinal cells. After growing for 28 days in a dish, the cells formed spheres of tissue just a few millimeters in diameter. 

The team carefully transplanted these spheres into mice that had been genetically engineered to suppress their own immune systems so that the organoid tissue would not be rejected. (The researchers transplanted the intestinal organoid next to each mouse’s kidneys, so it wasn’t actually connected to the animals’ digestive tracts.) To stimulate the organoids into producing human immune cells, they had previously given the mice human cord blood—a source of stem cells that could transform into the desired cells. 

After 20 weeks, the organoids had each grown to the size of a pea and contained around 20 types of human immune cells. “That is very similar to the populations we see in the human gut,” says Helmrath. At that point, the organoids had also formed human lymphoid follicles, or Peyer’s patches, important structures in the intestine that keep pathogens at bay by maintaining levels of healthy bacteria. 

These structures, Ghosh says, are like tonsils for the gut: They stop germs from making us sick. Other researchers have added immune cells to organoids made in a lab dish, but Ghosh says the Cincinnati team is unique in taking the extra steps of transplanting them into an animal so they develop working parts of a human immune system, including versions of these follicles. 

To test whether the immune cells were functional, the researchers exposed the organoids to E. Coli bacteria, which is commonly found in the human intestine. Afterward, they found that the Peyer’s patches produced M cells, immune signaling cells found in the lining of the gut. Helmrath says this indicates that the organoids’ immune system could respond to the presence of bacteria. Previous studies have shown that infection and inflammation spur the production of M cells. 

 Matthew Grisham, a gastroenterologist at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center who wasn’t involved in the new study, says the findings are exciting because these structures have a “human immune cell composition very similar to that of the developing human gut.” He says the organoid model will help researchers investigate the mechanisms responsible for intestinal infection, inflammation, and food allergies.

The Cincinnati researchers also hope their organoids could one day be used to treat people born with genetic defects that affect their digestive systems, or those who have lost intestinal function to cancer or inflammatory bowel diseases. 

That these organoids can flourish in a mouse is an encouraging sign that they might be able to grow on their own if transplanted into a person. Using induced pluripotent stem cells taken from patients, scientists could perhaps one day make customized tissue patches to help heal damaged organs. 

In the near-term, Helmrath says his team plans on making organoids from patients’ own cells to test out possible individualized therapies. “This is right around the corner,” he says.

Scientists Grew Mini Human Guts Inside Mice

(May require free registration to view)

"At first it was a joke... but now this has its problems," the 68-year-old told AFP at his homestead in the village of Bugisa in Butaleja district, a remote rural area of eastern Uganda.

"With my health failing and merely two acres of land for such a huge family, two of my wives left because I could not afford the basics like food, education, clothing."

Hasahya, who is currently unemployed but has become something of a tourist attraction in his village, said his wives now take birth control to stop the family expanding further.

"My wives are on contraceptives but I am not. I don't expect to have more children because I have learnt from my irresponsible act of producing so many children that I can't look after."

Hasahya's brood lives largely in a rapidly dilapidating house, its corrugated iron roof rusting away, or in about two dozen grass-thatched mud huts nearby.

He married his first wife in 1972 at a traditional ceremony when they were both about 17 and his first child Sandra Nabwire was born a year later.

"Because we were born only two of us, I was advised by my brother, relatives and friends to marry many wives to produce many children to expand our family heritage," Hasahya said.

- No fighting -

Attracted by his then status as a cattle trader and butcher, Hasahya said villagers would offer their daughters' hand in marriage, even some below the age of 18.

Child marriage was only banned in Uganda in 1995, while polygamy is allowed in the East African country according to certain religious traditions.

Hasahya's 102 children range in age from 10 to 50, while the youngest wife is aged about 35.

"The challenge is I can only remember the name of my first and the last born but some of the children I can't recall their names," he said as he rummaged through piles of old notebooks looking for details about their births.

"It's the mothers who help me to identify them."

But Hasahya can't even recall the names of some of his wives, and has to consult one of his sons, Shaban Magino, a 30-year-old primary school teacher who helps run the family's affairs and is one of the few to have received an education.

To resolve disputes in such a huge set-up, Hasahya says they have monthly family meetings.

A local official who oversees Bugisa, a village of about 4,000 people, said that despite the challenges, Hasahya has "brought up his children very well" and there had been no cases of theft or fighting for example.

- 'Barely enough' -

Bugisa's residents are largely peasants involved in small-scale farming of crops such as rice, cassava, coffee, or raising cattle.

Many members of Hasahya's family try to earn money or food by doing chores for their neighbours, or spend their days fetching firewood and water, often travelling long distances on foot.

Those at home sit around the grounds, some women weaving mats or plaiting hair, while the men play cards under the shelter of a tree.

When the midday meal of boiled cassava is ready, Hasahya saunters out of the hut where he spends most of his day, and calls out in a commanding voice for the family to line up to eat.

"But the food is barely enough. We are forced to feed the children once or on a good day twice," says Hasahya's third wife Zabina.

She said if she had known he had other wives, she would not have agreed to marry him.

"Even when I came and resigned myself to my fate... he brought the fourth, fifth until he reached 12," she added in despair.

Two of his wives have already left Hasahya, and another three now live in another town about two kilometres (1.2 miles) away because of the overcrowding at the homestead.

When asked why he thought more of his wives did not abandon him, Hasahya declared: "They all love me, you see they are happy!"

Source

Modelling found that increasing tree cover to 30 percent would shave off 0.4 degrees Celsius (0.7 degrees Fahrenheit) locally, on average, during hot summer months, they reported in The Lancet.

Of the 6,700 premature deaths attributed to higher temperatures in 93 European cities during 2015, one-third could have been prevented, according to the findings.

Currently, just under 15 percent of urban environments in Europe, on average, are covered by some kind of foliage.

The study is the first to project the number of premature deaths due to higher temperatures in cities that could be prevented by additional tree cover, said lead author Tamara Iungman, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).

(ISGlobal)

"We already know that high temperatures in urban environments are associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory failure, hospital admission, and premature death," she said in a statement.

"Our goal is to inform local policy and decision-makers about the benefits of strategically integrating green infrastructure into urban planning in order to promote more sustainable, resilient, and healthy urban environments."

Cities record higher temperatures than surrounding suburbs or countryside due to the so-called urban heat island effect.

This extra heat is caused primarily by a lack of vegetation, exhaust from air conditioning systems, along with dark-hued asphalt, and building materials that absorb and trap warmth.

Climate change has already amplified the problem. Last year, Europe saw its hottest summer on record, and second-warmest year.

(ISGlobal)

Health benefits

Heatwaves around the world are seeing record-breaking peaks, and have increased in duration in recent decades.

Today, cold conditions still cause more deaths in Europe than hot weather. But climate models project that heat-related illness and death will present a bigger burden to health services within a decade.

"This is becoming increasingly urgent as Europe experiences more extreme temperature fluctuations caused by climate change," said Iungman.

The researchers estimated mortality rates for people over 20 years old between June and August 2015, accounting for 57 million inhabitants in total.

This data was analyzed in relation to daily average city temperatures in two modeling scenarios.

The first compared the city temperature with and without urban heat islands. The second simulating temperature reduction if tree cover was increased to 30 percent.

On average, the temperature in cities was 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer during summer 2015 than in the surrounding countryside. The city with the highest difference – 4.1 degrees Celsius – was Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

Across all cities, 75 percent of the total population lived in areas at least one degree warmer, while 20 percent experienced temperatures at least two degrees higher.

Overall, cities with highest temperature-related mortality rates were in southern and eastern Europe.

"This is an important piece of research," commented Laurence Wainwright, a lecturer at the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

"Urban tree planting – on the right scale, in the right places, and under certain other conditions – likely leads to a modest-yet-real reduction in heat-related deaths in many urban areas."

Earlier studies have shown that green spaces can have additional health benefits such as reducing cardiovascular disease, dementia, and poor mental health, as well as improving cognitive functioning of children and the elderly.

© Agence France-Presse

Source

As much as we all desperately want it to be over, experts have concluded the COVID-19 pandemic remains a global health emergency. However, they're hoping we're reaching a transition point.

"In the past eight weeks, more than 170,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19," World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference.

"And that's just the reported deaths. We know the actual number is much higher."

In their latest meeting, WHO's International Health Regulations Emergency Committee concluded that "while eliminating this virus from human and animal reservoirs is highly unlikely, mitigation of its devastating impact on morbidity and mortality is achievable and should continue to be a prioritized goal."

