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| Emotions Get Better with Aging
Some people think that when they get older, there will be no purpose in life since they will just sit around all day. A psychologist, Susan Turk Charles, proved this theory wrong. She has been monitoring changes in moods, the sense of satisfaction, and occasional outbursts of different emotions of all ages for the past twenty years. She and her colleagues have discovered that on average, older people have fewer but more social contacts and higher emotional well-being. Everyone says that your emotions are fully developed when you're eighteen, yet our emotions still continue to develop. Laura Carstensen at Stanford tells us that, unlike physical fitness, emotional regulation and experience are often getting better as we age. We do see that older people react slower to information than younger people, but they are often just thinking before they act. How does this information affect younger people? In the past 10 years, we've heard that mindfulness is an emotional regulation strategy and that's what most old people use. I think younger people, like myself, need to be reminded of this right now. Since we're in a dark period, it's always best to be positive and be mindful.
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How we Can Prepare for the Next Pandemic
Many of us have heard of the saying that a pandemic happening every one hundred years. For example, the First Cholera Pandemic was in 1817, the flu pandemic in 1918, and finally the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. So it is very likely that a pandemic will happen around the 2120's. When coronavirus first hit, everyone was franticly searching for supplies and regretted not having a deeper pantry. As the text states, "The scientific and medical community wasn’t ready. The government, the military, and industry weren’t ready. And most of us at home weren’t ready either: scrambling for basic supplies...." You should be prepared for another pandemic with the proper household essential supplies. These include Clorox, paper towels, toilet paper, hand sanitizers, soap, and many more. Remember how none of these were in stock at the beginning of the pandemic? No one thought this might happen but now, people are more prepared. The U.S has been through many hardships but stayed resilient throughout everything we've been through. We've experienced not only the pandemics in history but wars, friendships, success, failure, and more. If we continue to stay determined for our country, we could go far in life.
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A Healthy Environment as a Human Right
Having a healthy environment is very important for us. We rely on food, water, materials, and other resources as well as a stable climate. For example, if you live in a freezing environment, you might not survive as long as people who live in a stable environment. The article states, "John Knox, an expert on international environmental law and human rights law at Wake Forest University, [believes that] a healthy environment is as important to human life as freedom of expression, health, work, education, and other rights generally accepted under international human rights law." The UN member nations already recognize the importance and the right to a healthy environment through constitutions, general legislation, or regional human rights treaties. This right has also been recognized in Africa and Latin America. However, in the U.S and other influential countries, the right to a healthy environment has never been established in the national constitution yet. One day, I believe all nations will recognize this human right to have a healthy environment.
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| Venus, the Planet before the Earth
The planet Venus has no signs of life, until now when researchers discovered the chemical phosphine. The telescopes on Earth discovered the presence of phosphine, a molecule that is flammable and smells horrid. Phosphine is a sign of life, it is known for its toxicity to organisms on Earth. The molecule phosphine was present on the Venusian's "cloud layer" with a similar temperature and pressure as on Earth. While researchers know what creates phosphine on Earth, they are stumped by what is creating phosphine on Venus, examining possibilities like lightning and meteors. In conclusion, phosphine normally found on Earth was discovered on the Venusians cloudy layer leaving researchers to believe there is life on the planet.
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A Comet with Northern Lights
The Northern and Southern lights are created by the electrically charged particles that come from the sun and hit the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists have studied the findings of Rosetta, a comet hunter, and saw that there was a glow surrounding the comet 67P/C-G. The lead researcher, Marina Galand used data collected from the Rosetta instrument and found the comet was emitting an aurora. The comet's coma interacts with the Sun's charged particles that creates an ultraviolet light that makes the glow we are able to see. Scientists can examine the gases emitted from the 67P/C-G comet to learn about the solar wind changing over time. Scientists will be able to protect the satellites, spacecrafts, and astronauts knowing how the sun's radiation affects the environment in space. In the end, using the Rosetta instrument researchers found the comet 67P/C-G emitted an aura caused by the sun leading researchers to continue research on the effect of the sun's radiation.
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Humans are Polluting the Ocean
The oceans are being polluted by iron affecting the phytoplankton's rate of growth. Pollutants like carbon are affecting the environment, iron that comes from the burning of coal and smelting of steel are causing the oceans to absorb, thrive and grow. It might seem like the ocean absorbing iron is a good thing, but it is not, humans need iron to create blood cells, plants use it for photosynthesis, but the ocean uses it to absorb carbon. Iron is limited in the ocean, scientists conducted an experiment that demonstrated how adding iron to the ocean multiplied the amount of phytoplankton. Researchers found that too much iron could lead to negative health outcomes for humans and harm the ocean's animals. In the end, the presence of iron is polluting the ocean and threatening the health of humans.
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| The Observation and Conservation of Lions
For the first time in history, "scientists created complete genomes of twenty individual lions" in order to study their evolutionary path. The scientists managed to discover cave lions did not interbreed with other types of lions; this is contradictory to wild cats' notorious behavior of interbreeding when given the chance, which resulted in the scientists assuming that this is due to an unknown factor preventing them from mixing. Scientists are considering introducing lions to West Africa since the native lions are genetically very similar to the extinct Barbary lion, which had a diverse genome. Thus, by scientists endeavoring to collect genome information, we can potentially prevent lion loss and instead boost their population globally.
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How the U.S. Has Handled the Coronavirus
Compared to every other country in the world, the US's response to the coronavirus is anything but a good one. In the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, Trump denied the existence of the virus, leading to many of his supporters not taking the illness seriously. The U.S. has lost more lives than any other country because of the lack of action that Trump and his staff have taken and his inability to know what to do during a dire situation. The U.S. has lost more lives than any other country because of the lack of action that Trump and his staff have taken and his inability to know what to do during a dire situation. Without proper action from the government, we have dug ourselves a grave that is extremely difficult to get out of.
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The Exploration of Our Solar System
This summer, three spacecraft from three different countries will venture out and explore Mars. These spacecraft join the legacy of many others before them that have ventured out into the deep unknown. These spacecraft all have different intended purposes as they explore the Sun, our neighboring planets, and the asteroids within our solar system. One such spacecraft is SOHO. SOHO is a spacecraft that monitors space weather and the potential dangers it presents to Earth. Moreover, it also discovers new comets that surround us. Without spacecraft we would lack much of what we know about space and even the weather on Earth, making it a field that should be continued and improved upon.
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| Mandatory Masks in Germany
Recently in Germany, the introduction of mandatory face masks has greatly dropped the COVID-19 infection rate. Masks were first made mandatory in Jena, a city in Thuringia, Germany. German researchers set up an experiment comparing Jena’s infection rates with mandatory masks and other areas’ infection rates with optional masks. Jena’s cases of infection only rose from 148 to 152. Otherwise, cases would've risen from 143 to 205 if the masks were optional. This decrease in cases raised concerns about whether the masks will become optional if the cases keep dropping; the government says they will keep the mandatory masks regardless of how low the cases are.
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Triathlete Banned From Sushi Restaurant For Eating Too Much
A German triathlete named Jaroslav Bobrowski was asked to not come back to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant after he ate too much of their food. The article states that he "has a special diet, in which he doesn't eat for 20 hours, and then eats 'until [he's] full.'" The athlete often patronized the restaurant, Running Sushi, ending with his last visit, in which his hunger was more consuming than in previous visits. He ate about 100 plates of sushi, eating for five people, as mentioned by the owner. Despite eating this much, he still maintains less than ten percent body fat. Shocked, the triathlete was told that he was banned for costing the restaurant too much money by eating so much.
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Free Tourism in Italy
As the coronavirus pandemic calms down, Italy is restarting tourism and funding 75 million euros to pay for tourists' expenses. This funding takes the form of vouchers, which, if a tourist uses one, will grant free access to museums and tour guides. However, this is not a long-term strategy and the government is trying to find one. Currently, the exact details of which companies will be helping, the ways to get the vouchers, and the number of tourists that stand to benefit have not been revealed.
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| Bees Practice Social Distancing
With the coronavirus spreading, we distance ourselves from others in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Not all viruses affect humans, but instead, they affect other animals, like bees. However, just like humans, bees distance themselves from each other to stop the spread of a virus. In one case of a virus called Israeli acute paralysis virus, studies show that honeybees practice a form of social distancing in order to prevent the spread of the virus in their colony. Honeybees lived in huge colonies, with tens of thousands living next to each other closely, so scientists wondered how they keep the infections from spreading. For example, when bees interact with nestmates, bees that are infected experience fewer contact than bees that are not infected.
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The Oceans Under The Ocean
Scientists, after decades of searching, have found what seems to be a massive reservoir underneath the ocean, which is said to fill the surface oceans 3 times over. They say it might have been formed because of a mineral called ringwoodite, which can trap water. The water is trapped in these minerals and is moved up to the surface in the transition zone, which means water may not have come from these comets, but actually these minerals. With this, new ecosystems and lifeforms could be discovered which was hidden 400+ miles below the surface, which can definitely provide great discoveries.
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Turning Hydrogen Into A Metal
Scientists have "crushed" hydrogen to a point where they think they have found a way to make metal out of hydrogen. This metallic hydrogen appeared at a pressure that is 4 million times greater than the Earth's atmosphere. This experiment is bringing answers to a prediction that was first brought up in the 1930s. In creating this metallic hydrogen, scientists had squeezed hydrogen gas between two diamonds, and they had sent infrared light through the crushed hydrogen. As the pressure increased, the hydrogen started to become opaque to the light, which is a sign that it was becoming a metal. The properties of the metal are still unclear and they are still researching this new phenomenon.
