A subatomic particle has been found to switch between matter and antimatter, according to Oxford physicists analyzing data from the Large Hadron Collider. It turns out that an unfathomably tiny weight difference between two particles could have saved the universe from annihilation soon after it began.

Antimatter is kind of the “evil twin” of normal matter, but it’s surprisingly similar – in fact, the only real difference is that antimatter has the opposite charge. That means that if ever a matter and antimatter particle come into contact, they will annihilate each other in a burst of energy.

To complicate things, some particles, such as photons, are actually their own antiparticles. Others have even been seen to exist as a weird mixture of both states at the same time, thanks to the quantum quirk of superposition (illustrated most famously through the thought experiment of Schrödinger’s cat.) That means that these particles actually oscillate between being matter and antimatter.

And now, a new particle has joined that exclusive club – the charm meson. This subatomic particle is normally made up of a charm quark and an up antiquark, while its antimatter equivalent consists of a charm antiquark and an up quark. Normally those states are kept separate, but the new study shows that charm mesons can spontaneously switch between the two.

What ultimately gave away the secret was that the two states have slightly different masses. And we mean “slightly” in the extreme – the difference is just 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001 grams.

This incredibly precise measurement was fished out of data gathered during the Large Hadron Collider’s second run, by physicists at Oxford University. Charm mesons are produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions, and normally they only travel a few millimeters before they decay into other particles.

By comparing the charm mesons that tend to travel further versus those that decay sooner, the team identified differences in mass as the main factor that drives whether a charm meson turns into an anti-charm meson or not.

An illustration highlighting the difference in mass between two versions of the charm mesonCERN

This absolutely tiny find could have gigantic implications for the universe. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, the Big Bang should have produced matter and antimatter in equal amounts, and over time that all would have collided and annihilated, leaving the cosmos a very empty place. Obviously that didn’t happen, and somehow matter came to dominate, but what caused that imbalance?

One hypothesis that the new discovery raises is that particles like the charm meson will transition from antimatter to matter more often than they turn from matter to antimatter. Investigating whether that’s true – and if so, why – could be a major clue that busts open one of the biggest mysteries of science.

The study has been submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters, and is currently available on the preprint server arXiv.

Sources: Oxford University, CERN

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Physicists have proved that a subatomic particle can switch into its antiparticle alter-ego and back again, in a new discovery revealed today. An extraordinarily precise measurement made by Oxford researchers using the LHCb experiment at CERN has provided the first evidence that charm mesons can change into their antiparticle and back again.

For more than 10 years, scientists have known that charm mesons, subatomic particles that contain a quark and an antiquark, can travel as a mixture of their particle and antiparticle states, a phenomenon called mixing. However, this new result shows for the first time that they can oscillate between the two states.

Armed with this new evidence, scientists can try to tackle some of the biggest questions in physics around how particles behave outside of the Standard Model. One being, whether these transitions are caused by unknown particles not predicted by the guiding theory.

The research, submitted today to Physical Review Letters and available on arXiv, received funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Being one and the other

In the strange world of quantum physics, the charm meson can be itself and its antiparticle at once. This state, known as quantum superposition, results in two particles each with their own mass – a heavier and lighter version of the particle. This superposition allows the charm meson to oscillate into its antiparticle and back again.

Using data collected during the second run of the Large Hadron Collider, researchers from the University of Oxford measured a difference in mass between the two particles of 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001 grams – or in scientific notation 1x10-38g. A measurement of this precision and certainty is only possible when the phenomenon is observed many times, and this is only possible due so many charm mesons being produced in LHC collisions.

As the measurement is extremely precise, the research team ensured the analysis method was even more so. To do this, the team used a novel technique originally developed by colleagues at the University of Warwick.

There are only four types of particle in the Standard Model, the theory that explains particle physics, that can turn into their antiparticle. The mixing phenomenon was first observed in Strange mesons in the 1960s and in beauty mesons in the 1980s. Until now, the only other one of the four particles that has been seen to oscillate this way is the strange-beauty meson, a measurement made in 2006.

A rare phenomenon

Professor Guy Wilkinson at University of Oxford, whose group contributed to the analysis, said: 'What makes this discovery of oscillation in the charm meson particle so impressive is that, unlike the beauty mesons, the oscillation is very slow and therefore extremely difficult to measure within the time that it takes the meson to decay.

'This result shows the oscillations are so slow that the vast majority of particles will decay before they have a chance to oscillate. However, we are able to confirm this as a discovery because LHCb has collected so much data.'

Professor Tim Gershon at University of Warwick, developer of the analytical technique used to make the measurement, said: 'Charm meson particles are produced in proton–proton collisions and they travel on average only a few millimetres before transforming, or decaying, into other particles.

'By comparing the charm meson particles that decay after travelling a short distance with those that travel a little further, we have been able to measure the key quantity that controls the speed of the charm meson oscillation into anti-charm meson – the difference in mass between the heavier and lighter versions of charm meson.'

A new door opens for physics exploration

This discovery of charm meson oscillation opens up a new and exciting phase of physics exploration; researchers now want to understand the oscillation process itself, potentially a major step forward in solving the mystery of matter-antimatter asymmetry. A key area to explore is whether the rate of particle-antiparticle transitions is the same as that of antiparticle-particle transitions, and specifically whether the transitions are influenced/caused by unknown particles not predicted by the Standard Model.

Dr Mark Williams at University of Edinburgh, who convened the LHCb Charm Physics Group within which the research was performed, said: 'Tiny measurements like this can tell you big things about the Universe that you didn’t expect.'

The result, 1x10-38g, crosses the ‘five sigma’ level of statistical significance that is required to claim a discovery in particle physics.

Read the full paper, 'Observation of the mass difference between neutral charm-meson eigenstates'.

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It was only three days into 1956 when three boys from Montana, out for a hike on a normal January day, made a gruesome discovery they were unlikely to ever forget.

During a walk near the Sun River, they found 18-year-old Lloyd Duane Bogle, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. They found him on the ground near his car, and someone had used his belt to tie his hands behind his back, according to a report from the Great Falls Tribune. The next day brought another disturbing discovery: A county road worker found 16-year-old Patricia Kalitzke's body in an area north of Great Falls, the paper reports. She had been shot in the head, just as Bogle had been, but she had also been sexually assaulted.

Their killings went unsolved until this week when investigators announced they had cracked what is believed to be the oldest case solved with DNA and forensic genealogy.

The victims were discovered in a lover's lane

Bogle, an airman hailing from Texas, and Kalitzke, a junior at Great Falls High School, had fallen for each other and were even considering marriage, the Tribune reports. The place where they were believed to have been killed was a known "lover's lane," according to a clipping from a local newspaper posted on a memorial page.

But their love story was brutally cut short by the actions of a killer whose identity would not be revealed for more than 60 years. And it was not for lack of trying: Early on in the case, investigators followed numerous leads, but none of them panned out. The case eventually went cold.

For decades, the Cascade County Sheriff's Office continued to work on it, with multiple detectives attempting to make progress over the years. One such investigator was Detective Sgt. Jon Kadner, who was assigned the case in 2012 — his first cold case, he said during an interview with NPR. He was immediately met with the daunting task of digitizing the expansive case file, an endeavor that took months.

He continued to work on the Kalitzke/Bogle case even while handling the newer cases that were landing on his desk all the time, but he had a feeling that more was needed to get to the bottom of what had happened to the couple all those decades ago.

"My first impression was that the only way we're gonna ever solve this is through the use of DNA," Kadner said.

Detectives turned to a new forensic investigation

Fortunately, Kadner had something to work with. During Kalitzke's autopsy in 1956, coroners had taken a vaginal swab, which had been preserved on a microscopic slide in the years since, according to the Great Falls Tribune report. Phil Matteson, a now-retired detective with the sheriff's office, sent that sample to a local lab for testing in 2001, and the team there identified sperm that did not belong to Bogle, her boyfriend, the paper reports.

Armed with this knowledge, Kadner in 2019 sought out the assistance of Bode Technology. After forensic genealogy was used to finally nab the Golden State Killer the year prior, law enforcement officials were becoming increasingly aware of the potential to use that technology to solve cold cases — even decades-old cases like Kalitzke and Bogle's.

With the help of partnering labs, forensic genealogists are able to use preserved samples to create a DNA profile of the culprit and then use that profile to search public databases for any potential matches. In most cases, those profiles can end up linking to distant relatives of the culprit — say, a second or third cousin. By searching public records (such as death certificates and newspaper clippings), forensic genealogists are then able to construct a family tree that can point them right to the suspect, even if that suspect has never provided their DNA to any public database.