The committee notes that health systems are struggling to cope with the current levels of COVID-19 on top of other diseases. The pandemic has only exacerbated global health workforce shortages.

"The jaded response would be 'well, obviously', from the forward-facing, acute health care responder's perspective," says Australian National University Emergency Consultant David Caldicott in response to the meeting.

"Emergency departments are full across the country, as a consequence of the downstream effects of the pandemic, both with increased demands, and a decreased capacity for flow, because of hospital bed occupancy."

But the reality that our healthcare workers are still facing is not reflected in the actions of the general population, with reductions in testing and reporting globally, highlighting one of the biggest current challenges: pandemic fatigue, which is hitting leaders and experts too.

"We have a worker shortage, including in our critical industries, and to neglect ways to prevent COVID spreading tears at the fabric of our society whether through excess deaths, no healthcare availability or difficulties in educating the next generation," says physician Karina Powers from Perth, Australia.

Despite these ongoing problems, many countries, including the US, have already – or are planning to soon – end their emergency health settings, which will expose patients to increasing costs for treatments. The US is currently experiencing around 500 known daily deaths from the virus.

"My message is clear: Do not underestimate this virus," Tedros warns. "It has and will continue to surprise us, and it will continue to kill unless we do more to get health tools to people that need them and to comprehensively tackle misinformation."

While not yet endemic, it's clear SARs-COV-2 has become permanently established in human and animal populations for the foreseeable future.

This means it's all the more important to continue the momentum for vaccinations, particularly in the most vulnerable people, the committee urges.

However, both the population and governments' response are waning in this critical area, too, even in countries like Australia that had initial strong vaccination rates.

"Some people seeking new bivalent boosters for fourth and fifth doses are denied access," says Murdoch University immunologist Cassandra Berry. "Our protective immune responses need a boost after waning but also broader coverage to combat the diverse array of spike mutations on the viruses and avoid post-viral complications (long COVID)."

As well as continuing with vaccinations, the UN report calls for continued support research into the virus and treatments, continued surveillance, early antiviral use, boosting protection measures during surges, and fighting disinformation.

"It is clear more needs to be done to reduce the excess deaths from COVID," says Powers. "This includes higher levels of booster vaccinations, delivery of safe indoor air in public settings, the use of masks in poorly ventilated indoor areas, the return to free widely accessible testing, and review of mitigations used in high-risk settings such as aged care facilities.

Continuing to class the pandemic as an emergency doesn't mean it's as severe a situation as before. Hybrid immunity from vaccinations and natural infections, as well as antivirals, have reduced its severity.

The goal is to transition to a more sustainable, long-term phase of COVID-19 management. But neglecting measures to reduce infections risks the progress that we have made.

"We remain hopeful that in the coming year, the world will transition to a new phase, in which we reduce hospitalizations and deaths," says Tedros, where "health systems are able to manage COVID-19 in an integrated and sustainable way."

The complete statement from the 14th International Health Regulations Emergency Committee meeting can be found here.

Source

Amanda Baker, an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and director of Mass General's Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, recently worked with colleagues from New York University and Georgetown to examine one potential response: mindfulness-based stress reduction.

The team compared the effectiveness of the intensive intervention with that of the commonly prescribed anxiety drug escitalopram. Participants in the study (published in JAMA Psychiatry) improved about the same amount after an eight-week course. We spoke with Baker about the research and its implications for treatment of mental health issues. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.

GAZETTE: How prevalent is anxiety disorder?

BAKER: Anxiety disorders are extremely prevalent. Depending upon the estimate, between 2% and 10% of the population experiences specific types of anxiety disorders, with 20% of the population having any current anxiety disorder diagnosis and nearly a third of the U.S. population experiencing significant anxiety in their lives.

GAZETTE: What treatments do we have for it?

BAKER: We have gold-standard treatments that have been through rigorous studies, both on the medication side—mostly SSRI-type medications—and the therapy side, with things like cognitive behavioral therapy. But there's a real press on providers these days and those things are hard to gain access to and becoming harder and harder. Symptoms of anxiety and depression increased during the pandemic. Where we would have seen significant symptoms in 30% of folks, we're now seeing them in 40 . We're also getting recommendations to do more screening for depression and anxiety, which is great, but that means there are even more folks screening positive and needing care.

This study came out of all of these pieces. We need more treatments and we need to evaluate whether our treatments are as good as these gold-standard treatments. One area that's gained a lot of attention is meditation and mindfulness. Some studies have shown that 15% of the population has at least dabbled with mindfulness or meditation, and it has been gaining popularity. The approach that we used in the study is mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), which is a specific eight-week intervention.

GAZETTE: What is MBSR?

BAKER: It was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at UMass and it's taken off. It's an eight-week course, with 2½ hours a week, plus 45 minutes of daily mindfulness homework prescribed—not that everyone does the prescribed amount—and a six-hour retreat at one point within those eight weeks. So, it's a heavy dose of mindfulness, but it can be rigorously studied and compared to other standard treatments that follow a similar-ish regimen. That includes medication, which often takes about eight weeks to take effect. In this case, we compared escitalopram, the generic of Lexapro, to MBSR.

GAZETTE: What about subclinical anxiety? Is that part of this picture as well?

BAKER: It is. A lot of folks experience symptoms of anxiety that don't necessarily cross the threshold into being a diagnosable anxiety disorder. When something is in what we call a disorder category, it causes a significant amount of distress in daily life and interferes with daily activities: work, socializing, school. But a good chunk of the population experiences anxiety symptoms that might not cross the threshold of interfering with their lives. They're still able to manage and get things done, but perhaps it's causing a lot of distress.

GAZETTE: What did you find in the study?

BAKER: We wanted to look at whether MBSR is non-inferior to this gold-standard escitalopram medication. And that's what the findings show. Clinically, both groups started at what we call a moderate-to-marked—like a moderate-plus—level of anxiety. They decreased to a mild, almost subclinical, level of anxiety. Both groups saw more than a one point drop in our primary outcome measure, a clinically significant amount of change.

GAZETTE: How relevant is this to what you do at the clinic? Is this testing two things that you do all the time?

BAKER: Our prescribers prescribe escitalopram every day, but we don't provide MBSR in our program because it's not commonly reimbursed by insurances. So, this is a service that most people have to pay for out of pocket and find a place that's providing it. One of the benefits of MBSR is that you don't have to have a clinical degree to be trained in it so many more providers can be trained and deliver this intervention. We hope that this study provides the evidence so insurance companies will reimburse for MBSR, such that we can provide it in our clinic.

GAZETTE: Is this seen as a potential tool for answering unmet mental health needs?

BAKER: Absolutely, but I think more work is needed. This was a rigorous dose of the treatment and it was all in person. We need to know if it's successful if it is delivered online live, if it is asynchronous, if it is on an app. There are lots of remaining questions. But the findings definitely provide evidence for another option. Right now, we're strapped in providing what we know is empirically supported. MBSR is another option and opens the door for—hopefully—other mindfulness-based interventions.

GAZETTE: What symptoms should a person look for if they have a sense that they might have a problem?

BAKER: The symptoms are going to differ from one person to the next. For some, there might be physical symptoms: racing heart, sweating, trouble breathing. For others, there might be thoughts or cognitive symptoms, worries—perhaps about the future or ruminations on the past. And then for others, it's emotional, with a lot of feelings. It takes many different forms—panic, distress—but the question is: Are any of the symptoms highly distressing and interfering with our daily lives? If so, reach out and speak to your primary care doctor or a mental health professional.

Source

RUSH electrophysiologist Erica Engelstein, MD, who specializes in treating heart rhythm disorders, shares five facts about AFib—including tips to prevent or help manage this condition that affects at least 2.7 million Americans.

1. You can have AFib and not even feel any symptoms

"The symptoms of AFib can feel scary and debilitating, or only mild," Engelstein says. These symptoms can include:

•     Palpitations

•     Rumbling or galloping feeling in the chest

•     Lightheadedness

•     Shortness of breath

•     Extreme fatigue

•     Chest pain

But some AFib episodes cause no symptoms at all.

"About half the patients do not feel these initial symptoms but develop other symptoms within days or weeks, such as feeling tired, short of breath with exertion, lack of energy or swelling of their feet. These delayed symptoms are related to congestive heart failure as a result of the abnormal heart rate and rhythm. A small subset of patients does not develop any symptoms at all even years after being in atrial fibrillation," Engelstein says.

That's why it's so important to have regular visits with your primary care provider—and to see a specialist if you've been diagnosed.