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| Skinny Genes Make Fat Burn
Skinny genes, which appear in people who are naturally svelte, tell the body's fat to burn. The genes tell the brain to burn the fat that is stored away. That is why people with skinny genes appear to always be skinny. The gene does not make the person or animal with the genes eat less. People with a certain cancer gene are usually burning more calories for the same amount of food because cancer and "skinny" genes are associated. These genes make people remain thin.
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Consequences of Eating Meat
Lots of people diet, but as the human population is rising steadily, scientists are trying to figure out how to invent a dieting plan that can feed 10 billion people. In a news report published in the British medical journal The Lancet, it recommends a largely plant-based diet with small allowances for meat, dairy, and sugar. Meat and sugar consumption around the world should drop by 50 percent.
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Ancient Snakes
The first snake ever found was a baby from the dinosaur age. The snake is ten centimeters long, and the snake was from 99 million years in the past. The snake was also from an island in the Indian Ocean. The snake got trapped in sap, and the sap hardened as the island drifted north and became a part of the country of Myanmar. Scientists also found an amber that had a piece of skin shed by the same species of snake. Finding a snake fossil was extremely rare since only fifteen had been found around the world during the dinosaur age.
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| Dogs Trained to Sniff COVID-19
Canines have already been used to smell multiple types of diseases, such as diabetes, malaria, and even some types of cancer. Dogs have a great sense of smell, having 300 million smell receptors. They are trained by using a practice called odor imprinting. Trainers use saliva or urine with COVID-19 as well as other samples to train the dog. If trained correctly, the dog can track asymptomatic carriers, also known as a person who has no symptoms of the virus and does not know that he or she has contracted the virus until tested.
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Start a Survival Garden Today
Since this pandemic of the coronavirus, for some, food has been hard to come by. During World War l and ll, American citizens began making fruit and vegetable gardens, allowing the large food crops to be used by those fighting the war. There are similarities from then and now, suggesting we too can benefit from making a garden. To begin, you need a spot with lots of sunlight, as you should have your crop in the sun for 8 to 12 hours a day. Finally, remember to be patient because rushing can result in mistakes, damaging your garden. These vegetable gardens are important because they feed us, limiting our trips to the store, and better fight the COVID-19 spread.
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Dalgona Coffee Craze
Dalgona coffee, which is a whipped coffee consisting of only instant coffee, sugar, and water, has stormed the internet these past few weeks. With everyone staying home because of quarantine, many people are looking for new recipes and snacks. Made popular from popular streaming devices like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, many have decided to try this new simple treat. To make it you need equals parts instant coffee (the kind that melts into water easily), sugar, and water. Then, whip by hand or by machine until the mixture turns creamy and pour over cold or warm milk. Tada! You've made Dalgona coffee!
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| 1.5 Billion Year Old Earth Had No Land
New research is suggesting that the planet was covered with water and absolutely no continents 3.2 billion years ago. Scientists found that more of certain oxygen isotopes, oxygen-18, held more of the isotopes we have in current oceans, oxygen-16. Continental masses usually absorb oxygen-18 from the ocean, but the fact that there was more oxygen-18 3.2 billion years ago means that there were little to no continental landmasses. This research provides new questions about lifeforms that existed in that time period and how they have evolved.
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Masks May Mark "H" for Heroes
With COVID-19 being a pandemic and killing thousands of people, most people are trying new ways to prevent the contraction of the virus or the spread of it to other people. One of the common ways is wearing a face mask when going outside. Face masks are not completely ineffective, seeing as they prevent the virus from entering the nose or mouth. They also serve as a great reminder to not touch your face, and if you are sick, they help prevent other people from getting infected because it keeps infected fluid inside your body. However, no one is completely invincible; there is still a chance you can contract the virus even with face masks, which is more effective in stopping air particles. For now, all we can do is social distance, wash our hands and stop touching our faces.
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Mining on the Moon
It was only 50 years ago when humans first set foot on the moon. Ever since then, our technology has only advanced, but we have yet to take advantage of the moon. Last month, there was an executive order that U.S. companies were allowed to mine the moon, opening new possibilities of commercialization. Many agree that moon mining is beneficial, but the process of obtaining resources and what to do with these resources is still in the works. The resources on the moon are abundant, containing rare substances. For example, rare earth metals are used in the construction of high tech materials, such as Helium-3, which is a rare element used for the future development of nuclear fusion. All in all, mining on the moon seems like it will help with the growing technology of humans.
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| Rooftop Wind Power
Solar Panels on top of houses is a fairly common sight in suburban neighborhoods, but what about wind power? Wind power was previously thought to have too many difficulties since the bigger the turbine of the actual machine is, the more energy wind can generate. However, Brent Houchens and his colleagues think they have made a new design that solves these problems, and it is based on aerospace techniques. In neighborhoods with an abundant amount of wind, they think that it is possible to compete with rooftop solar panels.
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Disease Can Come from Plants, Not Only Animals
Most diseases that humans contract usually originate from animals in the wild. However, there are diseases from plants that can jump to humans. Over the years, drug-resistant fungi have been a problem, including a recent fungus known as Candida Auris. Since it is drug-resistant, it is hard to cure, killing half of its victims in about 90 days, and fungi are constantly mutating, meaning it always adapts. One solution to prevent this type of disease is to stop using fungicides. More use can cause fungi to adapt, and the reason Candida Auris has grown to a dangerous level was because of the overuse of fungicides of its competitors; however, fungicides are still important, and scientists are working on doing a better job of trying to control zoonotic diseases like this.
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Zoo Lovers’ Day
Zoo Lovers’ Day, which is on April 8, is the perfect day to go to a zoo with friends or family. Zoos may seem recent, but they actually have an intriguing history dating back to the times of ancient Egypt. The earliest form of a zoo was found in an archeological dig in Egypt, which consisted of hippos, elephants, baboons, wildcats, and hartebeests. Zoos used to be only for higher class citizens but, as time progressed, became open to the public. Today, there are many zoos all around the world, consisting of several exotic animals. Zoos are entertaining as well as important, as they can maintain populations of animals and keep species from becoming extinct.
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| COVID-19 – Stay Safe
COVID-19 is a very deadly virus that causes symptoms like fever, shortness of breath, and dry coughing and can harm people over 60 years old who have medical/health problems. Any age can be affected by this virus but senior citizens are more effected and people with health issues and underlying conditions. If you do not want to catch the Coronavirus, then it is best to stay indoors where you aren't around anyone except for your family. Around 177 countries have been affected with at least 10 cases in each country, which makes this a very serious virus. In the whole world, there are about 400,000 cases and 18,000 deaths. For preventing the Coronavirus, we should follow a few rules to be safe. We should wash our hands for as long as it takes to sing the alphabet. We should also not touch our face and should not go outside around other people.
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For the Love of Chocolate Caramel
Whenever you throw away plastic material, it usually ends up in the ocean, killing many residing animals like sea turtles. An unfamiliar fact is that the plastic in the ocean is colonized by bacteria and small invertebrates, which causes it to smell like seafood or shrimp. This is the reason that sea turtles are eating plastic. Plastic contains harmful chemicals that can kill sea turtles when they consume it. Specifically, plastic bags can be even more dangerous since they look like jellyfish in the water. This is why sea turtles eat plastic when they see or smell it.
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Sea Turtles Eat Old Plastic Because of Its Scent
Many think of chocolate caramel to be one of the greatest inventions ever made, as it is a mix of sweet caramel and smooth chocolate. The history and origins of this sweet delight date back to the 17th century when caramel was made by the settlers, originally from sugar beet juice. Chocolate was from Mesoamerica, and when European settlers drank the originally bitter treat, they eagerly brought it back to Europe, adding sugar for sweetness. Later, Mr. Hershey of the Hershey’s Candy Company, who originally sold caramel, began to produce chocolate as his main product and then mixed both sweets to make chocolate caramel. Mr. Hershey made this mix popular amongst many, creating a sensation. Today, there are several ways to celebrate this invention, and many include eating one!
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| New Species of Pygmy Seahorse
In the boulder-strewn waters off Japan's coast, researchers have discovered tiny seahorses that are the size of a grain of rice. These creatures camouflage with the algae-covered rocks and at first glance, they look like "floating seaweed" in the water. Scientists named the newly discovered sea animal 'Hippocampus japapigu', Latin for "Japan pig". Graham Short, an ichthyologist at the California Academy of Sciences says that it is "because to the locals, it resembles a tiny baby pig". Although they are tiny and hard to find, they are not rare.
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Keep Calm and Go Gentle
In recent years, to avoid living low-quality lives, older adults than ever before are changing their lifestyle habits. Social interaction is emotionally and mentally healthy, and having someone to confide in is a signifier of the quality of one's life at an older age. Elders living in empty residences far from familiar people when involved in health accidents have a greater risk of developing a long term disability than those who are more socially active. Though uncomfortable and easy to misinterpret, it's important to sit down with your parents to plan their living will, and talk about the possibility of death. A 2017 study showed that more elderly in America pass away at home than in any other surveyed location. It is never too late in life to set up a foundation for fulfillment.
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Food and Water Shortages are Expected as Nature Fails
For the past several decades, mankind has depleted the Earth, altering more than 75% of landmasses and 66% of the oceans. As we destroy nature, we also destroy ourselves; our lives are completely dependent on what nature is able to provide for us. Nature supplies us with food, coastal protection, and clean water. However, because we are destroying what natures give us, flooding is expected to occur more regularly and more severely. Along with a shortage of food, many species will become extinct, including our own.
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| The Right Time to Eat Breakfast
People always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but research shows that this may depend on your preference rather than your nutrition intake. There is no evidence so far showing that skipping meals hinders your health. However, there is evidence to prove breakfast can make a huge difference in your day. For example, people who need to perform cognitive or excessive tasks should definitely eat beforehand. People who eat breakfast also have fewer health problems. If you want to skip breakfast, though, you should do it at times when you don't have access to healthy foods or if you had a late dinner. Health all depends on your body and how you take care of it.