In this case, "Our genealogists, what they're going to do is independently build a family tree from this cousin's profile," Andrew Singer, an executive with Bode Technology, told NPR. He called it "a reverse family tree. ... We're essentially going backwards. We're starting with a distant relative and trying to work back toward our unknown sample."

It worked: DNA testing led investigators to a man named Kenneth Gould. Before moving to Missouri in 1967, Gould had lived with his wife and children in the Great Falls area around the time of the murders, according to the Tribune.

"It felt great because for the first time in 65 years we finally had a direction and a place to take the investigation," Kadner told NPR. "Because it was all theories up to that point ... we finally had a match and we had a name. That changed the whole dynamic of the case."

Investigators' goal is a safer world

But there was one big problem: Gould had died in 2007 and his remains had been cremated, according to the Tribune. The only way to prove his guilt or his innocence was to test the DNA of his remaining relatives.

Detectives had an uncomfortable task ahead of them: letting a dead man's family know that, despite the fact that he'd never previously been identified as a person of interest, he was now the key suspect in a double homicide and rape.

Authorities traveled to Missouri, where they spoke with Gould's children and told them about the Kalitzke/Bogle case and eventually identified their father as a suspect, Kadner said. They asked for the family's help in either proving or disapproving that Gould was the man responsible and the family complied.

The test results said Gould was the guy. With the killer finally identified, Kadner was able to reach out to the victims' surviving relatives and deliver the closure that had taken more than 60 years to procure. It was a bittersweet revelation: They were grateful for answers, but for many of the older people in the family, it was a struggle to have those wounds reopened.

"They're excited, but at the same time, it has brought up a lot of memories," Kadner said.

Now, the sheriff's office is considering forming a cold case task force, as other law enforcement agencies have done. The hope is that they'll be able to provide more families with the answers they deserve and, in many cases, have spent years waiting for.

"If there's new technology and we are able to potentially solve something, we want to keep working at it, because ultimately we're trying to do it for the family," he said. "Give them some closure."

The Kalitzke/Bogle case is one of the oldest criminal cases that has been solved using forensic genealogy, and authorities are hopeful that they'll be able to use this ever-advancing technology to solve cold cases dating back even further — although new state legislation restricting forensic genealogy could complicate matters.

Even without that complication, Singer explained to NPR, the success rate depends heavily on how well the evidence has been preserved over the years. Still, he hopes that it can be used to help law enforcement improve public safety and "[prevent] tomorrow's victim."

"It's really fantastic technology and it's going to solve a lot of cold cases," Singer said.

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Organic residues on ceramic pottery are a valuable resource for understanding medieval cuisines of Islamic-ruled Sicily, according to a study published today in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

During the 9th to 12th century AD, Sicily was governed by various Islamic dynasties. This transition is known to have profoundly impacted the region, and the capital city of Palermo thrived as an economic and cultural center of the Mediterranean Islamic world. But little is known about how the lives of people in the region were impacted during this important time period.

In this study, researchers led by Jasmine Lundy of the University of York examined organic residues of plant and animal products on ceramic pottery to gain insights into the cuisine of the time. They tested 134 cooking pots and other similar containers, dating between the 9th and 12th century AD, from the urban city of Palermo and the rural town of Casale San Pietro. The results indicate a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, beeswax and animal food products, complementing other archaeological evidence. The authors highlight some notable differences between rural and urban cuisines, including the greater frequency of grapes and dairy products in the rural site.

“Analysis of residues preserved in pottery has, for the first time, revealed important insight into cuisine in medieval Islamic Sicily,” the researchers explain. “We have identified a diverse range of products processed in cooking wares, as well as regional differences in the use of ceramics such as for the processing of dairy and grapevine products.”

This study is a profound demonstration of the utility of organic residue analysis for understanding cuisine of Islamic-ruled Sicily. The mixture of a diverse assortment of food products is consistent with the colorful dishes noted in Arabic literature, and the differences observed between rural and urban sites suggests there is more to be learned about how cultures differed across Sicilian society. Further studies using similar techniques will expand our understanding of how cuisine preferences and use of ceramics changed while Sicily was under Islamic rule.

The article, “New insights into early medieval Islamic cuisine: Organic residue analysis of pottery from rural and urban Sicily,” Jasmine Lundy, Lea Drieu, Antonino Meo, Viva Sacco, Lucia Arcifa, Elena Pezzini, Veronica Aniceti, Girolamo Fiorentino, Michelle Alexander, Paola Orecchioni, Alessandra Mollinari, Martin O. H. Carver and Oliver E. Craig, is published in PLOS ONE. Click here to read it.

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Higher levels of vaccination against COVID-19 were associated with lower rates of infection with SARS-CoV-2 among a group of unvaccinated people of 16 years of age and under, reports a study in Nature Medicine. The findings, based on an analysis of vaccination records and test results from 177 geographically distinct communities in Israel from 6 December 2020 to 9 March 2021, demonstrate that vaccination against COVID-19 helps to protect those who have and have not been vaccinated.

Clinical trials and vaccination campaigns have shown that the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 is highly effective at preventing infection and disease at the individual and community levels. However, it has been suggested that vaccination could also increase transmission due to changes in human behavior. For example, those who have been vaccinated might be less mindful of social distancing or may not quarantine after coming into contact with a person with COVID-19.

The vaccination rollout in Israel began on 19 December 2020 and administered the first dose of the vaccine to almost 50% of the population within 9 weeks. To determine whether vaccination reduces the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among unvaccinated people at the population level, Roy Kishony, Tal Patalon and colleagues focused their attention on 177 geographically distinct communities, which had varying vaccination rates (amounting to a total of 1.37 million first-dose recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine), and a cohort of unvaccinated people under 16 years of age for whom the vaccine was not yet available. The authors assessed changes in the number of positive tests for COVID-19 within each community between fixed time intervals. They found that, on average, for each 20% increase in the number of vaccinated people in a given population, the number of positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in the unvaccinated population in the same community decreased approximately two fold.

The authors caution that their findings do not take into account the possibility of naturally acquired immunity to SARS-CoV-2. They conclude that, although the observed vaccine-associated protection of the unvaccinated population is encouraging, further studies are needed to understand whether and how vaccination campaigns might support the prospect of herd immunity and disease eradication.

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A team of researchers from the University of Sydney, the ARC-Plant Protection Research Institute and York University, has found that workers in a species of honeybee found in South Africa reproduce by making near-perfect clones of themselves. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study of the bees and what they learned about them.

Prior research has found that some creatures reproduce through parthenogenesis, in which individuals reproduce without mating. This form of reproduction has the advantage of not wasting time and energy on mating and the gene pool remains undiluted. The downside, of course, is loss of genetic diversity, which helps species survive in changing conditions. Prior research has also shown that for most species, parthenogenesis is a less-than-perfect way to produce offspring. This is because some tiny bit of genetic material is generally mixed wrong—these mistakes, known as recombinations, can lead to birth defects or non-productive eggs. In this new effort, the researchers have found a kind of honeybee that has developed a way to avoid recombinations.

The researchers found that South African Cape honeybee queens reproduce sexually, but the workers reproduce asexually. 

They then conducted a small experiment—they affixed tape to the reproductive organs of a queen, preventing males from mating with her, and then allowed both her and the worker bees in the same hive to reproduce asexually. They then tested the degree of recombination in both. They found that offspring of the queen had approximately 100 times as much recombination as the worker bees. Even more impressive, the offspring of the worker bees were found to be nearly identical clones of their parent. More testing showed that one line of worker bees in the hive had been cloning themselves for approximately 30 years—a clear sign that workers in the hive were not suffering from birth defects or an inability to produce viable offspring. It also showed that they have evolved a means for preventing recombination when they reproduce. The researchers note that despite their unique abilities, the bees are still in line with evolutionary theory—they are simply doing what works best for their continued existence.

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Something’s fishy.

At least one doctor at the Cape Cod hospital that treated the lobsterman who claims he was nearly swallowed by a humpback expressed skepticism Saturday to The Post about the whale of a tale.

“He reportedly ascended from a 45-foot depth in 20 to 40 seconds and didn’t have any evidence of barotrauma?” scoffed the Cape Cod Hospital emergency room doc.