2. AFib causes up to one in four strokes, and they're more severe

AFib is the culprit in a staggering number of strokes. That's because it can cause blood to pool in the heart's upper chambers and form clots—which may travel to the brain, block the flow of blood and lead to a stroke.

"People with AFib are overall five times more likely to have a stroke, though the individual risk can range anywhere from less than one percent to 20 percent depending on the presence of certain additional risk factors," Engelstein says. The risk of AFib-related stroke also increases with age.

"Strokes due to AFib tend to be more severe with more damage to the brain and worse long-term effects," Engelstein says. "The vast majority of strokes related to AFib can be prevented with blood thinners or special procedures that plug the left atrial appendage where most strokes come from."

3. Lifestyle changes and medications can help you prevent AFib or manage risk factors

Some risk factors for AFib are out of your control, including age, gender or genetics. Age especially can increase risk even in the healthiest people.

"Thankfully, most risk factors for AFib can be controlled, either with medications or with lifestyle changes," Engelstein says.

AFib risk factors that you can manage with lifestyle changes and medication include obesity, sleep apnea, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart valve disease, thyroid disease, alcohol consumption and lack of exercise.

Here are a few tips to help manage your AFib risk factors:

• Exercise regularly. "As long as the heart rate is well controlled, patients with AFib should exercise at least for 30 minutes a day, five times a week," Engelstein says. "It is a good idea to monitor the heart rate during exercise in order to not exceed physiologic heart rates."

• Eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight. A diet designed for people with heart disease can be helpful for people with AFib. The American Heart Association suggests focusing your diet on fruits and vegetables and including foods that are low in sodium.

• Monitor your alcohol intake. "There is probably no safe amount of alcohol when it comes to AFib; though, some people are more sensitive than others," Engelstein says. "In a large study, it has been shown that consumption of even one glass of alcohol a day increases your risk of developing AFib by 16 percent."

• Manage other health conditions. Talk to your doctor about medications and other treatments for risk factors such as sleep apnea, high blood pressure and diabetes among others.

• Quit smoking. Smoking has toxic effects on all aspects of the heart including the rhythm. Talk to your doctor about ways to quit smoking.

• Manage stress levels. "Although stress does not directly cause AFib, it can influence conditions such as blood pressure and diabetes, which in turn can increase your risk," Engelstein says. "On the other hand, it has been shown that yoga, meditation and other means of stress reduction can decrease the risk of recurrence in patients who go in and out of AFib."

4. Treatment options have come a long way, and they keep getting better

"Treatment of atrial fibrillation has been rapidly evolving over the past two decades," Engelstein says. "The most effective treatment is catheter ablation, a same-day, minimally invasive procedure that treats the source of AFib in the left upper chamber of the heart."

In the best outcomes, ablation can reduce a person's time in AFib by more than 98%.

"Newer catheters, energy sources and imaging techniques have made this procedure safer and more effective. If this treatment can be performed in a timely manner, it can halt progression of the heart disease related to AFib."

Medications such as blood thinners (to prevent strokes) have also become more effective and manageable, no longer requiring dietary restrictions or frequent monitoring and dose adjustments. "Specific antiarrhythmic medications continue to be used as additional therapy for AFib and to control the heart rate," Engelstein says.

But some people with AFib may be unable to take blood thinners, particularly those who have a history of internal bleeding or frequent falls. An alternative is the WATCHMAN implant, a minimally invasive, one-time procedure to close off the left atrial appendage—a small pouch connected to the upper left chamber of the heart where clots form.

Treatments continue to improve, and many patients who experience AFib can manage the condition to the point where they are able to fully live their lives with very few limitations or restrictions.

"Equally important in preventing progression of AFib is managing risk factors if they are present," Engelstein says.

5. Your smartwatch or device may help you detect AFib

If you have an Apple Watch, a Fitbit, or another device that monitors your heart rate, it may help you detect an abnormal heart rhythm. While it cannot diagnose your AFib, detecting an arrhythmia can be the first sign that you need to see a doctor.

"Smartwatches that reliably detect atrial fibrillation are a game changer in managing patients with AFib," Engelstein says. "They are important in the initial diagnosis in patients who do not have symptoms. They are also important in the long-term follow-up of patients to detect recurrences and assess treatment effect."

If you use a wearable device that can monitor your heart rate, make sure to look for any abnormalities and report them to your doctor.

Source

It was Super Bowl Sunday in February 2019. Cynthia Rivers and her husband decided that their kids, ages seven and nine, deserved a long-promised treat for cleaning their rooms: the right to walk to Dunkin' Donuts by themselves. (Reason has changed her name to protect the family's anonymity.)

This was in Killingly, Connecticut, a suburban town in the northeast part of the state. The Rivers' lived near an elementary school, library, state police barracks, sidewalks, crosswalks, many Victorian-style homes, and the aforementioned donut shop. The kids gathered $7, and off they went.

A few minutes later, the River parents heard a knock at the door. It was the police.

The first cop to show up "said he didn't think it was safe for the kids to walk by themselves," Rivers tells Reason. "We told him that while we did feel it was safe, we agreed to not allow them to walk around town unsupervised."

"We thought that would have been the end of it," Rivers added, "until three more officers showed up."

The first cop sent Rivers' husband to retrieve the kids, who had only made it about two blocks. Then mom, dad, and the kids faced a barrage of questions.

"They told us that it wasn't safe for kids to walk down the street, that there are registered sex offenders all over town that could take them, that drug dealers were going to give them drugs, and that it was 'a different world now,'" says Rivers.

She tried to dispute what the police were saying, and one of them asked if she watched the news.

The police report, which was reviewed by Reason, makes clear that the police were obsessed with the possibility of sex offenders harming the children. Indeed, they pressed the Rivers to search the sex offender registry to learn which of their neighbors were on it.

The officers also claimed that they had received a dozen 911 calls about the kids during the short time they were gone. Rivers thought this was unlikely, as they had only made it past four other homes. But whatever the rationale, the officers proceeded to charge Rivers' husband with risk of injury to a minor. They charged Rivers separately for the same thing. Then they arrested her husband and took him away.

"I tried to convince the officers that we weren't doing anything wrong," says Rivers. "This was obviously futile, but I had to try. Then I went back inside to help with the kids. I found out later from my husband that after I went inside, the arresting officer said to him, 'If she talks to me again, I'm going to arrest you both and take away your kids.'"

Rivers husband was back home quickly after the arrest, and they began searching for a lawyer. But a few days later, a police sergeant visited the house and let the Rivers know that they were dropping the charges. He admitted that the law concerning child negligence was open to interpretation on the question of letting kids walk by themselves. Happily, the Rivers told the lawyer that his services wouldn't be necessary after all, because everything was settled.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. The police charges had gone away, but the Department of Children and Families (DCF) pursued its own investigation.

The DCF caseworker visited the family twice and interviewed everyone about their complete history.

"She was looking for problems," says Rivers.

Rivers tried to explain to the caseworker that the police had overreacted, but the caseworker maintained that the parents had somehow jeopardized their kids safety. When Rivers revealed that she had received therapy for depression some years before, the caseworker weaponized this information—and insisted she return to therapy.

Eventually, DCF closed the case, too. While this may seem like a happy ending, it has had a lasting, negative impact. Rivers says she waited three years—until her daughter turned 12—to let her go for another walk unsupervised.

Let Grow, the nonprofit I helm, is trying to change the neglect laws so that simply trusting your kids in the outside world is not reason enough to trigger investigations like the ones the Rivers endured. Connecticut is contemplating a "reasonable childhood independence" law that would establish a clearer bar for neglect: likely danger, rather than any danger an imaginative person might think of.

"I've lived in this area most of my life," says Rivers. "I've gone walking and jogging all around this town, by myself, at all hours of the day and night, and met and talked to many local people. I have never felt threatened by a single person in this town until meeting those officers and the social worker."

Source

It’s pertinent to keep in mind, however, that this feature is still in its early stages of development and has not yet been integrated into Google Chrome Canary or any other beta testing platforms. As a result, users will have to wait for a bit before they can start using it on their devices.

The new feature aims to work by giving users the ability to pick out text within an image and translate it into the language of their choice. This upgrade is crucial as the current full webpage translation feature falls short when it comes to translating text in posters and other embedded images. With the new feature, users will be able to access the information they require with ease, eliminating the need to depend on external translation tools or services. All you will have to do is select the text you want translated and hit the translate button. The feature will then utilize Google's advanced translation algorithms to translate the text into the language that you specify, and display the result on the screen.