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Good Sleep
Many people suffer from insomnia during some part of their lives. Insomnia affects people physically and mentally, thus leading to numerous products to ensure peaceful sleep. One such product is an anti-snoring device, which purifies the air as you breathe, and keeps you from snoring loudly throughout the night. A second item you can get to achieve a comfortable night of sleep is a personal air conditioner. This special air-conditioner has a water tank that collects the water vapor in the air of your bedroom which will help reduce humidity in the summer. An oldie but a goodie for lessening leg pain, a cause of insomnia, is using a pillow to elevate your leg which will reduce the pain in your legs, creating more comfort and easier way to sleep. A final item to help you sleep better is an aromatherapy bundle which will help your senses relax at night using essential oils to whisk people away to La-La Land.
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Stop Your Phone From Getting Tracked
Keeping your location private when you have devices such as smartphones can be difficult. According to Google, if you turn off your location history in your Google account, the company can still see where you've been through the setting "Web & App Activity." This setting is used when you are doing activities such as getting directions or searching on Google. However, there is definitely a way to increase your privacy protection. First of all, there are steps you can follow to manage activity or delete all of your location history in Google settings. Additionally, Androids and iPhones have different procedures to control your smartphone's privacy even more. People need to be cautious with the apps and websites we use to avoid being tracked by any and all companies.
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| Camels and Their Humps
Camels are well-known for being able to go without water for weeks. They are also known for storing water in their famous humps. However, this is actually not true because camels use their humps to store fat which can help them when they do not have access to enough food. This is because they live in the desert where food may be scarce, so their bodies have to be able to provide nutrition by metabolizing the fat. The humps also help with the regulation of body temperatures. Even though camels don't store water like we thought they did, they still efficiently drink water and can go up to a week without it. Thanks to their humps, camels can thrive in harsh, desert-like environments.
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Excessive Sweating is Not Cleansing
Sweating has been viewed as many different things in history, but sweating does not actually help clean your body, despite what many people think. Sweating is very necessary and healthy for your body, yet sweat can be somewhat dangerous for others to come in contact with. Research shows that the release of sweat helps many things like sickness and drunkenness. After sweating, many people feel more cleansed and fresh; however, that is not the case. After doing research, many doctors have said that releasing feces and urination is what cleanses our bodies, and sweating does not. These are some reasons why sweating does not really cleanse our bodies, it only empties out our pores of some germs.
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Dehydrated Mosquitoes
Mosquitoes transmit many diseases that lead to thousands of deaths, making them very dangerous. Although females are the ones which typically bite, all mosquitoes will be attracted to blood on a hot day. When mosquitoes don't have enough access to water and get dehydrated, they tend to become more aggressive. As a result, they will feed more frequently on hosts. However, an increasing number of hosts also means and increasing number of diseases being spread around. Researchers conducted an experiment to learn more about the effect of dehydration on mosquito-feeding behavior. They found that dehydrated mosquitoes fed on their host's blood more than hydrated mosquitoes, even during short periods without water. In order to properly "fight" these insects and the diseases they carry, we need to understand more about their biology.
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| Life Beyond Earth
Scientist have discovered planets outside our solar system that have the same characteristics as Earth. Researchers have found that the light given off by a planet's host star determines the chances of life existing on that planet. One of the main substances that led to the origination of life on Earth is cyanide. According to the researchers' hypothesis, hydrogen cyanide reacted with other elements which eventually created the first molecule of life with information. Through several experiments, the researchers learned that cool stars cannot produce the necessary building blocks of life due to the lack of light, while stars that are about as hot as the sun can. Planets that have the components needed for life, such as enough light and liquid water, are in an area called the abiogenesis zone, also known informally as the origin of life. Scientists estimate that about 700 million trillion terrestrial planets exist in our universe.
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The Birth of Pizza in the U.S
In the United States alone, 350 slices of pizza are consumed by the second. Pizza is an Italian product which found its way to the U.S with the millions of Italian immigrants. These immigrants started by making pizza in their homes and selling them in unlicensed venues until G. Lombardi's came along in New York. This was the first official, licensed pizzeria that led to the openings of many other pizzerias. Following this was the invention of a pizza slice, which was very convenient for busy people. Not long after, pizza was much more popular in the U.S than it was in Italy.
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The Real Life Lorax
Dr. Seuss' "the Lorax" is a fictional picture book about environmental issues that may have a relation to real life. Scientists have reported that the main orange character with a mustache, the Lorax, could have been inspired by the endangered patas monkey. Apparently, the Lorax was written while Dr. Seuss was visiting the Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki. This is an area occupied by the patas monkeys. There were also clues in Dr. Seuss' autobiography that led to this theory. In addition, researchers have found similar features when matching the faces of the monkeys and the Lorax. Opposing the idea of conservation in The Lorax, the patas monkey is likely to go extinct soon.
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| Rat Invasion Hurts Coral Reefs!
Rats are known to be a nuisance on land, but now they are indirectly damaging coral reefs. The cycle starts with seabirds feeding from the ocean and eliminating waste onto the shore. As tides come in, the ocean sweeps the bird poop, which is rich in nitrogen, into the ocean, allowing sea life to thrive. When small fish populations grow, they feed on seaweed and keep coral reefs healthy. However, when researchers studied islands with rat infestations, seabird, fish and coral reef populations decreased while seaweed and rat populations increased. Rats were feeding on seabird eggs and chicks, which led to less nutritional poop for small fish, which led to a decrease in fish populations, which led to less maintenance of seaweed, and finally leading to seaweed overtaking coral reefs. After scientists studied these turn of events, they came to one conclusion: a species invasion.
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The Coldest Known Place in the World
Using a satellite, researchers were able to discover Earth's coldest area, which was a deep ice sheet in Antartica. The recorded temperature was negative 144ºF, but this temperature might not decrease due to global warming. According to the researchers, this location was so cold it was "almost like another planet." Before this discovery, the lowest recorded temperature was negative 128.6ºF at a station in Russia. Researchers had to take certain precautions because of the freezing temperature. They were curious as to how much lower the temperature could drop, and this is where they found that it could go as low as negative 144ºF. In order for a place to be this cold, it needs to meet certain requirements and conditions. In fact, these conditions will make it perfect for looking up at space.
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The Existence of Baking Before Agriculture
Archeologists discovered a fireplace food at a site in Jordan. The remains of meat and plants made sense to them, but what surprised them was the bread. It didn't make sense because there was no agriculture at the time the fireplace and foods were from, which was 4,000 years ago. There were blackened remains, which were from the bread. The grains in the remains were from grain flour, which meant the bread was made from the stems of nearby plants. In addition, the archeologists found remains of plants that were ancestors of the earliest domesticated crops. All of this evidence could mean that the people in this time period included bread and cereal based products in their lives. However, there is not enough evidence yet to confirm this theory.
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| Raining Crystals in Hawaii
Kilauea is the most active volcano in the island of Hawaii. On May 3, Kilauea began to erupt again and residents have been dealing with all the things that have been coming out of the volcano. One of those things includes green crystals, also known as olivine crystals. These crystals are very common, but it's unusual to find them as a result of a volcanic eruption. Geologists claim that during the volcanic eruption, the green crystals are carried out with the lava into the sky. Some of the lava cools instantly in the air, forming pumice. This sudden change traps gasses in the pumice which forces itself out, creating holes. These holes are where the olivine crystals come out from, making it seem as if it's raining crystals. The volcano Kilauea has impacted Hawaii greatly, but the residents of Hawaii are hoping to take a break from all the eruptions.
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Fish-Bird in China
Fishers in China received an unexpected surprise recently. Instead of catching a whole fish, they caught one with a bird's head. It has been identified as a freshwater carp, which is common in that area. However, seeing a beak and small fins that look like wings on the fish has convinced people that they've discovered a creature that is half-bird and half-fish. Experts do not agree, though, claiming that this is not a fish-bird. Instead, they believe that the fish's bird-like appearance is due to a defective cell growth near the mouth area. This skeletal deformation could have made the mouth of the fish tilt downwards, making it look like a beak. There are many possibilities on what could have caused this unusual feature on the fish, but none of them can be approved yet. Fortunately, the bird-looking fish was placed back in the water to swim freely.
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Finding a Home for the World's Trash
The world's trash has been bought and recycled by China until 2017. China has a new policy that does not allow certain plastic materials into the nation. This is a problem for the world because other nations now have to find a way to deal with the several million tons of trash. Before this, China used to get 4,000 containers of plastic from the United States alone. If no action is taken, all of the unwanted plastic and waste will end up in the oceans.
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| The Discoloration of Bananas
When grocery shopping, people buy green bananas and within days later, it changes to bright yellow. The color changes due to a hormone called ethylene, which helps the ripening process in bananas, like most fruits. When the fruit reacts with the ethylene, the banana's acid starts to break down which makes it mushier and sweeter. If not eaten, like most life cycles, the process of ethylene will cause the banana to decay, brown, and turn mushy in texture. So, when the banana begins to turn brown, that means the banana should be eaten before it rots and needs to be thrown away.
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Species Going Extinct Due to Human Interaction
In the world, there are over 7,000 species that are endangered. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) states that if the species' population decreases 50 to 70% over 10 years, then it's considered endangered. One of the common reasons why the species are dying is due to humans interacting with nature. The article explains that "Loss of habitat, the introduction of a foreign species into the environment, hunting, pollution, disease, and loss of genetic variation are all causes of species decline and most often are a result of human activities." This shows how the bulk of human activities harm not only the species but the environment they live, as well. The possible future will see most species extinction from human interaction, however, if humans choose to help nature through conservation efforts, then it will be one step closer to healing the planet.