A person traumatized by such an encounter should expect more serious injuries, such as hearing loss, because of the sudden change in water pressure from that depth, noted the physician, who did not treat Michael Packard after his brush with the leviathan.

Packard, 57, was released from Cape Cod Hospital Friday afternoon, just hours after the incident, miraculously suffering only soft tissue damage and no broken bones or other serious injuries.

Michael Packard claims to have been swallowed by a whale while diving.

Packard, who could not be reached for comment, told the Cape Cod Times he was “completely inside” the massive mammal, which inadvertently scooped him up in a feeding frenzy. “It was completely black.”

Meanwhile, some fellow seamen were also skeptical.

“People who are in the fishing industry, and people who know whales, are finding this hard to believe,” a Bay State lobsterman, who has fished the area for 44 years, told The Post. “It’s a first-ever that this would happen.”

Packard was brought to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts, after his whale encounter.
Boston Globe via Getty Images

Humpback whales — which can grow to 40 tons — are toothless filter feeders who corral large schools of fish or other small marine life in a tight circle before taking massive gulps. Their throats are too narrow, however, to swallow a human, experts have said.

He continued: “For a guy to be in the middle of that giant school of fish corralled by a whale doesn’t make sense.”

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Japanese chemist Ei-ichi Negishi who won the Nobel prize for developing a method for creating complex chemicals necessary for manufacturing drugs and electronics has died aged 85, his US university said.

Negishi died on Sunday in Indianapolis, Purdue University said in a statement on Friday, adding his family would lay him to rest in Japan sometime next year.

The Manchuria-born scientist graduated from the prestigious University of Tokyo and worked at Japanese chemical giant Teijin before going to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship in 1960 to study chemistry. He joined the Purdue faculty in 1979.

In 2010, he won the Nobel Prize for chemistry along with Richard Heck of the University of Delaware and Akira Suzuki of Hokkaido University.

Through the trio's work, organic chemistry has developed into "an art form, where scientists produce marvellous chemical creations in their test tubes," the award citation said.

Heck laid the groundwork for bonding carbon atoms by using a catalyzer to promote the process in the 1960s.

Negishi fine-tuned it in 1977 and it was taken a step further by Suzuki, who found a practical way to carry out the process.

Negishi likened their work to playing with Lego building blocks.

"We found catalysts and created reactions that allow complex organic compounds to, in effect, snap together with other compounds to more economically and efficiently build desired materials," he was quoted as saying in the university statement.

"Legos can be combined to make things of any shape, size and color, and our reactions make this a possibility for organic compounds."

According to Purdue, their work is widely used, from fluorescent marking essential for DNA sequencing to agricultural chemicals that protect crops from fungi to materials for thin LED displays.

"The world lost a great and gracious man -— one who made a difference in lives as a scientist and a human being," Purdue President Mitch Daniels said.

"We're saddened by Dr. Negishi's passing but grateful for his world-changing discoveries and the lives he touched and influenced as a Purdue professor."

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Experts say three billionaires have upended the traditional model for human spaceflight and are shaping a thriving new era

It was a week in which two space-faring billionaires tussled again in their futuristic game of cosmic oneupmanship. And this time, for once, Elon Musk was not at the party.

The declaration that Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and world’s richest man, was heading into space next month on the first crewed launch of his Blue Origin New Shepard rocket was followed quickly by an apparent leak from within Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic empire that the British tycoon might look to upstage him with a Fourth of July Independence Day spectacular of his own.

Branson’s team was quick to downplay the possibility, insisting a date for his first spaceflight had yet to be determined. But beyond what some might see as vain billionaires using real-life rockets as playthings, the episode underscores how close the lucrative yet still fledgling commercial space industry has come to routinely launching paying passengers into outer space and achieving a goal two decades in the making.

On Saturday, the winner of an auction for a seat to accompany Bezos and his brother Mark on next month’s big space adventure will be announced on the Blue Origin website. On Thursday, the bidding reached $4.2m for the 11-minute round trip.

“Many congratulations to Jeff Bezos & his brother Mark on announcing spaceflight plans,” Branson said in a tweet directed at his rival. “Jeff started building @blueorigin in 2000, we started building @virgingalactic in 2004 & now both are opening up access to Space – how extraordinary! Watch this space … ”

Absent from Branson’s tweet was any mention of Musk, whose nonconformist Space Exploration Technologies Corporation – better known as SpaceX – has grown from a shaky start in 2002 to become the dominant player in the commercial space sector, and a key partner of the US space agency, Nasa. The company is already regularly flying astronauts to the international space station, and is renting out its Dragon space capsule this fall for its first private spaceflight, taking a crew of four on a three-day orbital odyssey.

With differing longer-term ambitions and goals, the three billionaires have collectively upended the traditional government-funded and directed model for human spaceflight and are shaping a thriving new commercial space era, according to Matthew Weinzierl, a Harvard Business School professor and an expert in the economics of space.

“SpaceX’s recent achievements, as well as upcoming efforts by Boeing, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic to put people in space sustainably and at scale, mark the opening of a new chapter of spaceflight led by private firms,” he said.

Elon Musk at the Kennedy Space Center in January 2020. ‘Musk is totally about Mars.’ Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

“They have both the intention and capability to bring private citizens to space as passengers, tourists and eventually settlers, opening the door for businesses to start meeting the demand those people create over the next several decades.”

Weinzierl expects there to be a gradual shift from money spent in space to benefit Earth, such as investments in telecommunications and internet satellites and infrastructure, to the so-called space-for-space economy, including mining asteroids or the moon for materials that will be necessary to support human habitat and fuel deeper-space missions to Mars or beyond.

Bezos and Musk always had loftier goals in mind, even as they were taking their first tentative steps in the space industry, experts say. But their visions diverge beyond flying humans in low Earth orbit, or even suborbital flight, as Bezos’s brief July venture will be.

“Musk is totally about Mars. His passion is to get people to Mars as a backup plan to Earth, and to make humanity a multi-planet species,” said Marcia Smith, founder and senior analyst of spacepolicyonline.com.

“Bezos is interested in the moon, and in the space between Earth and the moon. He wants to move all of the heavy industry off Earth and into cislunar space. He talks about rezoning Earth for light industry and habitation.

“So they both are interested in trying to save Earth because of all the problems Earth is having, but they have very different visions as to how that’s going to happen.”

Nasa has embraced both billionaires as it pursues its own exploration programs. In April, the agency chose SpaceX to build the spacecraft to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972, a decision Blue Origin has challenged. The enigmatic Musk reacted in typically bellicose fashion, tweeting: “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol” in reference to Bezos’s so far unsuccessful efforts to launch a crew into space.

Blue Origin, meanwhile, is developing a separate, reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle, New Glenn, under a Nasa contract to supply satellite delivery capability, although the project has stalled.

The operations of both companies have the potential to attract billions of dollars of investment to the US through commercial clients, and Weinzierl sees space as the “ultimate industry of the future”, though he says it may take longer than this century to reach its potential.

“The sector has changed a great deal over the last two decades, largely in that there are new competitors seeking to serve private customers in addition to governments,” he said.

“At the same time, Nasa and other public agencies are still the dominant sources of funding and specific plans for space beyond low Earth orbit, where the private satellite market has long been active. Even SpaceX, for all its success, wouldn’t be where it is without Nasa’s partnership.”

Smith argues that Musk has created his own luck to position SpaceX as the leading pioneer in the new private space market.

Richard Branson on the floor of the New York stock exchange after Virgin Galactic went public in October 2019. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“Musk has really transformed the business, and brought commercial business back to the United States, by lower prices and reusability. He has really made a change,” she said.

“Bezos is trying to build this New Glenn rocket and is having setbacks with the engine.”

John Logsdon, the respected professor emeritus at George Washington University and founder of the Space Policy Institute, phrased the differences between the two tycoons another way, in a 2018 interview with the Guardian.

“Musk’s style is to brag about things and then do them. Bezos’s style is to do things and then brag about them,” he said.

“I’d call it competition, and competition is the American way of life.”

As for Branson, the Virgin founder scored a major success last month when his SpaceShipTwo rocketplane reached an altitude of 55.4 miles, either in space or at the edge of it, depending on which calculation of the Karman Line, the perceived boundary of outer space, is being used. It brings his long-awaited but much-delayed aspiration of a profitable space tourism business a significant step closer to realization.