This feature is likely to be a game-changer for many people. Although it is still in its infancy in terms of development and has yet to be integrated into any beta testing platforms, it is expected to make foreign languages and images that contain them easy to navigate in the Google Chrome space. 

However, the company has recently chosen to discontinue the development of Google Chrome's screenshot function as most users prefer using third-party tools and services for this purpose. So, even though this new feature solves a real-world problem and would make it easier to navigate otherwise potentially problematic language barriers, there’s no telling whether this feature will make it to term. 

Third-party utilities for this kind of function already exist, and if the existence of comparable third-party software was enough reason to cancel the screenshot feature, it might spell the end for the image translation utility before it’s even implemented. All we can do is wait and see.

Source

Won’t somebody please think of the insects?!

Without the Sun, life on Earth would have had no hope of getting off the ground. A star to warm our little rocky planet helped create conditions that meant life could unfold in this tiny corner of the cosmos. Yet somehow, some humans appear to have developed allergies to sunlight.

Sunlight is made up of an electromagnetic radiation spectrum that includes visible light, infrared (heat), and ultraviolet (UV), the last of which we can’t see or feel but is the culprit of a range of Sun damage that spans from irritating to painful and deadly. 

We spoke to leading Sun allergy expert Dr Robert Sarkany, Head of Photodermatology at St John’s Institute of Dermatology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London, about the known and lesser-known allergies to sunlight. You won’t leave the house without sunscreen after reading this.

So, can you really be allergic to the Sun? 

RS: The short answer is yes. In lots of different ways.

How does the Sun affect the body?

RS: If you break up sunlight with a prism, do the Isaac Newton thing, you'll find you get a fan of rainbow colors, but just all the visible ones, from the shortest to longest wavelengths. However, if you put your hand in it you won't see anything, but it'll feel hot; that's the infrared. You can't see and you can't feel anything, but if you keep your hand there for long enough, you will sunburn. That’s called ultraviolet (UV) and that's 5 percent of what the Sun sends out to us.

UV can penetrate the skin because it just so happens that the energy in a UV photon matches the energy gap between electron orbitals in the sort of carbon-containing molecules that make us up and by that, I mean proteins, DNA, and, lipids etc. So, that's a very physicsy way of saying that UV chemically changes the biochemicals that make our pathways, and so any bits of the body that are exposed to daylight will change anywhere it gets through. It’ll get through the first millimeter or two of skin, it will get onto the eyes, and what you will have is the very worrying situation that all the time the cells are being exposed, their DNA is being changed, and you get mutations and changes in the DNA.

Any sort of long-term cells, like the stem cells that are millimeters down in the skin, you suddenly find that you've changed the genetic code. You’re going to get all sorts of things suddenly appearing after exposure, which are sort of modified, chemically altered versions of proteins that take different shapes. And your immune system is going to turn around and say, “Oh, don't like the look of that, that's clearly something that shouldn't be there.” So you end up with a load of stuff that looks foreign and your skin starts mounting all these auto-immune reactions against bits of you that have been a bit damaged. 

What are the body’s defenses against sunlight and UV light? 

RS: Essentially, daylight is a uniquely ubiquitous, potentially very dangerous, environmental thing, which is clearly damaging anything it encounters in the body. As a result of this, we’ve had to develop a very, very sophisticated immune defense system to deal with this major threat that can cause cancer, autoimmune disease, induce mutations in DNA etc.

So, how the hell do you deal with that? You have three major responses: you produce pigment [in the skin] so that less damage happens tomorrow. You tan up quite quickly to protect against UV exposure so if the same thing happens tomorrow it will be absorbed and not get to the DNA.  

Subscribe to our newsletter and get every issue of CURIOUS delivered to your inbox free each month.

You also have an intracellular, complex pathway of DNA repair to look for all those bits of DNA damage, and nip them out before they turn into proper mutations like cancer. The cells whose DNA is irreparably damaged are thrown into cell suicide, also known as apoptosis. They die, and that causes the reaction that we see as sunburn.

How do we avoid an autoimmune disease being triggered by exposure to daylight? 

RS: The immune system in skin is profoundly immune suppressed for about three days after exposure to UV and three days is long enough for all the UV damage and altered components like proteins in the skin to be cleared out and got rid of. However, during that three-day period, what you don’t want is to mistake collagen or something normal that has been slightly altered by UV for something which needs to be attacked, inducing an immune response against it. Then, unfortunately, that immune response might start attacking your collagen that has not been UV altered, and you've produced an autoimmune disease.

If anything slips past the defenses of those three responses, you will end up with things that you don't want to happen, pathological things happening when that person's skin is exposed to UV.

What are the different types of Sun allergies, and how we can treat them?  

Polymorphic light eruption (prickly heat)

RS: The most common sun allergy in temperate zones, polymorphic light eruption, sometimes called prickly heat, affects one in six people. A few hours after exposure, certain parts of the body (the chest and neck, upper back, shoulders, and thighs) will have an extremely uncomfortable, red bumpy rash, which stays for up to seven to 10 days and then disappears. These people have a slightly more active immune response in that three-day period after exposure. 

For really severe attacks, we use immunosuppressing medications, so steroid creams and tablets. For a really bad attack, we can use UVB in a controlled setting to expose the skin to very precise doses and it can actually do what's called hardening of the skin or desensitization of the skin for a few months afterwards, which works very well in many people.

Chronic actinic dermatitis (UV-related eczema)

Less common but can be extremely severe is chronic actinic dermatitis, in which absolutely tiny amounts of UV can induce a really severe dermatitis – a very severe version of eczema in the areas where daylight has been. It can cause dry, inflamed, very itchy skin that can be swollen or weeping on the hands, forearms, face, and neck for up to six months or a year. Most of the normal treatments for eczema are insufficient, so many patients are only treatable with very strong immune-suppressing tablets or injections. These people should avoid the Sun because the triggering dose for another flare is often as low as 120 seconds in daylight. Over a five-year period, for about 50 percent of people, it will disappear.

Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP)

Then there are the rarer but very severe genetic diseases that cause photosensitivity. There is a family of inherited diseases called porphyria that all occur due to the accumulation of chemicals internally called porphyrins (essential for the function of hemoglobin).

The one that causes the most severe hypersensitivity is called erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) – an inherited lack of an enzyme in the pathway of heme. In people with EEP, in the thinner areas of skin – the face, tops of the feet, and backs of the hands – the porphyrin becomes toxic, it damages whatever it's around as a result of being exposed to daylight. It is caused by visible blue light, not UV, and damages blood vessels in the skin, causing terrible severe pain that can go on for three or four days. These patients have an extremely painful lifelong photosensitivity problem. It was first recognized in 1961, but in the last few years, for the first time, effective treatments appear to be coming through. One drug that has gone past trial stage increases pigmentation in the skin, which should not necessarily be very helpful in EPP, but it appears to have other effects on the skin, which do seem to be rather effective.

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP)

Rare, but devastating, is xeroderma pigmentosum (XP). I mentioned how, fortunately, we have an effective and sophisticated DNA repair system. But if you happen to have a mutation in one of the genes which encodes the proteins that are part of this DNA repair pathway, then you have an inherited genetic lack of DNA repair in these cells. You can't repair the DNA damage, which means every time these people go outside if it is not dark or nighttime, there will be damage that is not being repaired in all their skin cells, which will turn into mutations. So these patients, if they're not very, very well UV protected by the age of five or six, may develop multiple skin cancers, eye damage, and eye cancers as well. In areas where health service access is poor, the average lifespan is 13 or 14 years old.

In more developed countries where there are better health services but also where there may be less sunshine and sunscreens and other methods of UV protection are more accessible, lifespan can be longer. With specialist services, what we're finding is that many people can live a nearly normal lifespan if they have very extreme and absolute protection.

Hydroa vacciniforme (HV)

Hydroa vacciniforme (HV) tends to come on in children five to 10 years old as a result of severe photosensitivity due to the immune system – it’s a proper allergic reaction. Just 10 to 20 minutes of long wavelength UV radiation (UVA) exposure and you get blisters, big, red, itchy spots that come up on the face and hands, sometimes filled with pus. When they heal after a few weeks, they can leave very deep pock-mark scars. Only in recent years, and we’ve been very involved in this, has the cause of this disease been understood. HV has turned out unexpectedly to be due to chronic active Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) infection. In other words, once those people are exposed to EBV, which generally causes glandular fever, it appears the immune system is not capable of eliminating it.