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Usain Bolt: The Fastest Human Alive
Encyclopædia Britannica writer, Kara Rodgers, defines speed as "the rate where an object moves through time." Usain Bolt, also known as the fastest man alive, set a world record in the 100-meter dash with 9.58 seconds. If calculated correctly, that's faster than the average traffic speed in some cities. Because of his height and size, Usain can run a lot easier with the use of his long strides. With that in consideration, no other person has beaten his record at this moment.
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| Friendly Neighborhood Spider
Spiders are always in our lives. Scientists completed a visual survey in 50 North Carolina homes to see which arachnids live in people's houses. Every house has spiders and the most common are cobweb and cellar spiders. People are normally afraid of spiders due to having multiple legs and most being venomous. However, spiders usually prefer to avoid humans. Spiders will always be in our houses, providing protection against other insects, so don't kill the next spider you encounter.
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How Pizza Came to America
How Pizza Came to America Pizza is a staple food item in America, but it wasn't created by Americans. It was as early as 600 BCE, where the Greeks created the pizza. However, the Italians introduced the food in America between 1880 and 1920. Italian immigrants made and sold pizzas from their homes and unlicensed venues. Then, the first licensed pizzeria in New York, named G. Lombardi's, opened in 1905, which is still open today. Soon, pizzerias became popular in America and almost every corner had one. With America being the "land of opportunity," the Italians took advantage of it and gave us the delicious pizza.
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Serving Popcorn at Movies
Popcorn is an ideal snack when watching a movie. When movies started to become popular in the United States, theaters needed an economic boost, so popcorn was introduced. Popcorn is a type of corn, originally from Central America, which rose in popularity in the 1800s. Making popcorn is easy and cheap, so selling popcorn was a great idea for the theaters, especially during the Great Depression. Popcorn is a must for moviegoers and they're thankful for those who introduced popcorn into theaters.
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| The NFL Bans Kneeling During the National Anthem
Players kneeling as the national anthem plays has been a major controversy in the NFL. This has led to the football league losing support from fans and money from sponsors. The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell said, "We want people to be respectful of the national anthem." The NFL has concluded that if players or personnel disrespect the anthem, then they will be fined. This process took the league months to find a solution. So, the players are not allowed to kneel during the anthem or there will be consequences.
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Artificial Intelligence Helping to Create Music
A group of Facebook researchers created an AI system that listens to an audio file and recreates it using different instruments. Lior Wolf, a co-author of a new study detailing the work, said, "We want to mimic the human ability to hear music, and repeat it, either by whistling or playing an instrument. Many people are using the AI system and their responses have been positive. Now that this is becoming popular, artists can soon start utilizing the program and create music.
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The Consequences of Zit Popping
People love popping zits, however, it's unhealthy for the body. For example, by popping zits, you're popping a thin layer of skin, which covers the pus, and infectious bacterial can enter your body. Also, popping zits causes the skin to inflame then form into an acne scar. Fortunately, there are other ways to get rid of zits. Using benzoyl peroxide or anti-inflammatory creams will get rid of acne. So, be sure not to pop your pimples or they'll stay there forever.
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| The Science Behind Onions and Crying
When cutting onions, many people tend to cry. While the onion plant grows, the onion absorbs many minerals from the soil, especially sulfur. When an onion is cut open, cells become broken, then enzymes that were separated combine with the sulfur-rich amino acids, leading to the formation of a chemical known as syn-propanethial-S-oxide. This liquid chemical easily evaporates due to its volatility, encounters the chef's eyes, causing a burning sensation. To ensure protection of the eyes, the body will attempt to rinse the chemical away with tears. However, there are multiple tricks to lessen the effect of the chemicals, which include eating bread while chopping and freezing onions before chopping.
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Shared Body Languages
Simple gestures like waving your hand are very common among humans. The same goes for chimpanzees and bonobos, also known as our closest ape relatives. A new study shows that these animals that we share ancestry with also share common gestures with us. Scientists of this study observed bonobos and how they communicated with hand motions. When compared to those of chimpanzees, about 90 percent of their gestures overlapped. However, it was also noted that some gestures were not inherited but learned or altered. This study leads to more questions. Scientists will further investigate the relationship between human and ape gestures.
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How the Ocean's Saltwater is Created
Humans need to drink water to survive; additionally, they're surrounded by vast bodies of it. However, humans are unable to drink the water because it is too salty. This is because the atmosphere contains carbon dioxide, making the water vapor slightly acidic. Through different biological processes, the accumulated minerals are removed, while salt mineral remains.
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| Creative AI
In recent years, AI has grown and developed to the point where people imagine a technological apocalypse occurring in the future. However, as scary as it may seem, developing AI to be creative and to problem-solve will be the next vital step to further advances in our lives and to make our lives easier. It can be the life-saver in a possible car accident by essentially making quick decisions. One thing is for sure, AI still isn't conscious to understand human emotions, interactions, and feelings and this is the main difference between humans and AI. For AI to advance, humans have to first calibrate it and teach it the foundations to build upon. As of now, it may not be able to do spectacular things that humans can, but it is a possibility to look forward to in the future.
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Seizure-Causing Parasite
People, especially those in the United States, have a condition called neurocysticercosis. This means that they have tapeworm larvae in their brain that create life-threatening cysts. This disease occurs when someone consumes undercooked infected pork, which brings microscopic eggs of the pork's tapeworm in their stomach. If the eggs hatched in the person's stomach, the larvae could travel to the brain to form dangerous cysts, although some may be harmless. Symptoms of neurocysticercosis include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and mental disorders. There may also be cases of meningitis, stroke, or blindness. In the United States alone, at least 2,000 people were hospitalized because of this disease, annually. Neurocysticercosis can be fatal, so if a person is suspected to have this condition, they should be diagnosed effectively and should be given the appropriate treatments.
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Strengthening Memories Through Sleep
Neuroscientists are discovering several ways to use sound and other stimuli during the sleeping period to make stronger memories. In theist, researchers believed we could achieve this goal through osmosis. In studies, they tried to teach participants new information by playing audio recordings while they were sleeping. Later, researchers used a technique called electroencephalography and realized there was a possible method to alter memory during sleep. In 2007, neuroscientists reported that the method was to use smell. Many studies were conducted and proved the statement that we could use smell to alter memories and then convince our brains to "rehearse" those memories during our sleep. Likewise, some studies proved that using sound could have a similar result by using targeted memory reactivation. There are still questions to be addressed by further research, like if reactivating memories wipe away old ones.
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| What the Rosetta Stone Says
The Rosetta Stone is a black granite stone with three types of inscriptions and is currently in the British Museum. The Rosetta Stone aided in the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphics by scholars Thomas Young and Jean-Francois Champollion. The stone's text starts off with the pharaoh's beneficial acts to the society and his accomplishments and, as a reward, the council of priests pledged to support the king's royal cult. The text ends with the decree that the pledge be inscribed in stone in the three writing and placed in Egyptian temples. The Rosetta Stone, other than its advantages to the advancement of historical knowledge, offers a banal tale of the king's decree.
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Cloud Storage Concerns
Increasingly, individuals are using cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Microsoft OneDrive, perhaps to their own detriment. These systems encode each user’s date with a specific encryption key, and most systems keep the key. This may seem much more convenient than having users keep the keys themselves, but it is also less secure because these keys may be stolen from the systems and misused without the owners realizing. The best way to maximize cloud storage activity would be to use authenticated encryption. However, this may limit users from taking advantage of some cloud features such as editing shared documents and searching cloud stored files. For people who don’t want to learn how to program their own tools though, they can try to find a cloud storage service with trustworthy software or use trusted open-source encryption software to encrypt their data before uploading it to cloud.
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Bonobos and the Bad Guys
We as humans are more inclined to communicate and interact with those that are nicer, forgiving, and supportive. But how do our close relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos, decide who to “hang out” with? Duke University anthropologists Christopher Krupenye and Brian Hare conducted a study that tested whether bonobos could distinguish between individuals based on their behaviors. A series of experiments tested whether bonobos would prefer the “good guys” or the “bad guys.” The results were surprising; it seemed that they preferred those who showed more dominant and selfish over those that were more reserved and inferior. However, this does provide an interesting insight on the bonobos' preference of dominance over altruism.
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| The Winter Olympics' Bobsled Course
Bobsledding is a thrilling, yet dangerous, sport with high stakes. In the 2018 Winter Olympics, the bobsled venue at the Alpensia Sliding Center was created by the constructing and engineering unit of Daelim Industrial. According to the company's manager, it was a challenge to build a unique course to fit the area's topography within the project's budget and a short construction period. Therefore, they decided to use new technology that would help them get the work done more efficiently. Instead of putting metal pipes into the course by hand to keep it steady, an automated machine was used which completed each section ten times faster than it would've taken to do it manually. Also, Daelim designed a roof for the course in case of unexpected weather. This bobsled course took a lot of resources and might be continued to be used.
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Zero: Odd or Even Number
Many people wonder if the number zero is an integer because it signifies an empty set. A whole number is a number that has no remainder; therefore, zero is a whole number. An integer is whole numbers and their opposites. An odd number is an integer that when divided by two has a remainder or fractional component. An even number is an integer that does not have a remainder when divided by two. Zero divided by two does not have a remainder and is therefore even.
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Getting Cryptojacked
In this era of technology, cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more popular. Websites and applications that are so-called “free” to use may now be “cryptojacking” users’ devices. This is an alternative way for these companies to make revenue without bombarding the site or application with advertisements or collecting data. This “cryptojacking” involves using a device to generate virtual currencies like Bitcoins. This crytpojacking involves “mining” for the currency through the process of solving complex equations and using a device’s energy to do so. However, although this may prevent a user to avoid seeing advertisements or having his data collected, “cryptojacking” can drain battery life. What’ll be the next new currency?