How relevant the Bezos brothers’ flight aboard New Shepard, his rocket named as a tribute to Alan Shepard, the first American in space, will be to Blue Origin’s wider ambitions is open to question, although Weinzierl, the Harvard professor, sees it as more than a publicity stunt.

“It’s about demonstrating in the most powerful way he can that he trusts in the technology,” he said.

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June 11 (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Friday said it has tightened some of its rules for responding to legal requests after the U.S. Justice Department during Donald Trump's presidency subpoenaed it for information on Democratic lawmakers.

Apple said it recently instituted a limit of 25 identifiers such as email addresses or phone numbers per legal request.

The Cupertino, California-based company said it received a subpoena from the Justice Department in February 2018 for information on 109 identifiers made up of 73 phone numbers and 36 email addresses, but that it did not release content such as emails and pictures to prosecutors.

The New York Times on Thursday reported that federal prosecutors subpoenaed Apple and other companies as part of an investigation searching for the sources behind news media reports about contacts between Trump's associates and Russia.

The investigation targeted at least two Democrats on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, aides and family members, including one minor, the Times reported.

Apple said that it had no way to tell what the nature of the investigation was and released only basic "account subscriber information" such as names, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers, as well as connection logs and IP addresses.

Apple said that it did not provide data showing to whom or when messages of any kind were sent.

Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said on Friday he will investigate the department's efforts under Trump to seize the communications data of lawmakers and members of the news media.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler and Will Dunham)

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The headlines had barely faded after a Southwest passenger reportedly knocked out a flight attendant's teeth during an in-flight altercation when the next high-profile example of bad airline behavior emerged. A man was arrested last week after allegedly banging on a Delta cockpit door, demanding the plane land and tussling with a flight attendant.

Less than two weeks apart, the violent incidents - parts of which were recorded by other passengers - served as extreme reminders of the conflict that experts say has risen to unprecedented levels over the past several months as travelers return to the skies.

"If you talked with some flight attendants, they would certainly say this is the worst we've ever seen it," said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. "It's pervasive. There is constant conflict on board."

She added: "I think there's a potential that this can get worse."

The Federal Aviation Administration told The Washington Post this week that it has received about 2,900 reports of unruly passenger behavior since Jan. 1. Roughly 2,200 of those involved passengers who would not comply with the federal mandate to wear a face covering. The agency identified potential violations in 446 of those cases and has started enforcement action in 42.

Those numbers have grown over the past couple of weeks: When the FAA last released an update on May 24, it had gotten 2,500 reports of bad behavior with about 1,900 involving masks. The agency has not tracked the number of such reports from airlines in past years, but it said it investigated a total of 1,548 unruly passenger cases between 2010 and 2020.

"Based on our experience, we can say with confidence that the number of reports we've received during the past several months are significantly higher than the numbers we've seen in the past," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email.

And some observers worry the trend still hasn't peaked as prime summer travel season approaches. The number of passengers continues to creep toward pre-pandemic levels. More people will be crowded onto planes with covid-era restrictions, while at the same time, mask requirements in other parts of daily life are easing.

"I think it could get worse as more and more mask restrictions are lifted throughout the country," said Jeff Price, professor of aviation management at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Nelson said it was a "very, very difficult week" after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that vaccinated people did not need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors in many scenarios. The requirement to wear a mask in airports and on planes, trains and other forms of transportation did not change.

"There is just this level of confusion that also comes into play," she said.

The return of international flights in greater numbers could also lead to more incidents, said Doug Drury, professor of aviation at the University of South Australia.

"When borders reopen and long-haul travel returns we may see some events related to mask requirements on 6- to 17-hour flights," he said in an email.

The vast majority of cases reported to the FAA involve refusal to follow the federal mask mandate, which is in place until Sept. 13. But experts say there are many factors playing into the rise of unruly passengers.

Many travelers are starting to move around again after being locked down for more than a year. Some are resentful or defiant about having to wear a mask, and others are on high alert about the mask usage of their neighbors, said psychologist Robert Bor, a director of the U.K.-based Centre for Aviation Psychology.

"Air travel is already stressful," Bor said. "Here's a new stress that's been thrown into the system."

Pre-existing divisions in the United States aren't helping. Nelson said flight attendants have found that there are regional patterns to bad behavior.

"There tends to be greater incidents where you are flying out of a place where local and state leaders have said that the pandemic is a hoax, that masks are not necessary, all of those things," she said.

Price said a portion of the traveling public feels "emboldened" to ignore instructions from authorities.

"Even though those are the rules, they feel that they're exempt from those rules for whatever reason," he said. "'You can't force me to wear a mask.' Yeah, actually we can because that's part of the safety and security of the flight just like we forced you to turn off your cellphone or your laptop."

Many travelers flying during the pandemic might see the people around them as a threat, especially after spending months adhering to social distancing rules.

"We've been told stay six feet away from people," said Andrew Thomas, an associate professor of international business at the University of Akron and editor in chief of the Journal of Transportation Security. "People are right in your face, and it's a little weird to say the least."

Mask tensions have piled on top of anger that flight attendants were seeing among passengers before the pandemic, Nelson said, as people chafed at sitting in ever-shrinking seats, closer to neighbors in economy sections.

"There's all of these things that existed pre-pandemic that then were absolutely exacerbated because of the pandemic," she said. "They have been led to believe that the safety steps we are taking are a political decision rather than a public health necessity. That has really been the thing that has lit a match to the kindling that existed before."

Bad passenger behavior is nothing new; the International Air Transport Association raised an alarm on the issue of unruly passengers a few years ago. The global group said it had gotten reports of more than 66,000 incidents between 2007 and 2017.

And the problem of "air rage," frequently fueled by drugs or alcohol, has ebbed and flowed over the past few decades, said Thomas, who has written books about the subject and runs the website AirRage.org. He said the numbers tend to increase in line with surges in air travel.

The FAA announced a zero-tolerance policy for bad behavior on planes in the days after the Capitol riot on Jan 6. The flight attendants union said at the time that those who stormed the building should not be allowed to get on flights home.

During a town hall meeting late last month, FAA chief Steve Dickson said he was "appalled" at the behavior the agency had seen on planes and warned of "hefty fines and possible jail time."

"Covid-19, we all know, has been a trying time for everyone," Dickson said. "But that's no excuse for leaving good behavior in the airport or at the airplane door."

The FAA has publicized several fines against unruly passengers in recent months. Airlines have added disruptive passengers to their own lists of banned travelers. Some have extended their suspension of alcohol sales - a move flight attendants and other observers applauded.

But experts think there are more steps that authorities can take, like providing more education about why masks are still required on planes and restricting alcohol in airports as well as on planes.

Nelson said most important is that everyone involved in air travel - flight attendants, captains, airlines, the FAA and Transportation Security Administration - constantly communicate the rules and expectations for the flying public.

Still, no one can really say what will end the current run of bad behavior.

"When will this stop?" Drury asked. "That is a great question. Maybe when civility returns."

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Indian start-up Mylab Discovery Solutions hopes that its inexpensive COVID-19 home test kit—the country's first—will help the massive South Asian nation better track the pandemic's spread among its 1.3-billion people.

CoviSelf was launched earlier this month and is the first home testing kit to be approved in India, which is slowly emerging from a brutal second wave that overwhelmed its hospitals and crematoriums, with almost 30 million infected so far and over 350,000 dead.

But many experts suspect that the real numbers are much higher, blaming insufficient testing and inaccurate recording of the cause of patient deaths.

The start-up, which also makes PCR tests to detect HIV infections, says that widespread access to CoviSelf—sold for 250 rupees ($3.40)—would reduce pressure on overburdened laboratories and improve infection tracking.

The kit uses a nasal swab and a QR code to connect to a mobile app which reveals results in 15 minutes, and sends the details to the Indian Council for Medical Research, the scientific agency leading the government's response.

"It has been designed so people can do it at home. So the contents of the kit are simple, the way to dispose of it is simple, the way to perform it is simple," said Shrikant Pawar, Head of Serology & Microbiome at Mylab.

At the firm's factory in the hillside resort town of Lonavla in western India, masked and gloved workers ran detailed quality checks on the kit's components before shipping them out to pharmacies across the country.

"Our current production capacity is 10 million tests in a week", Pawar told AFP, with the kit also sold on Flipkart, a Walmart-backed online behemoth.

"If the market demand goes high, we will be able to cater to more tests a week and yes, we are also planning to go overseas, so it will be available in international markets as well."