The EBV is infecting certain types of T lymphocytes – preventative immune cells – and when UVA goes into the skin of somebody with HV, the infected T lymphocytes seem to be allergic to UVA and dramatically react whenever the skin is exposed. So, HV is a rare and previously not very well recognized way in which chronic active EBV infection in the whole body can cause problems. It can be very life-restricting but in many people, it just goes away. Presumably, the immune system is managing to eliminate EBV and the photosensitivity goes.

Solar urticaria

There’s a horrible condition called solar urticaria, which is the posh word for hives. Hives is very common, where people get a release of histamine and they get these nettle-like rashes that come up for an hour or three and then go down again. What is rare is the solar version. It comes in a very severe form and is a result of an allergy to UV or visible light in sunshine. You don’t just get nettle-looking rashes, you get half an hour of intensely itchy, swollen red rashes on every single square inch of skin that's not covered by clothes when you go out and it can be from minimal amounts of daylight.

The problem with it is that yes, it goes away within half an hour, it’s not EPP or chronic actinic dermatitis, with bouts going on for days or weeks, but what you've got is this intensely unpleasant thing every time you walk outside the door. People are effectively imprisoned in their houses during daylight hours. And even then they often have to have UV protective window films and things like that. So it can be very unpleasant even though it's not a dangerous disease. It can occur at any age, but young adults are the most commonly affected, and it can go on for decades. We do have improved treatments, injections or tablets, and it can go away on its own.

Photocontact dermatitis

Finally, there's a thing called photocontact dermatitis, which is not really a sun allergy, but an allergy to certain chemicals in sunscreens. With a few of these chemicals, particularly in sunscreens and in nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory gels and creams like Nurofen or ibuprofen that are put on the skin, the allergy doesn't happen unless you also have UV from sunshine that can trigger that particular chemical allergy in that person.

So there’s a dramatic range of Sun allergies, from the common and irritating “it’s going to mess up my holiday” to the life-restricting and devastatingly life-threatening, which, thankfully, is a bit rarer.

This article first appeared in Issue 4 of our free digital magazine CURIOUS.  

Source

The discovery of an Ancient Egyptian mummification workshop in Saqqara has enabled researchers to reveal the secret recipes that embalmers used to preserve different body parts almost three millennia ago. Astonishingly, many of the ointments involved in the process contained ingredients from far-flung parts of the world, suggesting that the Egyptians’ passion for mummification helped to prop up an ancient global trade network.

Dating to the 26th Dynasty, the embalming facility was found close to the pyramid of King Unas and is thought to have been in use between 664 and 525 BCE. While excavating the underground workshop, archaeologists came across 121 bowls and beakers inscribed with embalming instructions.

Among the information written on these vessels were commands such as “to put on his head” and “bandage or embalm with it,” while others were labeled with the names of embalming substances like “antiu” or “sefet”. Using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, the researchers were able to determine the chemical composition of the residues contained within 31 of these receptacles, thereby revealing the exact recipes used for different stages of the embalming process.

“We have known the names of many of these embalming ingredients since ancient Egyptian writings were deciphered,” explained excavation leader Susanne Beck from the University of Tübingen in a statement seen by IFLScience. “But until now, we could only guess at what substances were behind each name.”

Prior to this stunning discovery, researchers had attempted to identify these substances based on a few ancient texts, including a vague mummification manual that is thought to have been written around 1450 BCE. However, the results of the researchers’ chemical analysis reveal that Egyptologists had been wide of the mark in their assumptions about some of these materials.

For example, the substance referred to as “antiu” has generally been translated as myrrh or frankincense, yet results showed that it is in fact a blend of cedar oil, juniper/cypress oil, and animal fats. Another important ingredient called “sefet”, meanwhile, was revealed to be “a scented unguent (fat-based formula) with plant additives.”

A total of eight vessels were inscribed with instructions for embalming the head, all of which contained mixtures of Pistacia resin, animal fat, beeswax, and castor oil. A further six pots contained information regarding the substances used to wash corpses, reduce their odor, and soften the skin, as well as recipes for treating the liver and stomach. 

“Embalmers used the substances for their specific biochemical properties, as Pistacia resin, elemi, dammar, oils, bitumen and beeswax have antibacterial or antifungal and odoriferous properties, and thus help to preserve human tissue and reduce unpleasant smells,” write the study authors. “The hydrophobic and adhesive properties of tars, resins, bitumen and beeswax were useful to seal skin pores, exclude moisture and to treat linen wrappings.”

That mummifiers were able to select these ingredients without any apparent knowledge of microbes is staggering, especially when considering that many of the substances used weren’t available in Egypt and had to be imported from exotic locations. Resin from the elemi tree, for instance, would have been obtained from either tropical Africa or Southeast Asia, while gum from the dammar tree can only have come from Southeast Asia.

Other substances like Pistacia resin, olive oil, and cedar oil would have been imported from elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Noting the international selection of mummification materials, the researchers say their discovery provides “a glimpse into the trade and exchange systems required to run a comprehensive embalming industry.”

“Ultimately, Egyptian mummification probably played an important role in the early emergence of global networks,” said study author Maxime Rageot.

The research has been published in the journal Nature.

Source

City planners are questioning the point of parking garages

Former US Air Force major Even “Jolly” Rogers is worried about a space war. “Conflict exists on a continuum that begins with competition and ultimately leads into full-scale conflict like what you’re seeing in Ukraine,” he says. The US, he adds, is already “in active competition with Russia and China for freedom of action and dominance of the space domain. And it’s evolving very quickly.”

So on January 26 last year, the former US Air Force major incorporated True Anomaly, Inc to “solve the most challenging orbital warfare problems for the US Space Force,” he later tweeted.

According to a recent filing with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC), True Anomaly is now gearing up for its first orbital mission. In October, True Anomaly hopes to launch two Jackal “orbital pursuit” spacecraft aboard a SpaceX rocket to low earth orbit. The Jackals will not house guns, warheads, or laser blasters, but they will be capable of rendezvous proximity operations (RPO)—the ability to maneuver close to other satellites and train a battery of sensors upon them. This could reveal their rivals’ surveillance and weapons systems, or help intercept communications. 

In their first mission, dubbed Demo-1, the Jackals will merely spy on each other, using thrusters, radar, and multi-spectral cameras to approach within a few hundred meters. If that goes well, Rogers envisages deploying thousands of autonomous spacecraft in service of the US military, controlled by a team of human operators and AI “to pursue adversaries wherever they fly, and to provide the tools of accountability.”

Those tools start with understanding what technologies America’s adversaries are deploying in space. “But an active defense is going to be required,” says Rogers, now True Anomaly’s CEO. “If you take the job of defense and protection of the domain seriously, you have to have the ability to do the joint functions of maneuver and fires.” In military speak, “fires” means kinetic weapons like guns and shells, as well as jamming, electronic warfare, and cyberattacks.  

Nothing on True Anomaly’s website suggests that it is developing its own offensive weapons. However, in a series of posts last summer, Rogers tweeted: “Tactically disabling enemy spacecraft can be the difference between the loss of an entire Carrier Strike Group or its survival … And there are many ways to destroy spacecraft that don’t ruin the environment. After all, they are just floating computers.”

RPO itself is nothing new. In a report last September, the Secure World Foundation, a private foundation promoting cooperative solutions in space, detailed dozens of military RPO operations in geostationary and low earth orbits since the Cold War. Most of these involve American, Russian, or Chinese spacecraft sidling up to each other’s satellites, presumably to see what they look like or to eavesdrop on their communications.

There are also emerging peaceful uses of RPO, such as space tugs that can repair or relocate failed satellites, or remove dangerous space junk. The Secure World Foundation helps run an organization called Confers that is setting voluntary technical standards for commercial RPO. True Anomaly is one of around 60 Confers members. “If we ever want to do things like cleaning up space debris, we have to develop these technologies,” says Brian Weeden, the foundation’s director of planning. However, True Anomaly is the first RPO startup explicitly focusing on the military market, he says.  

Rogers’s last job for the government was leading teams within US Space Command that planned how and when to deploy defensive and offensive military space systems. He and his cofounders, Dan Brunski, Tom Nichols, and Kyle Zakrzewski, also former Air Force and Space Force officers, “knew the problem better than anybody else, dealt with the limitations of technology on a day-to-day basis, and were frustrated with those limitations,” Rogers says. Rather than wait for a large industrial defense contractor to get around to it, they decided to solve the problem themselves. The deployment of space weapons, he says, “is much closer than most people would think.”

According to US Security Exchange Commission filings, True Anomaly has already raised over $23 million from investors. This includes a December investment from Narya, a venture capital firm cofounded by US senator JD Vance, a MAGA-leaning Ohio Republican. (Rogers says that True Anomaly itself has no political affiliation.) 