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| Training Aging Minds
A study was completed on an elderly group, using methods of creativity and critical thinking, to measure their cognitive speed and function has results that improve the brain’s processing speed. The adults were divided into three groups. One of the groups used a program called SMART, which trained them to filter information so that incoming stimulations entering could be reduced. The result was that the group who used SMART improved processing speed better than the group using aerobic exercises, which have been associated with brain speed and cognition for a very long time. However, since this is early research, larger studies must be performed in order to confirm these findings.
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Satellites to Predict Cholera Outbreak
A team of scientists successfully predicted a cholera outburst in Yemen through the use of satellite information. Cholera is a waterborne infection that targets intestines and can progress rapidly within hours or days; it mostly occurs in developing countries that suffer from poor sanitation. Collecting ground data for cholera outbreaks can be challenging in chaotic locations such as Yemen, where there’s political instability and people are constantly moving around. However, satellites can help scientists collect this date and assess the Cholera risk in Yemen without actually being in the country. In conclusion, a team’s successful prediction of a cholera outburst in Yemen made scientists realize that satellite data can accurately determine infectious outbursts.
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Excited for Excitonium!
Excitonium, a new form of matter, has been finally proven to exist after 50 years of research and experiments. It was first proposed by Harvard theoretical physicist Bert Halperin, who is now excited to hear the discovery, in the 1960s. However, the physicist responsible for the discovery is Peter Abbamonte, a physics professor at the University of Illinois, who worked with graduate students Anshul Kogar and Mindy Rak. What they discovered was a condensate, meaning that it was a solid, but it is made up of particles called excitons. These exciton particles are made up of an electron and the space that is left behind when it escapes, which in turn allows the space to act like a particle and attract the electron back. With the discovery of excitonium, there is much more research to be done to determine its properties, which may allow researchers to find applications for it.
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| Amazon raises monthly Prime price in US
Amazon Prime has now risen $2 from its $12.99 price in order to push more people to the annual plan. Prime subscribers tend to do more shopping with Amazon due to its availability to other countries. With 90 million members, Amazon stated that it has invested a lot of money in order to make Prime valuable to its members. Furthermore, Amazon increased the price of its monthly student plan from $5.49 to $6.49.
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Can Humans Die from Apple Seeds?
Apple seeds are actually poisonous and can kill humans. Apple seeds and related fruit seeds contain amygdalin, a cyanogenic glycoside which can be digested into poisonous hydrogen cyanide, which is highly lethal. However, many requirements need to be fulfilled in order to even have the risk of being poisonous: 1) The amygdalin has to be crushed or chewed in order to release the amygdalin, so a whole unbroken seed will not release this chemical. 2) The human body can process small amounts of hydrogen cyanide without it being harmful. 3) The average adult has to eat at least over 150 apple seeds (depending on the kind), and since each apple only contains around 5 to 8 seeds, an adult would have to eat many apples consecutively to even acquire the risk of poisoning. As a result, even though apple seeds are poisonous, there's no harm in eating them as long as you don't eat too many.
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A Virus Similar to the Flu
There is a virus called adenovirus, which can make you feel feverish and miserable during the winter, just like the flu. Adenovirus is a diverse and productive virus that can lead to different illnesses like pneumonia and conjunctivitis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when respiratory infections occurs, it's hard to differentiate adenovirus from the flu. However, there are differences between the two viruses, for example, the flu is a seasonal virus while adenovirus occurs annually. An outbreak of adenovirus 10 years ago has proven that it can lead to severe symptoms. U.S. military recruits are given vaccines for this virus, which has prevented about 15,000 cases of it, but scientists believe people outside the military should also be vaccinated. To follow through with this idea, future studies would need to take place on the cost-effectiveness of adenovirus vaccinations and the populations they would benefit the most.
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| Gene Editing Implications
The popular CRISPER-Cas9 process by which genes are edited may have bumped into an important issue in gene editing. A new study revealed that this method of gene editing can possibly induce an immune response, which was observed in the mice that were used to study it. This raises questions as to how this process may affect humans when gene editing takes place inside them. However, the CRISPER-Cas9 complex has provided useful ways to edit genes: CRISPER identifies a specific set of DNA code, and then the Cas9 (an enzyme) cuts the specified part of the DNA and cuts it off, essentially shutting down the gene and its expression on the body. Further research has already been made to identify and learn more about how the gene-editing process can affect the body and how fast and strong its immune response is.
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Alexa
Alexa is a device by Samsung that is voice-activated and has multiple useful functionalities. People are happy with the device's effectiveness and it reflects in the high sales. Alexa, in addition to voice recognition features, also sends Amazon information about its user. It sends Amazon the most searched results. People, however, do not find this to be nefariously bad. This is probably because many other household devices are similar to Alexa in terms of being "smart" and sending back results.
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Google May Have a Biased Fact Checker
It has been noticed that almost all of the websites that Google's fact-check system chooses to inspect are conservative. These sites have a "Reviewed Claims" section, while there is only one liberal site with this section. For example, The Daily Caller, a conservative publication website, reported that a member of a team investigating Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election had donated to Hillary Clinton. The Fact Checker translated this report to mean that the team was only hiring Hillary Clinton supporters, claiming it to be misleading and giving the website three lies. However, this was not what the Daily Caller had stated. Due to events like this, there is controversy in whether Google's new system is trustworthy.
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| Supermalaria: A new Super Villian
Malaria has been one of the most infamous and harmful diseases that has affected people, and hopefully, it will be eradicated in the future. However, what scientists call a “supermalaria” parasite has been spreading across Southeast Asia and is resistant to artemisinin, a treatment for the disease. In recent years, death by malaria has been falling with help from the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) funding, but there may be a 44 percent cut if Congress does pass it. Although this “supermalaria” may have developed, this should not be a surprise because diseases do change and mutate. It’s varying form will always force scientists and researchers to find a new treatment, as well as help communities, to protect themselves from this disease. If malaria and its future strains are to be eradicated, more research, finding, and a cumulative effort are required to help achieve this.
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DNA Techniques for Facial Recognition Technology
Early tests in vide-omics, or the use of genomic (DNA sequence) analysis to in videos, have demonstrated potential for better facial recognition technology. Despite its purpose to develop a safer and more secure society, today’s facial recognition system continues to make false matches between suspects of crimes and members of crowds. Furthermore, they continue to remain limited to specific tasks in relatively controlled environments such as detecting trespass on a given property. However, researchers have discovered a similarity between genomic analysis and visual surveillance: both require the study of the evolution of a setting over time through the investigations of changes that have occurred in that setting. Researcher Jean-Christophe Nebel suggests that bio techniques used for genomic analysis can be applied to videos. Overall, if DNA techniques are applied to videos, engineers can develop better facial recognition technologies.
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Repetitive Sounds can be Music to Your Ears
Music includes a lot of repetition of lyrics, but recent studies show that repetition of any sound could be melodious. A team of psychologists, at the University of California, collected around 20 different environmental sounds, like dripping water. Then, they had played it twice: first, individually and then, in a series with increasing repeats. The team had found that as the repeats start to increase, the sounds became more tuneful. The conclusion was that repetition had affected not only speech but any sound in its ability to make a sound seem good. The experiment raises the question that how and why does this happen, as the sound itself does not change, only the interpretation made by the mind.
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| Bacteria May Regulate Blood Pressure Through Smell Receptors
Jennifer Pluznick was studying kidneys when she discovered a smell receptor; a protein that did not seem to have any purpose in the function of kidneys. However, as she studied the smell receptor with her team, she found out that it receives messages from the gut microbiome, a symbiotic bacteria that live in the intestines, and that the microbiome works with the kidney and blood vessels to manipulate the flow of blood. The smell receptor responds the acetate and propionate that are released by bacteria when digesting fiber by in turn creating renin, a hormone that makes blood vessels smaller to increase blood pressure. The smell receptor found in the kidneys is not the only protein of its type with this job. There is another receptor present in blood vessels that alternatively lower blood pressure by making the vessels larger. Overall, Pluznick discovered that bacteria create acetate and propionate to induce the two smell receptors to help control blood control and flow or blood pressure.
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Why Fractions Are So Complicated for Most Americans
In a study, it was shown that only 24% of eighth graders could accurately answer basic fraction equations. Studies similar to this led to the conclusion that, unfortunately, U.S. children do worse on these problems compared to children studying in Europe or Asia. There are two main types of difficulty: inherent and culturally contingent factors. Inherent difficulties include notations to express fractions, relations between whole numbers and fractions, and the different arithmetic operations to use. Culturally contingent factors include explanations of teachers, the language in which fractions are taught, and the way textbooks present the problems. So, what can be done about the fact that many children and adults do not fully understand fractions? To start, teachers should maintain a more complex understanding of fractions, the subject can be taught with clearer methods, and textbooks can present more challenging problems.In response, a program called "Fraction Face-off!" was designed to help improve the knowledge of fractions in children from low-income backgrounds.
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Electric Eel-Inspired Devices Could Power Artificial Organs
A device to be used to power electrical devices in the body has been invented by scientists inspired by electric eels. Their first prototype runs on salt and water, but they hope to have them running on bodily fluids in the future. The electric eel, or knifefish, which can discharge up to 600 volts of electricity with special cells called electrolytes. Thomas Schroeder, a chemical engineer, and his team mimicked the anatomy of these cells and 2,500 of these units stacked on each other to copy the eel's organs in which electrolytes appear. The team wants to try to make the organ-like battery even better by making the membrane on each cell even thinner like an eel's organs and cells to be able to discharge a higher amount of volts. They also want to be able to mimic the way eels use their metabolic energy to aid in replacing the use of salts and water with bodily fluids. In conclusion, scientists are trying to improve on an artificially created organ that was inspired by electric eels.