But with the kit only accessible to smartphone users, its impact may be limited, especially as the pandemic makes deeper forays into rural India, where mobile networks are weak and internet penetration remains low.

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PROVINCETOWN — At a little before 8 a.m. Friday, veteran lobster diver Michael Packard entered the water for his second dive of the day.

His vessel, the “Ja’n J,” was off Herring Cove Beach and surrounded by a fleet of boats catching striped bass. The water temperature was a balmy 60 degrees and the visibility about 20 feet.

Licensed commercial lobster divers literally pluck lobsters off the sandy bottom, and as Packard, 56, dove down Friday morning, he saw schools of sand lances and stripers swimming by. The ocean food chain was in full evidence, but about 10 feet from the bottom Packard suddenly knew what it truly felt like to be part of that chain.

In something truly biblical, Packard was swallowed whole by a humpback whale.

“All of a sudden, I felt this huge shove and the next thing I knew it was completely black,” Packard recalled Friday afternoon following his release from Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis. “I could sense I was moving, and I could feel the whale squeezing with the muscles in his mouth.”

Initially, Packard thought he was inside a great white shark, but he couldn’t feel any teeth and he hadn’t suffered any obvious wounds. It quickly dawned on him that he had been swallowed by a whale.

What did he think when he was in the whale? 'I’m done, I’m dead'

“I was completely inside; it was completely black,” Packard said. “I thought to myself, ‘there’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead.’ All I could think of was my boys — they’re 12 and 15 years old.”

Outfitted with scuba gear, he struggled and the whale began shaking its head so that Packard could tell he didn’t like it. He estimated he was in the whale for 30 to 40 seconds before the whale finally surfaced.

“I saw light, and he started throwing his head side to side, and the next thing I knew I was outside (in the water),” said Packard, who lives in Wellfleet.

Packard’s sister, Cynthia Packard, spoke with crewman Josiah Mayo, who relayed some of the details to her. Packard said Mayo saw the whale burst to the surface, and that he initially thought it was a great white shark.

“There was all this action at the top of the water,” Packard said Mayo told her. Then the whale flung her brother back into the sea. Mayo picked him up, called by radio to shore and sped back to the Provincetown pier. A Provincetown Fire Department ambulance took him to Cape Cod Hospital.

“Thank God, it wasn’t a white shark. He sees them all the time out there,” said Cynthia Packard. “He must have thought he was done.”

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(HealthDay)—As the number of people fully immunized against COVID-19 rises into the hundreds of millions, immunologists and infectious disease experts now are pondering a new question in the unfolding pandemic.

Namely, how long will vaccine immunity last, and will people who've gotten the jab need booster shots to maintain their protection?

It's an important question, as waning immunity in the face of more powerful COVID-19 variants could cause future infection surges and, in worst-case scenarios, a full-blown return of quarantines and lockdowns, experts say.

A person's immunity always drops to some degree following immunization or natural infection, said Dr. Greg Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

But will your immunity against COVID fade quickly, as it does with the flu or the common cold, or will it last longer as it does in diseases like measles or whooping cough?

"Antibody levels fall over time. That is true for every single vaccine that we give," Poland said. "We've never immunized against coronaviruses before, so that question is really open-ended."

People's immunity against seasonal coronaviruses—those that cause the common cold—fades quickly. That's why you can catch a cold again and again.

But the vaccines developed against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID, appear to be creating high levels of antibodies that protect even as they wane.

In one recent study of 3,900 health care workers tested weekly for COVID, about 5% tested positive between December and April, Poland said. But of 204 who fell ill, only 16 had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

"You're talking about a 0.3% rate" of infection in fully immunized people, Poland said. "And if they were vaccinated, and if they had breakthrough infections, they had viral loads that were 40% to 50% lower and were almost 60% less likely to have any fever. If they were sick enough to be in bed, they spent two fewer days in bed than the unvaccinated."

And that's the major factor in deciding whether boosters will ever be needed: Are vaccines succeeding at their most important job?

"The goal of this vaccine is to keep you out of the hospital and out of the ICU and out of the morgue, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an advisor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

By that measure, experts like Poland and Offit now think it's unlikely that boosters will be needed any time soon for most or maybe all those who have been vaccinated.

Even in the face of newer and more infectious variants like the Delta variant that emerged in India, the existing vaccines have been able to prevent severe illness among the fully vaccinated, Poland said.

Offit made a similar point.

"It's much easier to prevent severe critical disease, and I think you're much more likely to have longer lasting protection against severe critical disease," he said. "If that's the goal, then I would imagine that vaccines would last for years."

If this sort of lasting protection proves out, you might still get the sniffles from COVID, but it won't land you in the emergency room.

"When you get a vaccine and you're not wearing a mask, the virus still enters your nose and throat. It still begins to reproduce itself. And it still might cause some symptoms before your immune system gets activated," Offit said.

Experts tracking COVID hospitalization rates are keeping in mind two factors as they assess whether boosters are needed—the health of each person's immune system and the development of new coronavirus variants.

People with compromised immune systems—smokers, diabetics, the obese, the elderly—might need booster shots sooner if statistics show them landing in the hospital at increasing rates, Poland said.

On the other hand, younger people with healthy immune systems might have protection that lasts years and years.

It's simply too soon to tell, experts say.

"Once you see significant numbers of people who have been fully vaccinated who are developing disease that's severe enough to cause them to be hospitalized, that would certainly be a signal indicating that boosters are going to be required," said Dr. Dial Hewlett, medical director of disease control at the Westchester County Department of Health, in White Plains, N.Y.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government's leading infectious disease expert, has said protection would not be infinite.

"I would imagine we will need, at some time, a booster," he told a U.S. Senate subcommittee recently. "What we're figuring out right now is what that interval is going to be."

The main fear now is that a new variant will emerge that is "different enough from the wild-type virus that you are not protected, and yet close enough that your body thinks it's what it's already seen and allows you to get infected unchecked," Poland said.

That's why public health experts are pushing for as many people to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. The United States just passed the halfway point, with more than 50% of people aged 12 and older fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

President Joe Biden's goal is for 70% of the nation to have at least one shot by July 4. But the rate of new vaccinations has slowed recently and is now fewer than 600,000 a day.

"The phase we're in right now is very much a desperate race between vaccine and variant," Poland said. "If we can get everybody immunized very quickly and don't allow the Delta variant to gain a stronghold, I think we'll be home free."

Poland pointed to an encouraging model.

"There's a model out showing that if we can achieve 50% vaccine coverage of the entire population, we will prevent about 6 million additional COVID cases," he said. "This is really important, because if the virus can't infect, it can't replicate. If it can't replicate, it can't mutate."

The question of booster shots might become moot if, as some pharmaceutical companies are investigating, the COVID vaccine winds up included in your annual flu shot as a two-for-one, Poland said.

"Well, we have to give an annual flu vaccine. What if we wrapped the two together? So, you may not need the coronavirus component, but we're going to boost the immunity anyway as long as you're getting the flu vaccine," he said.

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Acute and prolonged food-induced inflammation can increase the predicted risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases like cardiovascular disease, new research has shown.

The study, published today in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, is the largest in-depth global study to look at postprandial inflammation. Researchers found that inflammation, triggered by food, varies widely between individuals.

Researchers from King's and health science company ZOE were able to identify for the first time the relative influence of blood sugar and blood fat levels on inflammation, demonstrating a stronger link with blood fat responses than blood sugar.

These findings highlight the potential for personalized strategies to reduce chronic inflammation in preventative health.

Led by Dr. Sarah Berry and her team, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital and additional researchers in the US, UK, Italy, Spain and Sweden, the PREDICT study invited 1,002 healthy adults taking part in the PREDICT research program to come into the team's research clinic for a day. They were all given two standardized meals to eat, each containing precise amounts of fat, carbohydrate, fiber and protein: breakfast (a muffin and a milkshake) and lunch four hours later (a muffin).

The researchers took blood samples from the participants before the breakfast meal and at nine points throughout the day. These were then analyzed to measure the levels of blood fat and sugar at the different timepoints, along with levels of two markers of inflammation, interleukin 6 (IL-6) and Glycoprotein acetylation (GlycA). The researchers also gathered detailed data on the participants' health, including information about their typical diet, a fecal sample for microbiome analysis, and a body fat scan.

The researchers found that the levels of inflammation after eating varied widely between participants, including identical twins, even though everyone had the same meals at the same intervals.