The company recently signed a lease on a 35,000-square-foot factory in the suburbs of Denver, colourado. As well as manufacturing the Jackal satellites, True Anomaly engineers are designing a cloud-based control system to integrate autonomous agents and human operators, using commercial game engines like Unity to build interactive real-time applications and developing high-fidelity physics software to help the Jackals maneuver in space. True Anomaly has already applied for a trademark covering, among other things, hardware and software for “orbital space-to-space imagery, rendezvous proximity, and target acquisition systems.” 

“What is different about True Anomaly is the way it seems to be presenting its satellite as more of a pursuit system, than an imaging or an intelligence gathering system,” says Kaitlyn Johnson, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. “This does concern me because it could cause unintentional escalation. Especially with the founder’s Air Force background, it might be read by our adversaries as a military-directed company that was starting to pursue this capability.”

The company’s first challenge could be keeping its own floating computers intact. “Cooperative RPO is already hard,” says Johnson. “You can see that from the demonstrations by Astroscale and Northrop with their servicing satellites, which were years in the planning.” A cooperative RPO mission by NASA in 2005 called DART failed when the spacecraft malfunctioned, crashed into its target satellite, and was destroyed. 

Pursuit missions of adversarial satellites are likely to be much riskier still, says Johnson: “You don’t have the same data coming from the other satellite. You maybe don’t have the diagrams and diagnostics of what the satellite looks like so that you know what you’re about to encounter.”

Any collision in orbit can generate many thousands of pieces of space junk, each of which could damage other satellites, creating yet more debris. Researchers worry about increasing orbital debris ultimately triggering a catastrophic cascade known as the Kessler Syndrome. Rogers says that collision avoidance is a possibility “that we track very closely and aggressively. We’re committed to acting responsibly and sustainably in the space domain.”

Rogers himself is no stranger to risk. Before starting True Anomaly, he founded and led a crypto hedge fund called Phobos Capital. And prior to that, he incorporated a company called 3720 to 1, Inc—a reference to the odds of Han Solo successfully navigating an asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back, according to C-3PO. 

Whether Rogers’ pursuit of a satellite venture is more likely to succeed, or just another piece of gung-ho science fiction, should be a lot clearer after SpaceX’s rocket launches in October.

Enter the Hunter Satellites Preparing for Space War

(May require free registration to view)

During the launch of space shuttle Columbia in 2003 a chunk of foam fell off the external tank and struck the orbiter's left wing.

NASA

 

Leaden skies and chilly air greeted Milt Heflin 20 years ago today when he pulled into the large parking lot outside Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

Although space shuttle Columbia was due to return to Earth after a two-week mission, the center was quiet on a Saturday morning. When Heflin, chief of the flight director office at NASA, walked into Mission Control, he found the observation room nearly empty. While the shuttle's seven astronauts made their final preparations to enter Earth's atmosphere, Heflin chatted amiably with the room's only other occupant, a mission operations chief named Ron Epps.

 

Through large glass windows, the two looked out over Mission Control. As the shuttle's ground track began to cross over the United States, making its approach across the southern tier of states toward Florida, Heflin began to sense that all was not well. "I got the feeling that something was not right from the movements of the flight controllers," he said.

 

Heflin and Epps quieted themselves and listened to the mission audio more closely. Soon, they saw the mission operations director, John Shannon, hastily get up from his position behind the flight director and grab a large notebook that contained the flight contingency procedures. Shannon exited Mission Control and moments later entered the viewing room. Heflin knew where Shannon was headed: to the nearby suite of Johnson Space Center Director Jefferson D. Howell.

 

As Shannon passed through the viewing room, Heflin asked, "John, what's up?"

 

Shannon offered a simple answer, "We lost them."

 

He was referring to the seven astronauts on board Columbia—Commander Rick Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, and specialists Michael P. Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David M. Brown, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon. They died at about 9 am local time due to a failure of the shuttle's thermal protection system, caused by a chunk of foam that had struck the spacecraft's wing two weeks earlier during launch. First, the shuttle's crew cabin suffered a depressurization, followed by a violent rotation of the vehicle and hot gasses entering the spacecraft as it flew over Texas.

 

This happened 20 years ago, on February 1, 2003. In recounting that terrible morning, Heflin choked up. "It still breaks me up today," he said during a recent interview.

Broken safety culture

The loss of the space shuttle was a wrenching tragedy for NASA, the nation, and the world. Mission specialist Chawla was born in India before she moved to the United States in 1982. Payload Specialist Roman was the first Israeli astronaut.

 

The shuttle would be grounded for more than two years, and it was only brought back in August 2005 so that NASA could use its capacious payload bay to complete the construction of the International Space Station. In 2011, the winged vehicle was retired for good.

 

For NASA, the resulting analysis from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board produced a damning indictment of the agency's safety culture.

 

"Cultural traits and organizational practices detrimental to safety were allowed to develop," the report stated. NASA engineers and decision-makers relied on past successes with the shuttle as a substitute for sound engineering practices. Moreover, organizational barriers stifled differences of opinion and made it difficult for lower-level employees to bring forward safety concerns to management.

 

Simply put, NASA had gotten complacent.

 

In Columbia's case, managers had observed foam falling off the shuttle's external tank during many previous launches. It had not caused serious damage to the space shuttle before, so why should it this time? And while there were some concerns about this particular foam incident—lower-level engineers at NASA on three occasions requested images of a potentially damaged shuttle in space from US Department of Defense satellites—they were never acted upon by senior managers. Transcripts of meetings of Columbia's Mission Management Team, chaired by Linda Ham, revealed virtually no discussion of the issue.

 

So the fatal damage to the orbiter's left wing was not discovered until after it was far too late to save seven astronauts on board Columbia. They became the third major loss of crew in the space agency's history.

Two decades after the Columbia disaster, is NASA’s safety culture fixed?

To an unfamiliar eye, the press release from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health two weeks ago looked pretty routine. Its language was a little unnerving, maybe, but phrased carefully: Analysts had discovered a resident with a strain of gonorrhea that showed “reduced response to multiple antibiotics,” but that person—and a second with a similar infection—had been cured.

To a civilian, the announcement may have felt like bumping over a little wave in a boat: a moment of being off-balance, then back to normal. To people in public health and medicine, it felt more like being on the Titanic and spotting the iceberg.

Here is what the news actually said: A disease so old and basic that we barely think about it, even though it affects almost 700,000 Americans a year, is overcoming the last antibiotics now available to treat it. If it gains the ability to evade those drugs, our only options will be desperate searches for others that aren’t approved yet—or a return to a time when untreated gonorrhea caused crippling arthritis, blinded infants as they were born, and made men infertile through testicle damage and women via pelvic inflammatory disease.

The wearying thing, to professionals, is that they saw the iceberg coming. Gonorrhea is not like Covid, a new pathogen that took us by surprise and required heroic research efforts and medical care. It’s a well-known foe, as old as recorded history, with a predictable response to treatment and an equally predictable record of gaining antibiotic resistance. 

Nevertheless, it is getting ahead of us. The Massachusetts discovery “is alarming,” says Yonatan Grad, an infectious-disease physician and researcher and associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “It is an affirmation of a trend that we knew was happening. And the expectation is, it’s going to get worse.”

A bit more detail on the announcement: The Massachusetts department said that the person had been diagnosed with a novel strain of gonorrhea that was carrying a constellation of traits never before detected in one bacterial sample in the US. Those traits included a genomic signature—previously seen in patients in the UK, Asia, and one person in Nevada—called the penA60 allele. But genomic analysis showed that it also exhibited, for the first time, full resistance to three antibiotics and some resistance to three more. One of those is the drug of last resort in the US: an injectable cephalosporin antibiotic called ceftriaxone. 

In 2020, the CDC declared that physicians should only administer ceftriaxone against gonorrhea because all the other antibiotics historically used against the infection had lost effectiveness. Fortunately, the substantial dose recommended by the CDC still worked for this patient. It also cured the second person, whom the health department says has no connection to the first and was carrying the same strain with the same resistance pattern. But to experts, that reduced susceptibility indicated ceftriaxone could also be on its way out.

“This situation is both a warning and an opportunity,” says Kathleen Roosevelt, director of Massachusetts’ Division of STD Prevention and HIV Surveillance, emphasizing that rates of gonorrhea are at historic highs across the US. To try to curb that trend, her agency pushed out instructions to every frontline health care professional in the state, asking them to extensively interview patients who test positive, encourage those who’ve received treatment to come back to be sure they’re cured—and, crucially, change the way clinics test patients for infection to begin with.