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| The Waltz: A Once Forbidden Dance
People today are familiar with the waltz, which has become a holiday traditional dance. However, a surprising fact about this dance is that it started out as a form of rebellion by teenagers in the ballrooms of Vienna many years ago. It caused indignation and brought about changes in European society. By the late 1700s, the waltz was spreading throughout Europe and was adopted quickly, except for elders and conservatives. Despite these criticisms, the popularity of the waltz led to the opening of the first public dance hall in Europe and other nations following soon after. Soon, the waltz spread to the United States after the Civil War, creating American versions of the dance. The waltz was a widely enjoyed activity, all the way up to the 20th century.
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Antifreeze Molecules Could Allow Organs to Freeze at a Slower Rate
Scientists have found antifreeze molecules within wood frogs, Arctic fish, and other organisms that allow them to live in the cold. These molecules are related to a protein in the organisms and scientists experimented with this protein on rats to see if it could function in all organisms. Through their experiments on rats, they discovered that the process of obtaining these proteins is very expensive and can be extremely toxic to some species. Thus, they worked to create a new molecule that had a similar antifreeze function as the protein. It has both water repellent and water-loving molecules to stop ice crystals from forming in the organs. This new molecule, inspired by the antifreeze protein, has the potential to save many organisms from having their organs freeze since it is potentially nontoxic to most organisms.
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The Skills Of Success
Every year, Bloomberg, a global finance company, runs a comprehensive survey of recruiters to find out what skills are in demand by employers, and are hardest to find in potential employees. The most recent survey revealed the need for six key skills to create the foundation necessary for people to be informed, next-generation citizens and global leaders: analytical thinking, strategic thinking, creative problem solving, leadership skills, collaborative work styles, and communication skills. The International Baccalaureate (IB) makes it a priority to teach students how to learn, and development of the six skills identified in the Bloomberg report is a big part of that effort. GEMS leaders believe these skills, as brought to life in the IB, position students to take on important global leadership challenges in the years to come.
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| How Other Countries Deal with Net Neutrality
The Federal Communications Commission has a decision to make in December 2017 to change the principle of open internet, known as net neutrality. Net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications without favoring or blocking a website. There have been debates on whether or not to keep or deny internet freedom. Before internet freedom, there were various issues of blocked pages and even no pages being accessible to users on certain networks. To remedy this, the FCC established the Open Internet Order; to remove it would undo the very idea of net neutrality. There is still indecision on whether net neutrality should be removed in the U.S.
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To the Moon and Beyond!
NASA and the ESA are holding conferences to discuss plans about a future project that will create an outpost that will succeed the current International Space Station. It will be called the Deep Space Gateway and is planned to be planned and built in 2020s although no concrete fundings have been provided yet. However, there have been many proposed outlines and possible experiments that may take place in the new space station. Scientists nd researchers are working on a plan to allow the satellite to orbit the moon and hope to use it to help future explorations to Mars as well as further the development of science. The array of experiments that could be carried out seem endless from learning about Earth’s magnetic field to seeing how space affect a human’s physiology to planetary studies. Overall, one profound impact would be the easy-access of the Moon; scientists on the space station can easily retrieve rock samples as well as learn more about the known water sources found on the Moon. Who knows what lies ahead of us.
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DNA Going Digital
Recently, biology has become more digitized, meaning computers can be used for things such as analyzing DNA and operating equipment. This modernization, though, can lead to several risks, including the vandalization of machines and creation of dangerous materials. For example, in 2010, a nuclear plant in Iran was found to have a harmful computer virus which attacked all equipment controlled by computers. Today scientists are also able to chemically make synthetic DNA which is almost as easy to mess with as written documents are and it can be destructive. Not all digitalized biotechnology is harmful, seeing that they help scientists and researchers follow experiments and discover new information. Either way, the security of the digital DNA interface is important to think about.
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| Wax Worms Inspire the Development of Waste-Degrading Tools
People create approximately 300 million tons, or 600 million pounds, of plastic trash each year. About half of this trash is deposited in landfills, which pollutes the Earth's oceans. However, researchers in Spain and England have discovered that the wax moth's larvae can efficiently deteriorate polyethylene, which many plastics are made of. Studies show that 100 wax worms can degenerate 92 milligrams of plastic in 12 hours, and a wax worm grub paste could degrade about 13% of plastic films after being pasted for 14 hours. The reason the wax worms are so effective at degrading the plastic is that they have evolved a mechanism that allows them to break down plastic into a by-product, ethylene glycol. In the future, scientists plan to research how this mechanism works and then use their findings to eliminate the plastic in landfills and in the ocean.
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Too Much Intelligence Can Be Harmful
People with high IQs are shown to succeed more than others in academic environments and workplaces. Also, they tend to have a longer life span and healthier lives. Contrary to that, a study published by researcher Ruth Karpinski and her colleagues found that these people are prone to suffer from various disorders. Karpinski proposed the hyper brain/body theory to explain the association of "psychological and physiological overexcitabilities," or OEs, with being highly intelligent. These OEs include a susceptibility to worry and stress more. However, since this study was taken among people in Mensa, it cannot be concluded yet that high intelligence is the cause of the disorders. Although these findings do promise further research on the link between intelligence and health, people with higher IQs should watch their health carefully.
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The Joy In Music Compositions
Songs evoke happiness or sadness, anger or despair, or positive or negative emotions. But how is this feat accomplished? Scientists have performed a study on music compositions to determine what factor a song plays in emotion. They did this by using labMT to analyze words and whether it brings out positive or negative emotions. They, then, had corresponded the positive words with the notes. The conclusion was that major and seventh chords had a high correlation with positive feelings.
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| Taking Control of Our Lives
Social media have recently become a seemingly essential part of our lives: to communicate, to gather and plan events, to look for the next headline, to promote businesses, to use for the greater good of mankind. Although it seems we may know ourselves, in this day and age, it seems that the people around us know who we are, but machines that use data points and information about our personal lives know us best. So what are the causes? Humans have vulnerabilities such as a desire to have a high social status. This is why when we receive a like or a comment froma Facebook post, our brains unconsciously tells us that this is a reward, causing us to be addicted and even be controlled by social networks. These companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram realized this desire to fit in and to be respected by our peers because we are in a sense self-centered whether we like to be or not. This is why we notice our names being called even when we are situated in a noisy environment. But if we truly want to understand ourselves and not be manipulated by social networks, we have to be self-conscious about the effects they have on our lives and outlook of ourselves.
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Mounted Laser Weapons Developed By US Military
After the successful test of a laser weapon mounted on a helicopter against an unmanned target, the United States military has installed a weapon of this kind on other helicopters. This test took place at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, with the laser mounted on an Apache AH-64 helicopter. The newly mounted weapons will help increase the accuracy of the Army helicopters. Unlike expensive bombs that can only be used one time, the cost of the lasers is expected to very low in the long-term, around $1 a shot. In addition to the low cost, the lasers can also increase the power of the U.S. military and help soldiers fight with less risk. However, they might not be immediately used in combat because they need clean air to operate in, which renders them useless in desert areas.
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Artificial Glaciers Water the Himalayas
Due to climate change, glaciers have shrunk and rainfall and temperatures became unpredictable in areas near the mountains, like the region of Ladakh in India. Two years ago, in 2015, $125,000 was raised to build a 64-foot tall "ice-stupa." This is an artificial glacier that spouts water from mountain streams like a geyser. It was created to stay frozen until it gets warmer for the sun to melt it. Each ice-stupa supplies about ten million liters of water per year, enough to irrigate 25 acres of farmland. This method has been spreading across mountains all over the world. At the time being, water shortage is a major issue and it might disable future generations from farming. If the local farmers start adapting to climate change now, they would be greatly assisting their descendants.
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| Advances in Electromagnetic Technology Strengthen Chinese Military
As the United States has taken steps to increase the use of electromagnetic technologies in the military, China has taken similar steps to compete with the US. However, the United States' efforts have declined, and China is now bypassing the US in terms of electromagnetic technology with their development of the railgun. A railgun is a weapon that repels objects by using an electromagnetic force. They are not easy to manufacture as it is difficult to scale them and make the barrel durable enough for multiple firings. According to General Mao, a weapon like the railgun could decrease the use of guns and canons. China is also working on other breakthroughs in key areas of electromagnetic applications like electromagnetic-assisted launch system (EMALS) catapults. It is likely that the Chinese aircraft carrier CV-18 will be equipped with EMALS catapults. This will allow China's Navy to more capably shoot down stealth aircraft and ballistic missiles, or bombard enemy ships and land targets from hundreds of miles away.
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Our Biological Clocks Helping Our Hearts
Our bodies have internal clocks, which regulate the circadian rhythm that helps us to function properly, know when to sleep, eat certain foods, and behave in particular ways. Recently, researchers have discovered that patients who had open-heart surgery in the afternoon were better off than those who had operations in the morning; they had half the risk of a major cardiac event than their morning counterparts. These findings have been the latest supporting evidence that our biological clocks in play with the time of the day play an important role not only in our daily lives and activities, but also in the effectiveness of various medical treatments. As for the reason behind the better outcomes, gene expression varies throughout the day, causing different outcomes, such as causing a person’s heart to heal quicker and refill it with blood, as well as tissue changes in the body. Now, scientists are attempting to test whether this gene expression can be controlled and activated no matter the time of day by manipulating a gene that appears a lot or less during the day. Hopefully, developing such a process may help open-heart surgery patients.