People with more body fat and greater body mass index (BMI) were more likely to have higher levels of inflammation after eating, supporting current evidence that management of obesity will reduce chronic inflammatory burden. Levels of inflammation also tended to be higher in males than females, and in older participants than younger ones.

There were several strategies recommended to reduce the impact of inflammation after eating.

• Control unhealthy blood fat responses by choosing whole foods that are higher in fiber and lean protein, increasing your intake of healthy omega-3 fats from sources like fish, nuts and seeds, and reducing your overall body fat

• Control unhealthy blood sugar responses by choosing foods containing complex carbohydrates and fiber, such as whole grains, fruit and vegetables, and limiting sugary processed foods and sodas

• Reduce inflammation after eating by choosing foods that are high in 'anti-inflammatory' bioactive molecules such as polyphenols, found in colorful fruits and vegetables and other plant-based foods

• Understand your biology and choose foods that are less likely to cause unhealthy blood fat or sugar responses after eating

Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King's and scientific co-founder of ZOE, adds, "Previous results from our PREDICT study showed that the combination of microbes living in our guts, known as the gut microbiome, is closely linked to how we respond to food, particularly fat. We have also found that microbiome composition is strongly associated with GlycA levels, opening the door to reducing food-related inflammation and improving health by manipulating the microbiome."

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Researchers create washable smart clothes that can be powered wirelessly  

Researchers create washable smart clothes that can be powered wirelessly

Image: CNSA

China has released new images from its Zhurong rover, which began wheeling its way around Mars in late May. One of the photos is a lovely selfie of Zhurong posed next to its landing platform. The “touring group photo,” as the China National Space Administration calls it in a blog post, was taken with a small wireless camera that the rover placed on the surface before scooting back to line up for the shot like an excited parent.

 

Zhurong also took a photo of the landing platform by itself, showing the ramp the rover drove down, the Chinese flag, and if you look closely to the left of the flag, the mascots for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Image: CNSA

There are more photos in the Twitter thread below, linked here, including a panorama that shows the Red Planet’s horizon in the distance beyond the rover, along with marks on the surface from propellant expulsion during landing.

 

Zhurong joined NASA’s Perseverance on Mars last month (though the rovers are over a thousand miles apart), making China the second country to land and operate a rover on the planet. It’s expected to keep exploring for about 90 days, and it will capture more images while it analyzes the Martian climate and geology.

 

Perseverance also sent along some glamour shots of its own in April, though it used a robotic arm (a selfie stick, if you will) rather than setting a camera down and backing away from it. This one is a family photo of both the rover and its little helicopter companion, Ingenuity. NASA details how the selfie was made in this blog post with videos.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

And here’s Perseverance’s “face” against the serene panorama of Mars. The planet might be a lonely place, but it makes for a rather scenic backdrop.

Image: NASA / JPL (panorama stitch by Joey Roulette / The Verge)

China’s Zhurong rover sends a selfie from Mars

Because of a phenomenon called gravitational locking, the Moon always faces the Earth from the same side. This proved useful in the early lunar landing missions in the 20th century, as there was always a direct line of sight for uninterrupted radiocommunications between Earth ground stations and equipment on the Moon. However, gravitational locking makes exploring the hidden face of the moon - the far side - much more challenging, because signals cannot be sent directly across the Moon towards Earth.

Still, in January 2019, China's lunar probe Chang'e-4 marked the first time a spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon.

Both the lander and the lunar rover it carried have been gathering and sending back images and data from previously unexplored areas. But how does Chang'e-4 probe communicate with the Earth? The answer is Queqiao, a relay communications satellite, explains Dr. Lihua Zhang from DFH Satellite Co., Ltd., China.

As explained by Dr. Zhang in a review paper recently published in Space: Science and Technology, Queqiao is an unprecedented satellite designed specifically for one purpose: to act as a bridge between Chang'e-4 probe and the Earth. Queqiao was launched in 2018 and put into orbit around a point 'behind' the Moon.

This point is known as the Earth-Moon Libration point 2, where a special case of gravitational balance allows Queqiao to maintain an orbit such that it has almost constant direct line of sight with both the far side of the Moon and the Earth.

Getting the satellite into this peculiar orbit required careful planning and maintenance management, and the success of this operation set a precedent for future attempts at putting satellites in orbit around other Earth-Moon libration points.

From its stable place in space, Queqiao helped guide the soft-landing and surface operations of Chang'e-4 probe and has been our intermediary with it ever since. The satellite is equipped with two different kinds of antennas: a parabolic antenna and several spiral antennas. The former, which has a large diameter of 4.2 m, was designed to send and receive signals on the X band (7-8GHz) to and from the rover and lander on the surface of the Moon. Its large size is related the expected noise levels and the low intensity of the transmissions that are sent by surface equipment.

On the other hand, the spiral antennas operate on the S band (2-4 GHz) and communicate with Earth ground stations, forwarding commands to the lunar surface equipment and exchanging telemetry and tracking data. Most notably, all these different links can transmit and receive simultaneously, making Queqiao highly versatile. The review paper addresses other important design considerations for Queqiao and future relay satellites, such as the use of regenerative forwarding, the various link data rates involved, and data storage systems for when no Earth ground station is accessible.

Over two years of exploration, a great amount of data has been received from the rover and lander through Queqiao.

"Scientists in both China and other countries have conducted analysis and research based on the retrieved data, and they have produced valuable scientific results. The longer the operational life of Queqiao, the more scientific outcomes will be achieved," remarks Dr. Zhang. Based on current predictions, Queqiao should be operable on mission orbit for at least five years.

Dr. Zhang also addressed the prospects for future lunar missions and how relay communication systems should evolve to support them. Many unexplored areas on the Moon, such as the largest crater at the South Pole, call for multiple relay satellites to maintain constant communication links, which poses an expensive and time-consuming challenge. But what if relay satellites were suitable for more than a single mission?

"A sustainable communication and navigation infrastructure should be established to benefit all lunar missions rather than dealing with each mission independently," comments Dr. Zhang,

"This infrastructure should adopt an open and extensible architecture and provide flexible, interoperable, cross-supportable, and compatible communications services, which are critical to the success of future lunar explorations." It's likely that future endeavors on the far side of the Moon will be a test on how well we can cooperate to unveil the secrets of our natural satellite.

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Today we are releasing a new paper on dose-stretching co-authored by Witold Wiecek, Amrita Ahuja, Michael Kremer, Alexandre Simoes Gomes, Christopher M. Snyder, Brandon Joel Tan and myself.

The paper makes three big points. First, Khoury et al (2021) just published a paper in Nature which shows that “Neutralizing antibody levels are highly predictive of immune protection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection.” What that means is that there is a strong relationship between immunogenicity data that we can easily measure with a blood test and the efficacy rate that it takes hundreds of millions of dollars and many months of time to measure in a clinical trial. Thus, future vaccines may not have to go through lengthy clinical trials (which may even be made impossible as infections rates decline) but can instead rely on these correlates of immunity.

Here is where fractional dosing comes in. We supplement the key figure from Khoury et al.’s paper to show that fractional doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have neutralizing antibody levels on par with those of many approved vaccines. Indeed, a one-half or one-quarter dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine looks to be more effective than the standard dose of some of the other vaccines like the AstraZeneca, J&J or Sinopharm vaccines. The point is not that these other vaccines aren’t good–they are great! The point is that by using fractional dosing we could rapidly and safely expand the number of effective doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Third, we show that under plausible scenarios it is better to start vaccination with a less efficacious vaccine than to wait for a more efficacious vaccine. Thus, Great Britain and Canada’s policies of starting First Doses first with the AstraZeneca vaccine and then moving to second doses, perhaps with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines is a good strategy.

It is possible that new variants will reduce the efficacy rate of all vaccines indeed that is almost inevitable but that doesn’t mean that fractional dosing isn’t optimal nor that we shouldn’t adopt these policies now. What it means is that we should be testing and then adapting our strategy in light of new events like a battlefield commander. We might, for example, use fractional dosing in the young or for the second shot and reserve full doses for the elderly.

One more point worth mentioning. Dose stretching policies everywhere are especially beneficial for less-developed countries, many of which are at the back of the vaccine queue. If dose-stretching cuts the time to be vaccinated in half, for example, then that may mean cutting the time to vaccination from two months to one month in a developed country but cutting it from two years to one year in a country that is currently at the back of the queue.