That last request hints at why the emergence of gonorrhea has been so hard to control. The bacterium is very good at amassing mutations that protect it against antibiotics. It churned through sulfa drugs, the first antibacterials, in the 1940s; penicillin and tetracycline, some of the earliest antibiotics, by the 1980s; and fluoroquinolones such as Cipro by the mid-2000s. Until two years ago, successful treatment relied on administering azithromycin, a macrolide introduced in the mid-1980s, alongside ceftriaxone—but in revised CDC guidelines in 2020 the agency removed azithromycin from the regimen because resistance to it had spiked. As early as 2012, academic and CDC researchers warned in the New England Journal of Medicine that “untreatable gonococcal infection” was on the way.

Aside from being good at protecting itself, gonorrhea poses a challenge that other bacterial infections—pneumonia, for instance—do not. Because it can be a stigmatized disease, people may be reluctant to go to their regular physicians, and so public health departments set up freestanding clinics. That imposed the need to deliver a cure in one dose—first pills, then the ceftriaxone shot—in case people didn’t come back. 

Public clinic use isn’t universal, of course. Gay and bisexual men who take PrEP, pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV, must be tested for STDs periodically to keep their prescriptions, and that is equally likely to happen in private offices or group practices. And the Massachusetts department says it learned of its first case via primary care. But public funding for sexual health has been repeatedly cut—by 40 percent since 2003, according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. And primary care practitioners aren’t equally thorough in interrogating their patients’ sex lives. 

“We know that clinicians often aren’t super comfortable talking about sexual health, and patients aren’t either,” says Elizabeth Finley, director of communications at the National Coalition of STD Directors, the professional association for STD chiefs such as Roosevelt. “So recommendations to be tested can get skipped over, or requests aren’t heard.”

The possibility that people at risk would want to keep their sexual health separate from the rest of their medical care, and might not be diligent about coming back to clinics, drove a change in testing that accidentally paved the way for gonorrhea to surge. In the 1990s, clinics began switching from traditional ways of identifying bacteria—take a swab, swish it over a plate, incubate the culture until something grows—to nucleic-acid rapid tests that were more sensitive  and delivered faster results. But the unintended consequence of never culturing the bacteria was losing sight of how it was gaining resistance—because ascertaining drug susceptibility, or sequencing for genomic information, requires having an organism to test.

Once that problem became evident, separate surveillance programs were set up to cope. The Massachusetts case came to light thanks to a program established in 2013; it requires that every positive test be reported to the state’s department within 24 hours and any bacterial isolate be sent to a state lab. The CDC runs the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project, which tracks the emergence of resistance in 32 cities and one military base by funding health departments to collect at least 25 bacterial samples a month from men who have tested positive. (A separate program tracks the disease in women.)

It’s a keyhole view into the problem, perhaps displaying the part of the iceberg above the water. It was developed before sequencing became cheap and widely accessible and doesn’t deliver as much information as researchers and clinicians would like. “It’s become a surrogate,” says Margaret Hammerschlag, a physician-researcher and the program director of pediatric infectious diseases at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn. “I have no idea what’s going on with gonorrhea in my hospital, but because one of the sites is in New York City, they are generating data for here.”

Rising resistance, rising rates of a still-stigmatized disease, lagging technology: Together they make gonorrhea a hard problem, one that has to be faced in a time of deep disease fatigue. Newer antibiotics—zoliflodacin, from Entasis Therapeutics, and gepotidacin, made by GSK—have both been in clinical trials for years, but neither is available yet. Older drugs are under consideration, but before using them health authorities would have to determine whether other bacteria residing in patients’ bodies might develop resistance as well. (One of the drugs being tested—ertapenem, belonging to a last-resort class called carbapenems—is already losing effectiveness against gut bacteria like E. coli that cause grave hospital infections.) Grad has been working for several years to turn the search for resistance inside out by mining genomes to identify signatures of drug susceptibility instead of resistance and developing a diagnostic test to indicate which older drug might still work.

It all presents a lesson that we could have learned from the Covid pandemic: For a pathogen, surveillance—noticing its emergence and monitoring where it moves—isn’t sufficient to control disease. We leave ourselves vulnerable unless we build the capacity to respond to it and treat it as well. 

“Systems get the outcomes they’re designed to get,” Finley says. “In the US, we have not optimized the way we respond to sexually transmitted infections. So we have multiple breakdowns in public health: the emergence of these pathogens, an underfunded system, and an issue that we’re not willing to talk about. It’s just a perfect storm.”

The Last Drug That Can Fight Gonorrhea Is Starting to Falter

(May require free registration to view)

The audacious rescue plan that might have saved space shuttle Columbia

As employee unrest simmered at Apple in late 2021, Tim Cook, the company’s chief executive, sent an email reminding staff that the world’s most valuable company would do everything in its “power to identify those who leaked.”

The email spoke to the tech giant’s strictly enforced culture of secrecy that had kindled frustration among a group of former and current employees who collected accounts of verbal abuse, harassment and discrimination at Apple. Two of those former employees complained about the company’s policies to the National Labor Relations Board.

More than a year later, the labor board has found merit in the claim that Apple and its top executives have violated federal law with actions and policies that discourage employees from joining together to advance their interests.

A spokeswoman for the labor board said on Tuesday that it had determined that Apple’s work and confidentiality rules “interfere with, restrain or coerce employees” from collective action. If the parties are unable to settle the case, the board will issue a formal complaint against Apple and hold a hearing.

An Apple spokeswoman didn’t immediately have comment.

The labor board responded to five charges brought in late 2021 by two former Apple employees, Ashley Gjovik, an engineering program manager at Apple for six years, and Cher Scarlett, an engineer on the company’s security team. (After using a pseudonym to protect her anonymity, Ms. Scarlett said, she legally changed her name in 2021.) Both women were involved in the early days of what would become the activist group #AppleToo, which began by collecting accounts of abuse, harassment and retaliation at the company.

Activists in the #AppleToo initiative shared a belief that the company’s strict culture of secrecy discouraged workers from airing concerns about problems at work with one another, family or the media. As a result, they said, problematic managers went unchecked and the company’s business conduct was seldom questioned.

In their claims to the labor board, the former employees accused Apple of trying to prevent the group from collecting wage data from employees, including through harassment. They also said the company’s work rules prevented them from discussing wages, hours and conditions of employment.

Ms. Scarlett also complained to the labor board about Mr. Cook’s email to staff. Shortly after an all-hands meeting, Mr. Cook sent an email to staff warning that the company did “not tolerate disclosures of confidential information, whether it’s product IP or the details of a confidential meeting.” He said people who leaked did “not belong” at Apple.

During the labor board’s review, a regional office “found merit to a charge alleging statements and conduct by Apple — including high-level executives — also violated the National Labor Relations Act,” a spokeswoman for the board said.

Apple has continued to face challenges from workers since then, including over its corporate return-to-office policy and retail workers’ efforts to unionize.

Source

Researchers from Imperial's School of Public Health have produced the most comprehensive assessment to date of the association between ultra-processed foods and the risk of developing cancers. Ultra-processed foods are food items which have been heavily processed during their production, such as fizzy drinks, mass-produced packaged breads, many ready meals and most breakfast cereals.

Ultra-processed foods are often relatively cheap, convenient, and heavily marketed, often as healthy options. But these foods are also generally higher in salt, fat, sugar, and contain artificial additives. It is now well documented that they are linked with a range of poor health outcomes including obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The first UK study of its kind used UK Biobank records to collect information on the diets of 200,000 middle-aged adult participants. Researchers monitored participants' health over a 10-year period, looking at the risk of developing any cancer overall as well as the specific risk of developing 34 types of cancer. They also looked at the risk of people dying from cancer.

The study found that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with a greater risk of developing cancer overall, and specifically with ovarian and brain cancers. It was also associated with an increased risk of dying from cancer, most notably with ovarian and breast cancers.

For every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food in a person's diet, there was an increased incidence of 2 percent for cancer overall, and a 19 percent increase for ovarian cancer specifically.

Each 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food consumption was also associated with increased mortality for cancer overall by 6 percent, alongside a 16 percent increase for breast cancer and a 30 percent increase for ovarian cancer.

These links remained after adjusting for a range of socio-economic, behavioral and dietary factors, such as smoking status, physical activity and body mass index (BMI).

The Imperial team carried out the study, which is published in eClinicalMedicine, in collaboration with researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), University of São Paulo, and NOVA University Lisbon.