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The Effects of High Salt Intake on Your Diet and Weight
We commonly hear that consuming too much salt can lead to high blood pressure, but there's more than just that to salt. A new study by Kento Kitada and his colleagues demonstrates that in addition to increasing a person's blood pressure, salt can have other effects on the human body. For one, excess salt can make you hungrier, which causes thirst and ultimately increases your fluid intake. This increases urine output to flush the sodium out of the body. In addition, when humans eat a lot of salt our bodies break down fat and muscle tissue to produce water, a process also seen in camels. In doing this, our bodies burn extra energy, which in turn increases our hunger in another way. These facts might make it seem as though eating more salty food could help with losing weight; however, the fat that is broken down during the process of making water is not the type of fat that contributes to weight loss. Instead, the breakdown of this specific fat can result in a high amount glucocorticoid hormones in your body, which are linked to a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. You are also at a higher risk of eating more calories than necessary because of your increased appetite. Thus, this study does not prove that there is an effective correlation between high salt intake and weight loss.
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| Intelligence Versus Critical Thinking
Intelligent people might do dumb things from time to time. Intelligence, typically measured in IQ, is different from critical thinking as the latter is the ability to think rationally and the former is the ability to memorize equations, vocabulary, and so on. Intelligent people are often mistook to be successful in life, however that is not the case. According to a study performed by professor Heather A. Butler, critical thinkers experienced fewer negative life events such as having debt, forgetting an exam, and so on. Not only is critical thinking a significant skill for the future but it can also be improved if lacking, whereas intelligence is predominantly predetermined by genetics. Critical thinking, therefore, is as, if not more, important than intelligence.
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How Turtles Hibernate Underwater
Being an ectotherm, a cold-blood animal, a turtle's body temperature changes with that of its environment, so if it is 1° Celsius outside, the turtle's body will also be that temperature. When going into hibernation, turtles depend on stored energy and oxygen in the pond water they are in, which they take in through their butts; this is called cloacal respiration. However, even ectothermic animals have their temperature limits. Most turtles cannot survive in freezing temperatures, so they hibernate in fresh water. Biologists observed the turtles to find out that they can survive in cold temperatures only for about 100 days. It is important to understand how turtles adapt to different climate changes since recently they are at a risk of going extinct.
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China Working To Achieve Intercontinental Hyperloop Train
China's Aerospace Science and Industrial Corporation (CASIC) may achieve the creation of a hyperloop system before Ellon Musk does. CASIC announced on August 30th their plans for an intercontinental hyperloop train that could reach a top speed of over 2,300 miles per hour. Musk's initial proposal called for a 745 miles per hour hyperloop to connected Los Angeles and San Francisco. Currently, the fastest bullet trains, in Germany and China, have top speeds in the range of 180-250 miles per hour. This means that China may possibly have the ability to achieve hyperloop. China's advances in power generation, magnetic and propulsion technology, and material sciences should enable them to make further advances in superconductors, energy efficiency, civil aviation, and military technology. The Chinese might be working toward the creation of technology that the United States has not even attempted to achieve.
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| Earth's Rotation Slowing Down
According to new research, the rotation of the Earth may slow down a little next year, which can result in an increase in earthquakes. Since 1900, there were about 15 earthquakes with a magnitude above six per year, but there were periods when this number rose to 35 earthquakes. Geophysicists found that these periods aligned with the times that the earth spun slower and the days were longer. According to data, the planet "is entering a period of prolonged slower rotation" and "next year could see more quakes." This information can be useful to know beforehand in order to perform construction and do city-planning with earthquake-safe techniques. Plus, it does not take a major change in the rotation to have an effect on the Earth's interior stress.
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The Reason Why We're All So Attracted to Facebook Ads
Almost everyone has been targeted and lured by ads, whether it be on social media or television commercials. Focusing on Facebook, the ads there gives off a vibe of familiarity by popping up in the middle of your feed and showing names of family members or friends who have pressed the like button for that product. However, people tend to be less trustworthy, looking for verbal hints to affirm that a product is real and worthy. The two major verbal hints are "technology" and "new." Those words give an illusion to the consumer that they are buying something superior to others, and this often makes them pleased with their purchase for the long-term. It's pretty difficult for anyone to be immune to these infamous advertisements.
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Sudoku Puzzles to Last an Eternity
There are over 6 sextillion different Sudoku puzzles (6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 to be exact). A Sudoku puzzle grid is a Latin square, an n-by-n grid populated with n distinct symbols in a way that each symbol is used once in each row and column, where n is equal to 9. Combinatorics is a field of mathematics involving selection, arrangement, and operation within a finite system, and as Sudoku is a finite system, combinatorics can be applied. Using combinatorics, Sudoku puzzle creators can create new puzzles by rotating and transposing the grid and other simple tricks. However, by using this method, the puzzles are essentially the same with the difficulty changing slightly. Without the use of simple tricks, though, there are 5 billion unique puzzles that greatly vary.
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| Super Eyes of a Bird
As much as we have improved on eye technology, none of those inventions could help humans compete with the superior eyesight of many birds of prey. This is mostly due to the fact that these birds' eyes have unique anatomic features. For example, while a human only has one fovea, raptors, birds of prey, have two. The foveas are lenses in the eye that magnify a bird's vision, which is mostly related as to how they can espy food from miles away. Also, raptors have been thought to obtain the ability to perceive UV light for years. For airborne predators who scrutinize grounds for prey, this can be beneficial. However, it turns out not all raptors possess this attribute.
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Tech Company Offers Employees Microchip Implants
A Wisconsin-based technology company, Three Square Market, announced on Thursday that it will be offering its employees the chance to be micro-chipped with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips into their hands. Roughly the size of a rice grain, this chip acts as a credit card ID badge inside of the employee's hands. It can be used for accessing multiple features throughout the office, and uses the same near-field communication technology found in programs like Apple Pay. Chief Operating Officer Patrick McMullan says that this could just be another payment and identification option that can be used not only in their markets, but other stores and centers.
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A Possible New Way of Curing Obesity
Obesity may be "curable" with the injection of a protein. Scientists have discovered that a protein called GDF15 can be abundantly found in lean animals more than it can be found in fatter creatures. Scientists have injected this protein into fatter creatures, which slimmed them down without any side-effects. In addition, after taking the injection, animals have been seen to prefer a low-fat diet. As this protein has worked on animals, scientists are optimistic to test on humans. However, the safety of doing so is murky.
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| Talking on the Phone Makes People Selectively Attentive While Driving
Every day, people are always talking on their smartphones. A recent study, proven by older experiments, has shown that being glued to your smartphone will make you miss a lot of information. For example, talking on the phone while driving causes drivers to ignore hazard signs, because when people talk on the phone, they visualize the other person’s environment and actions. This visual component taps into resources needed for accurate visual perception, which makes the driver miss out on details such as stop signs and speed limit signs. This is proven by the “invisible gorilla” experiment, which shows that while an observer is trying to count the amount of passes a group makes in a basketball game, they will not notice a gorilla walk by, because they draw upon resources to count the basketball passes, ignoring other visuals. This can be related to phone calls and distracted driving; because the driver is distracted, they have a higher likelihood to get into an accident.
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Tourists Stranded as Protesters Block Path to Machu Picchu
The PeruRail train, that takes thousands of people to the famed Inca City of Machu Picchu, Peru, has been blocked by protesters, leaving many tourists stranded. The protests, unrelated to the tourists, concerned the government and raises; one such group of protesters were some 20,000 teachers demanding raises in pay. The government dispatched about 1,000 riot police, state news agency Andina reported. PeruRail has suspended rail services Wednesday and Thursday, however, they are promising to refund or reschedule the money for the tickets already bought. A similar situation had happened last year, which caused the rail service to be shut down for several days.
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Mysterious Object Makes Waves On Rhode Island Beach
People first noticed a bizarre object - which looks a little like a giant metal starfish with eight legs - several weeks ago off the shore of Westerly, Rhode Island. Being embedded six feet underwater, an excavator was called on Thursday to dig up the object. The excavator wasn't able to unearth it in one piece, but did enough to show that it had a circular base with metal poles that lead to a single point at its top. No one was able to tell what this strange object actually was; a suggestion by a 12-year-old boy was that it could be a UFO! Other theories, however, were a little less fanciful. Archaeologist Stephen Carini had his own theory: "Well, it's not that mysterious. It's been here forever, you know," Carini told WFSB-TV. "It's been marked by a buoy for the past several years. It's a big piece of concrete and metal that they used probably as a buoy, for rescue rafts where there were shipwrecks here back then." It may be a while before the public discovers what the object really is.
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| Scientists Detect Mysterious Radio Signals from Deep Space
An initiative set up by scientists in order to find intelligent life in the universe has detected a series of mysterious radio signals from a dwarf planet 3 billion light-years away. The organization known as Breakthrough Listen used instruments at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to observe that location over the span of 5 hours on Saturday, detecting 15 bursts over the 4 to 8 GHz frequency band. The organization stated that possible explanations for fast radio bursts (FRBs) range from outbursts from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, to more speculative ideas that they are directed energy sources used by extraterrestrial civilizations to power spacecrafts. Earlier this year, researchers from Harvard speculated that these radio bursts could be "beams set up by extragalactic civilizations to potentially power light sails." Several other scientists have other theories on this; how they are caused remains up for debate. The organization said more information will be presented in an upcoming article to be published in a scientific journal.
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China Bans the Foreign Imports of Recyclables
In July 2017, China has announced its plans to ban foreign imports of recyclables and solid waste by the end of the year. For many years, China has been a dominant power that has bought recycled plastic from many countries such as the United States and Japan. Because of their reliance on China, many countries now have to come up with ways to solve their recycling and waste problems. Some solutions include: lessening the average consumer reliance on plastic, burning plastics to generate energy, and banning harmful products such as micro-beads. China’s new incentive to ban foreign waste has encouraged many countries to directly face and develop solutions to their recycling and waste problems.