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Music is a tool that has accompanied our evolutionary journey and provided a sense of comfort and social connection for millennia. New research published today in the journal American Psychologist provides a neuroscientific understanding of the social connection with a new map of the brain when playing music.

A team of social neuroscientists from Bar-Ilan University and the University of Chicago introduced a model of the brain that sheds light on the social functions and brain mechanisms that underlie the musical adaptations used for human connection.

The model is unique because it focuses on what happens in the brain when people make music together, rather than when they listen to music individually.

The research was inspired by creative efforts of people around the world to reproduce music-making together while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included people singing songs in unison from balcony to balcony, group singing on video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, and live living room concerts by the likes of Yo Yo Ma, Chris Martin from Coldplay, and Norah Jones.

The team fused the latest advances in social neuroscience and the field of music, including evolutionary theory. They synthesized these advances and highlighted five key functions and mechanisms of the brain that contribute to social connection through music.

These are (1) empathy circuits, (2) oxytocin secretion, (3) reward and motivation, including dopamine release, (4) language structures, and (5) cortisol. These five functions and mechanisms involve at least 12 important brain regions and two pathways which are mapped here.

Empathy helps us to tune into how other people are thinking and feeling, and can be improved through interpersonal musical coordination.

Oxytocin is sometimes called the "love hormone" because it contributes to our sense of feeling socially bonded with others. It is secreted when people sing together, even when the singing is improvised.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that produces a sense of pleasure and is released during musical anticipation and expectation, and pivotal for our sense of reward and motivation.

Language structures in the brain are involved in back-and-forth musical dialogue (sometimes referred to as "call" and "response").

Cortisol is a hormone that contributes to stress, but it is decreased in the brain when people sing together and when they listen to music together in groups.

The research provides the groundwork for an emerging field called the "social neuroscience of music," which builds on the previously established cognitive neuroscience of music, which largely focuses on music listening.

The authors say a better understanding of the social neuroscience of music can play an important role for helping to improve social bonding around the world, particularly in cultures that are in conflict. They conclude that music is a powerful tool that can bring individuals together, promote empathy and communication, and heal social divisions. They say that a better scientific understanding of how music provides brain-to-brain social connections helps highlight that music isn't mere entertainment, but instead is a core feature of human existence with important social implications.

Dr. David Greenberg, who led the research, is a social neuroscientist, professional musician, and Zuckerman Postdoctoral Scholar at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. He says, "Music connects us to our humanity. Through social neuroscience, we can discover that our sense of social connection isn't just subjective, but that it is rooted in important brain mechanisms.

Especially in a time when there is so much social division around the world, we need to find new ways to to bridge cultures in conflict. Music is one of those ways. We hope our research will lead to more grassroots programs like the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Jerusalem Youth Chorus, which bring people from differing cultures together through music."

Dr. Ilanit Gordon, an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology and Director of the Social Neuroscience Lab at the Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center at Bar-Ilan, says, "Human sociality is rooted in our biological makeup. Through music we can connect and interact with others, and via the scientific exploration of the neurobiological basis of music, we can further our understanding of major issues in social neuroscience."

Jean Decety, the Irving B. Harris Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology and Psychiatry, and director of Child Neurosuite at the University of Chicago, says, "Music is a fundamental part of our evolution, allowing for unique expressions of social ties. It can strengthen cohesion and mutual trust between people by signaling shared values. It is quite fascinating to understand the neurobiological mechanisms of music."

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South Africa has been gripped by the mystery of whether a woman has, as has been claimed, actually given birth to 10 babies, in what would then be the world's first recorded case of decuplets.

Gosiame Thamara Sithole from the Tembisa township near Johannesburg gave birth to the babies on Monday, according to the Pretoria News newspaper which quoted the parents. The babies—seven boys and three girls—have not made a public appearance or been captured on camera, although they were born prematurely, the newspaper reported.

The South African government said it is still trying to verify the claim.

That's led to South Africans obsessing on social media over whether the story of the "Tembisa 10" is indeed true.

The father, Teboho Tsotetsi, told the paper his wife had given birth in a hospital in the capital Pretoria. He said it was a big surprise for the parents after doctors only detected eight babies in pre-natal scans.

"It's seven boys and three girls. She was seven months and seven days pregnant. I am happy. I am emotional," the newspaper quoted Tsotetsi as saying.

The couple already have 6-year-old twins, which would make the total an even dozen kids, if the claim is true.

South Africans are eagerly waiting for proof of what would be a world record. Relatives and neighbors of the couple have insisted the news is true.

An elderly woman and children enter the property of the home of Gosiame Thamara Sithole in Tembisa, near Johannesburg Thursday June 10, 2021. South Africa is gripped by a mystery over if the woman, Sithole, has, as has been claimed, given birth to 10 babies in what would be a world-first case of decuplets. The South African government said Thursday it is still trying to verify the claim. Credit: AP Photo/Denis Farrell

"For her to receive 10 blessings at one given time, we thank God for that," Wilson Machaya, a neighbor of the family in Tembisa, told The Associated Press. "And because we are neighbors we will have to assist in any way possible."

A Malian woman gave birth to nine babies only last month in Morocco, in what was hailed as the world's first case of nonuplets.

The Department of Social Development in South Africa's Gauteng province confirmed tracing Sithole and spokeswoman Feziwe Ndwayana said they would make an announcement after meeting with the family. Another local government department said earlier this week that it had no record of the babies' births in any of the province's hospitals.

The Pretoria News initially broke the story with an interview with Sithole and her husband Tsotetsi at their home, which was conducted nearly a month ago and when they thought they were having eight babies. They requested that the story only be published after the babies were born for safety and cultural reasons, the newspaper said.

According to the report, Sithole went on leave earlier than expected from her job as a retail store manager because she could no longer cope. Tsotetsi is unemployed.

One organization has given $70,000 to the couple to help and other South Africans are being encouraged to donate.

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If you regularly experience common ailments—like heartburn or stomachaches that don't improve with over-the-counter medications, or you have severe pain or other symptoms—a gastroenterologist could help.

Often called a GI doctor, a gastroenterologist treats diseases and disorders of the digestive tract and liver. These specialists treat cancers, liver disease, heartburn, problems with the gallbladder, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, internal bleeding, celiac disease and other disorders. A GI doctor can also educate you about how to keep your digestive system healthy.

When should you see a gastroenterologist? Your primary care provider may refer you to a GI specialist if you have any of the following:

• You have heartburn that does not get better with over-the-counter medicines. Although occasional heartburn is common, you should seek help if you also have nausea, vomiting or problems swallowing or if your heartburn keeps you up at night.

• You have persistent or severe stomach pain. Abdominal discomfort is typically caused by a stomach virus, indigestion or gas. More severe pain may indicate a blockage of the intestines.

• There's blood in your stool. Whether it's red or black, blood in the stool is something you need to get checked. It could indicate bleeding in the digestive tract.

• Food is stuck in your esophagus. This may feel like a lump in your throat and can cause difficult, painful swallowing. It could also cause a loss of appetite or vomiting and may be a sign of a disease or some sort of abnormality.

• You are 45. Even if you feel well and have no symptoms, the American Cancer Society now recommends that you get your first screening colonoscopy at age 45—and every 10 years after that. "Colonoscopies save lives," says Tommy Pacana, MD, a gastroenterologist with Rush Copley Gastroenterology. "This procedure can find cancer early when it is easier to treat. That's why it is best to be tested before you even have symptoms."

If you have any of these symptoms or risk factors, talk to your primary care provider about whether you should see a GI specialist.

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New modeling, developed by Burnet Institute, highlights the need to preserve public health measures as a key line of defense against COVID-19 even with high vaccination coverage. It estimates more than 4800 Victorians could die from the virus within 12 months if it were to spread or 'left to run' without a public health response.

The COVASIM mathematical modeling also suggests Australia is unlikely to achieve herd immunity with current levels of vaccine hesitancy and the higher infectiousness of new variants.

In summary, the modeling shows:

• Vaccine hesitancy and the emergence of new COVID-19 variants mean Australia is unlikely to achieve herd immunity

• Public health initiatives remain vital in controlling COVID-19, even in vaccinated populations. Without public health measures, thousands of Victorians would be hospitalized and die if an initially small outbreak was left to spread through the community unchecked

• Australia requires higher vaccine coverage to return to normal life.

Burnet Institute Head of Modeling, Dr. Nick Scott, said public health measures, such as lockdowns, social distancing, mask wearing and use of QR codes, would need to continue to prevent deaths.