Previous research from the team reported the levels of consumption of ultra-processed foods in the UK, which are the highest in Europe for both adults and children. The team also found that higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with a greater risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes in UK adults, and a greater weight gain in UK children extending from childhood to young adulthood.

Dr. Eszter Vamos, lead senior author for the study, from Imperial College London's School of Public Health, said, "This study adds to the growing evidence that ultra-processed foods are likely to negatively impact our health including our risk for cancer. Given the high levels of consumption in UK adults and children, this has important implications for future health outcomes.

"Although our study cannot prove causation, other available evidence shows that reducing ultra-processed foods in our diet could provide important health benefits. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and understand the best public health strategies to reduce the widespread presence and harms of ultra-processed foods in our diet."

Dr. Kiara Chang, first author for the study, from Imperial College London's School of Public Health, said, "The average person in the UK consumes more than half of their daily energy intake from ultra-processed foods. This is exceptionally high and concerning as ultra-processed foods are produced with industrially derived ingredients and often use food additives to adjust color, flavor, consistency, texture, or extend shelf life.

"Our bodies may not react the same way to these ultra-processed ingredients and additives as they do to fresh and nutritious minimally processed foods. However, ultra-processed foods are everywhere and highly marketed with cheap price and attractive packaging to promote consumption. This shows our food environment needs urgent reform to protect the population from ultra-processed foods."

The World Health Organization and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has previously recommended restricting ultra-processed foods as part of a healthy sustainable diet.

There are ongoing efforts to reduce ultra-processed food consumption around the world, with countries such as Brazil, France and Canada updating their national dietary guidelines with recommendations to limit such foods. Brazil has also banned the marketing of ultra-processed foods in schools. There are currently no similar measures to tackle ultra-processed foods in the UK.

Dr. Chang added, "We need clear front of pack warning labels for ultra-processed foods to aid consumer choices, and our sugar tax should be extended to cover ultra-processed fizzy drinks, fruit-based and milk-based drinks, as well as other ultra-processed products.

"Lower income households are particularly vulnerable to these cheap and unhealthy ultra-processed foods. Minimally processed and freshly prepared meals should be subsidized to ensure everyone has access to healthy, nutritious and affordable options."

The researchers note that their study is observational, so does not show a causal link between ultra-processed foods and cancer due to the observational nature of the research. More work is needed in this area to establish a causal link.

Source

"It made everyone at breakfast feel good. Everyone couldn't wait to get there that day," said organizer Josh Vernon.

The Wicked Smaht Zone, a New England Facebook group of Peloton enthusiasts, went for food - and to pay it forward. Twenty-two of them met for breakfast, and left more than $4600 for the tip.

"After the hundreds, there were the twenties. We were just, tears. Tears, tears, tears!" recalled server Megan Oliveira, of counting the cash.

"When you have a platform, however small or how big it may be, you have an opportunity to give back in some way. Use it for good. Every little bit counts," Vernon added.

In addition to those at the table, more than 100 group members online chipped in for the tip. They didn't know anything about the servers, who are both working hard here and at home.

"It's incredible. I live alone. I have two daughters. Rent is due in two days. This was the most heartwarming incredible thing that has honestly ever happened. I couldn't be more appreciative. I could cry talking about it right now," Oliveira said.

"Throughout the entire year it's that fluctuation; you never really know what you're going to walk away with. To leave the end of your shift in one of the slower months of the year. The look of shock on their faces at the end of it was just amazing," said Madison Whittles of Tavern on the Wharf.

The same group left a massive tip in Mendon last year. And as their community grows in size - now more than 1800 members - they'd like to see the same for this tradition.

"Hopefully it inspires some other people to do some small kind acts as well," Vernon said. 

Source

A study of around 500,000 medical records has suggested that severe viral infections like encephalitis and pneumonia increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Researchers found 22 connections between viral infections and neurodegenerative conditions in the study of around 450,000 people.

People treated for a type of inflammation of the brain called viral encephalitis were 31 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. (For every 406 viral encephalitis cases, 24 went on to develop Alzheimer's disease – around 6 percent.)

Those who were hospitalized with pneumonia after catching the flu seemed to be more susceptible to Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Intestinal infections and meningitis (both often caused by a virus), as well as the varicella-zoster virus, which causes shingles, were also implicated in the development of several neurodegenerative diseases.

The impact of viral infections on the brain persisted for up to 15 years in some cases. And there were no instances where exposure to viruses was protective.

Around 80 percent of the viruses implicated in brain diseases were considered 'neurotrophic', which means they could cross the blood-brain barrier.

"Strikingly, vaccines are currently available for some of these viruses, including influenza, shingles (varicella-zoster), and pneumonia," the researchers write.

"Although vaccines do not prevent all cases of illness, they are known to dramatically reduce hospitalization rates. This evidence suggests that vaccination may mitigate some risk of developing neurodegenerative disease."

Last year, a study of more than 10 million people linked the Epstein-Barr virus with a 32-fold increased risk of multiple sclerosis.

"After reading [this] study, we realized that for years scientists had been searching – one-by-one – for links between an individual neurodegenerative disorder and a specific virus," said senior author Michael Nalls, a neurogeneticist at the National Institute on Aging in the US.

"That's when we decided to try a different, more data science-based approach," he said. "By using medical records, we were able to systematically search for all possible links in one shot."

First, the researchers analyzed the medical records of around 35,000 Finns with six different types of neurodegenerative diseases and compared this against a group of 310,000 controls who did not have a brain disease.

This analysis yielded 45 links between viral exposure and neurodegenerative diseases, and this was narrowed down to 22 links in a subsequent analysis of 100,000 medical records from the UK Biobank.

While this retrospective observational study cannot demonstrate a causal link, it adds to the pile of research hinting at the role of viruses in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

"Neurodegenerative disorders are a collection of diseases for which there are very few effective treatments and many risk factors," said co-author Andrew Singleton, a neurogeneticist and Alzheimer's researcher and the director of the Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias.

"Our results support the idea that viral infections and related inflammation in the nervous system may be common – and possibly avoidable – risk factors for these types of disorders."

This study was published in Neuron.

Source

There are plenty of reasons to limit the amount of fat in your diet, and a new study suggests there's another entry to add to the list: high-fat diets could be messing with your brain's ability to regulate your calorie intake.

In tests on rats, scientists noted that after longer periods of being fed a diet high in fat and calories, the signaling pathway between the brain and the gut apparently gets disrupted, no longer regulating calorie consumption as it should.

Key to this pathway are star-shaped cells in the brain called astrocytes, which normally react to a lot of fat and calories being consumed by putting the brakes on food intake, balancing out what's ingested.

"Over time, astrocytes seem to desensitize to the high-fat food," says Kirsteen Browning, a professor of neural and behavioral science at Penn State College of Medicine.

"[After] around 10-14 days of eating a high fat/calorie diet, astrocytes seem to fail to react and the brain's ability to regulate calorie intake seems to be lost.

This disrupts the signaling to the stomach and delays how it empties."

The rodents used in the research were split into groups and fed a high fat and calorie diet for 1, 3, 5 or 14 days, or a standard control diet. As well as recording food intake and body weight, the team also used genetic editing techniques to target and monitor specific neural circuits, including the astrocytes.

By inhibiting astrocytes in the brainstem, the researchers were able to link these cells to reduced gut-brain communication and lack of food intake regulation that would normally occur during the first 3-5 days of being on a high-fat diet.

They found that inhibited astrocytes mimicked what happened to normal mice after a week or two on a high fat diet.

It's not yet certain exactly how astrocytes are controlling what happens in the gut, but there's clearly some kind of link there.

"We have yet to find out whether the loss of astrocyte activity and the signaling mechanism is the cause of overeating or that it occurs in response to the overeating," says Browning.

While the study only analyzed the eating habits of rats, there's good reason to believe the same applies to human beings as well. With obesity a serious public health concern, experts are looking for ways to better understand and manage it.

Obesity increases the risk of a whole host of health problems, including type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer. It's also been associated with depression and other mental health problems.

The researchers are hoping that by discovering more about the "complex central mechanisms" behind the brain's response to over-eating, we'll be able to develop ways to target them and reduce obesity in the future.

"We are eager to find out whether it is possible to reactivate the brain's apparent lost ability to regulate calorie intake. If this is the case, it could lead to interventions to help restore calorie regulation in humans," says Browning.

The research has been published in the Journal of Physiology.

Source

How to tell if your cats are playing or fighting—and whether it’s a problem