"Without herd immunity, if we stopped taking a public health approach and allowed the virus to spread, it is likely to infect a large proportion of the community," Dr. Scott said.

"Those who are vaccinated would be protected and may only experience mild or no symptoms. But among those not vaccinated—possibly up to 30 percent of the community—we could see a large number of hospitalisations and deaths, as well as many cases of 'long COVID'."

The modeling presents scenarios projecting COVID-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths one year after new infections enter the community, even when people are vaccinated. Parameters around vaccine efficacy, viral infectiousness, vaccine coverage and the speed of the vaccine rollout can be modified.

One scenario created by Dr. Scott and his team assumed a 50 percent vaccine efficacy in preventing infections and a 93 percent efficacy at preventing deaths among people who did become infected; a virus which was 1.5 times as infectious as the one in Victoria in June-November 2020; and where 80 percent of people aged over 60 and 70 percent of people younger than 60 years of age were eventually vaccinated.

"We found that if the virus enters the community when 60 percent vaccine coverage has been reached and is left unchecked, we could see 4,885 deaths in Victoria within a year if no public health responses are introduced," Dr. Scott said. "If we get peak vaccination coverage up to 95 percent, the number of deaths reduces to 1346."

The modeling shows that if vaccine efficacy against infection was 75 percent, with the same parameters in the scenario described, the number of deaths after one year could be less than 1000. Conversely, if the virus was more infectious, deaths would remain at very high levels, even if the vaccine was highly efficacious.

Burnet Institute Deputy Director and leading infectious diseases and public health specialist, Professor Margaret Hellard AM said that the modeling was a 'worst-case' scenario, showing what could happen if governments decided not to intervene and 'let the virus run' even with moderate-to-high vaccine coverage.

"Current COVID-19 strains are far more infectious than the original one. Research is ongoing to determine vaccine efficacy against these variants, but it appears to be lower in a number of variants," Professor Hellard said. "This means we need much higher vaccine coverage to reduce infections and severe infections. Also there may be occasions when we need to reintroduce public health measures and restrictions to control outbreaks."

Professor Hellard said with 30 percent of Australians indicating they do not want to be vaccinated, public health measures must remain if governments want to prevent thousands of COVID-19 deaths.

"I encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as they can. This modeling highlights how difficult it will be to return to a normal life. Although vaccinations might not stop every outbreak, they will reduce the likelihood of outbreaks occurring, reduce the need for quarantine and restrictions and save lives."

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There was a significant increase in depression and anxiety symptoms for young Australians during COVID-19, but no greater help-seeking from mental health professionals, says a new report. There was however, a decrease in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms.

Using survey data from 1,927 young people as part of the Australian Parental Supply of Alcohol Longitudinal Study (APSALS) cohort led by The National Drug and Alcohol Research Center (NDARC), UNSW Sydney, researchers found that half the cohort rated their mental health as having worsened.

Ms Emily Upton, Research Officer at NDARC and Clinical Psychologist, said, "Young people may disproportionately experience certain stressors associated with the pandemic, such as reduced casual working hours and disruption to other structured activities like tertiary education."

The report found that despite increases in generalized anxiety and depression, there was no increased uptake of young people seeking out support with their mental health from health professionals.

"Young people generally have low engagement with mental health treatment and rely more on self-reliance strategies to cope with mental health problems," said Ms Upton.

The report found that although the Australian Government introduced initiatives to increase access to mental health support during the pandemic, there may be a lag in young Australians accessing this support.

"Cost is a key barrier to treatment access for young people. Reduction in income during the pandemic may be a factor in continued low rates of help-seeking and while government rebates are available, these do not cover the entire cost of psychological treatment," said Ms Upton.

In another report using the same APSALS survey data, it was found that alcohol use among young people during the COVID-19 pandemic decreased.

Dr. Philip Clare, Biostatistician at The Prevention Research Collaboration, University of Sydney, said, "Overall alcohol consumption among young people during the restrictions declined by 17 percent compared to February 2020, and there was a 34 percent decline in the rate of alcohol-related harms."

The report found that changes in consumption appear to be driven by the COVID-19 restrictions.

"Young people generally consume more alcohol outside of the home, so we would expect alcohol consumption to decline during COVID-19 restrictions. However, we saw an increase in drinking alone and drinking 'virtually' with others," said Dr. Clare.

"Similarly, the decline in alcohol-related harms may be driven by the fact that drinking was more likely to occur alone or 'virtually' with others due to the need to isolate, which reduces the risk of harms such as fighting with strangers, and traffic accidents."

The report stresses that alcohol-related trends in young people are also important to understand so the relevant harm reduction strategies can be implemented.

"Although drinking and harms decreased, we could see an increase in future due to loss in tolerance," said Dr. Clare.

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The Uttarakhand region of India experienced a humanitarian tragedy on Feb. 7, 2021, when a wall of debris and water barreled down the Ronti Gad, Rishiganga and Dhauliganga river valleys.

The event began when a wedge of rock carrying a glacier broke off of a steep ridge in the Himalayan mountain range. The resulting debris flow destroyed two hydropower facilities and left more than 200 people dead or missing.

A self-organized coalition of 53 scientists came together in the days following the disaster to investigate the cause, scope and impacts. The team determined that the flood was caused by falling rock and glacier ice that melted on its descent—not by a lake or diverted river—which will help researchers and policymakers better identify emerging hazards in the region.

The study, which used satellite imagery, seismic records and eyewitness videos to produce computer models of the flow, was published June 10 in Science.

"On the morning of the event, I was reading the news over coffee, and saw a headline about a disaster in the Himalayas," said co-author David Shean, a University of Washington assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. "I sat down at the computer and pulled up the satellite images that had been acquired that morning. When I saw the dust cloud moving down the valley, I started writing emails to other scientists asking if they were working on this. One email thread quickly became five, then 10, and the response effort consumed most of our waking hours for the next two weeks."

Initial hypotheses for the cause of the event suggested a glacial lake outburst flood. But there are no glacial lakes large enough to produce a flood anywhere near the site, the team determined.

"Our access to high-resolution satellite imagery and research software, and our expertise in satellite remote sensing were crucial to get a bird's-eye view of how the event unfolded," said co-author Shashank Bhushan, a UW doctoral student in civil and environmental engineering. "We worked with our French collaborators to coordinate satellite collections within days of the event and rapidly process the images to derive detailed topographic maps of the site."

The researchers compared the images and topographic maps from before and after the event to document all of the changes and reconstruct the sequence of events.

"We tracked a plume of dust and water to a conspicuous dark patch high on a steep slope," said lead author Dan Shugar, associate professor at the University of Calgary.

Computer modeling of the Chamoli rock and ice avalanche. Credit: Ashim Sattar; UZH

The dark patch turned out to be the scar left by the 35 million cubic yards of missing rock and glacier ice—enough material to cover Washington, D.C., with a 3-foot-deep layer.

"This was the source of a giant landslide that triggered the cascade of events, and caused immense death and destruction," said Shugar, who was previously an assistant professor at UW Tacoma.

The researchers also used the maps to determine how far the block of ice and rock fell.

"The failed block fell over a mile before impacting the valley floor. To put this height in context, imagine vertically stacking up 11 Space Needles or six Eiffel Towers," Bhushan said.

Then the larger team was able to quantify how the pulverized rock and ice were redistributed over the downstream areas.

"As the block fell, most of the glacier ice melted within minutes. This resulted in a huge volume of water associated with the flooding," Bhushan said. "This is highly unusual—a normal rock landslide or snow/ice avalanche could not have produced such huge volumes of water."

For Bhushan, the work was personal.

"In general, doctoral research projects are very niche. I sometimes have a hard time explaining to my parents why measuring glacier dynamics is important," Bhushan said. "But due to the scale of this disaster, my family and friends back in India were very curious to know how this event unfolded, and they were expecting me to come up with an answer. These interactions provided me with a sense of belonging and motivation that some of my research can be of such immediate use to society."

The team also used satellite image archives to show that previous large ice masses had been dislodged from the same ridge and struck the same valley in recent years. The researchers suggest that climate change is likely increasing the frequency of such events, and that the greater magnitude of the latest disaster should be considered before further infrastructure development in the area.

"These high-mountain rivers are appealing for hydropower projects, and we need a better understanding of the full spectrum of potential high-mountain hazards," Shean said. "We hope that lessons learned from this effort will improve our ability to respond to future disasters and guide policy decisions that will save lives."

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