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Fighting Illegal Animal Trafficking
Around the globe, illegal wildlife trading is a constant threat. A team of biologists decided to understand and address this concept by investigating the slow loris trafficking. These animals are one of many to be illegally poached and hunted for several reasons such as medicine, food, and to be made domesticated pets. Unfortunately, this study needed more information on the effects of human behavior and society on the complex idea of trading wildlife. Future studies, though, could bring research to provide plans of action to decrease the impact of wildlife trading and pass laws that could possibly save and conserve many of their lives.
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| Correlation Between Sleeve Length and Hospital Infections
Every day, people attend their biannual health checkups to find out if there are any anomalies in their health. However, it has recently been shown that doctors, too, are a source of infections. A study, with 34 healthcare workers participating, required its participants to examine a mannequin for a "cauliflower mosaic virus" four times, twice with long sleeve and twice without. Results show that twenty-five percent of the simulations when wearing long sleeves had the virus on their sleeves, compared to zero percent when wearing short sleeves. Not only have they contaminated their sleeves, but about five percent of the workers who wore long sleeves had also contaminated the mannequin. Despite such results, researchers still have to experiment on whether or not short sleeves will have an effect on the number of infections spread in a hospital.
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Intelligence Versus Critical Thinking
Intelligent people might do dumb things from time to time. Intelligence, typically measured in IQ, is different from critical thinking as the latter is the ability to think rationally and the former is the ability to memorize equations, vocabulary, and so on. Intelligent people are often mistook to be successful in life, however that is not the case. According to a study performed by professor Heather A. Butler, critical thinkers experienced fewer negative life events such as having debt, forgetting an exam, and so on. Not only is critical thinking a significant skill for the future but it can also be improved if lacking, whereas intelligence is predominantly predetermined by genetics. Critical thinking, therefore, is as, if not more, important than intelligence.
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Betsy Ross and the American Flag
Betsy Ross is well known for making the first American flag. She was first called upon by three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress, including George Washington, who would later become the first president of the country. Ross and Washington were good acquaintances, which is partially the reason why she was chosen to make the flag. As a widow, Ross struggled in her upholstery business when General Washington provided her a rough design of the flag. Months before the Declaration of Independence was publicly announced for the first time, Ross finished the flag. The Continental Congress decided that the American flag would promote national pride and unity, with thirteen alternate red and white stripes and the union would be shown in a blue field with thirteen stars.
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| Bodies In Space
Space travel not only allows scientists to see what’s floating in our little galaxy, but also allows them to see its unique effects on the body. NASA’s “Twins Study” has revealed much about it by studying astronaut Scott Kelly and his twin brother a Mark Kelly. Scott Kelly and a fellow astronaut spent a year on the International Space Station (ISS), an unprecedented mission. Chris Mason, principal investigator of the Twins Study, said, “Some of the most exciting things that we've seen from looking at gene expression in space is that we really see an explosion, like fireworks taking off, as soon as the human body gets into space.” He and his team has discovered that methylation (addition of methyl groups on DNA) processes increase which may turn off genes expressed in the person. Scientists have already known that space travel causes changes on the body at a macro level, causing muscle atrophy and decreased bone density.
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High Risk of Baldness for Short People
Men who are shorter may have a higher risk of premature hair loss. An international study of over 200,000 men's genetics was conducted by leadership of the University of Bonn. Results show that premature hair loss is linked with other illnesses and diseases. In the study, researchers identified 63 changes in the human chromosome, including a chromosome for short height. However, premature hair loss only signals increased risk of getting illnesses, therefore short height does not result in an inevitable premature hair loss. Even then, there is a high change that short people may have premature hair loss.
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Flour, Eggs, and Firecrackers for Weapons
Antonia Gibotta, a photographer, went to Spain to capture a unique occurrence at the Els Enfarinats, a 200-year old traditional festival that has been celebrated annually on December 25th in the town of Ibi, Spain. In this festival, locals and tourists are to stage a fake coup d’état and are divided into two groups: Els Enfarinats and La Oposicio. The Els Enfarinats enforce outrageous laws and collect fines from those who don’t obey their laws, while the La Oposicio act as the police and try to secure “order.” The festival, interestingly, ends with both sides vivaciously bombarding each other with flour, eggs, and firecrackers rather than with deadly weaponry. Gibotta took photos that captured intense and powerful moments from this pretend battle at the Els Enfarinats.
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| Fighting Illegal Animal Trafficking
Around the globe, illegal wildlife trading is a constant threat. A team of biologists decided to understand and address this concept by investigating the slow loris trafficking. These animals are one of many to be illegally poached and hunted for several reasons such as medicine, food, and to be made domesticated pets. Unfortunately, this study needed more information on the effects of human behavior and society on the complex idea of trading wildlife. Future studies, though, could bring research to provide plans of action to decrease the impact of wildlife trading and pass laws that could possibly save and conserve many of their lives.
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It’s Time to Go!
A new version of the revolutionary computer program AlphaGo, created by DeepMind Technologies, has now been declared second best at an ancient Chinese board game called Go. AlphaGo Zero is now the dominant player after defeating its predecessor in all 100 games played. Unlike its original version of the program, AlphaGo Zero’s algorithm has taught itself how to play, and it no longer needs to be monitored and given human knowledge on the game. While it trained, AlphaGo Zero learned about Go from scratch; it learned to play against itself and anticipate the next move by applying what it learned in previous games. One intriguing thing about AlphaGo Zero is that it developed and used unconventional strategies that were rare and never before seen, such as a new series of corner sequence, known as “joseki.” This has led to the hope of developing AI that can think for itself, and AlphaGo Zero is one step closer to it.
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Why Boys Are More Prone to Autism than Girls
Recently, researchers have discovered a correlation between inorganic mercury levels in blood and autistic trends. They determined that boys are more susceptible to autism because of the high levels of inorganic mercury in their blood. Boys tend to have high levels of inorganic mercury in their systems because of a high consumption of processed food, which could contain inorganic mercury. This may be linked to autism because boys have their PON1, a gene expression that contributes to cognitive learning, suppressed by the mercury consumption from their mothers’ diets during pregnancy and breastfeeding; however, this outcome does not happen to girls. The high level of inorganic mercury in the blood of boys is the reason why boys are more prone to autism than girls
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| Taking Control of a Brighter Future
Communities in Brazil are now able to create their own maintainable and inexpensive power supply with the power of solar energy. For example, in a neighborhood in the city of Rio de Janeiro, the people are determined to build a better life than they previously had. They had electricity that was not affordable or reliable. The neighborhood decided to campaign new ideas that would help create leisure time and make everyday tasks much easier. Eventually, there was an answer from the Brazilian energy start-up company Insolar, who offered the residents of the neighborhood solar panels and a local solar grid. This has brought the residents many social and economic benefits along the way. Not only is this community taking control of their energy future, but it is also collaborating to provide a positive future for generations to come.
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Get Out of Your Parent's Basement
Young adults are unable to find decent living spaces. Most living spaces are limited and very expensive for kids who are in debt after college. However, Ravi Naik has created a company called Katerra, where he is the Senior Vice President for Technology. Katerra's purpose is to create buildings and spaces quickly and efficiently. Naik said that "Katerra finished the construction of an entire first floor of a multi-unit residential building in just six hours." Katerra's revolutionary mission will change the construction business while helping young adults come out of their parents' homes and find a place of their own to call home.
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The Mystery of Left-Coiled Snails
Jeremy the Lefty Snail has passed away, but his genetic information is still alive. Jeremy became famous for his shell that had coiled left instead of right, a rare occurrence in snails. Dr. Davison discovered him and wanted to know if the cause of the left-coiled shell was due to genetics or was an accident. This would be answered through observing his offspring, but consequently, his organs also had turned counterclockwise, which made it hard to mate with right-coiled snails. Fortunately, left-coiled snails were found through the help of social media, and they were sent to Dr. Davison, who hoped to have Jeremy produce offspring, but, after the offspring was produced, it was observed that they all had right-coiled shells. Shortly after, Jeremy passed away, but his genes have been passed on and his shell has been preserved in the University of Nottingham.
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| Corridors in the Forest
Ecologist Thomas Lovejoy conducted an experiment in the 1980s where he asked loggers, who were cutting down trees in the Brazil’s Amazon rain forest, to leave small islands of forests to observe how animals situated in them to see how they would survive. Unfortunately, even the largest “forest island” of 250 acres had the number of bird species decline in half in 15 years, meaning that other animals in smaller areas would die off due to lack of population and disease. Recently, however, there is a possible plan to slow down extinction threats which uses “corridors” to connect one fragment of a forest to another: this can help existing population to interact with each other and also provides more space and allows them to adapt to climate change. Fragmented forests that have been connected using corridors have shown to help populations survive 13 times as long as it would without the corridors. However, these forest corridors should not be the permanent plan to help solve deforestation and to stop extinction; instead, it should be used as a way to slow down the rates, and provide a temporary solution to a big problem, providing time for more permanent and better solutions to take place.
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Why the Islamic World May Have Had an Impact on the Vikings
New historical evidence has suggested that interactions between the Vikings, Scandinavian warriors who roamed the sea, and Islam were greater than thought previously. While studying burial garments, Annika Larsson, a textile archaeologist, discovered that the garments were created with a form of Arabic script. It had characters signifying the “Allah,” the Arabic word for God. Past DNA tests have shown that people buried in Viking graves were originally from a dominant Islamic territory. Larsson also noted that the characters for the Arabic God were a consistent pattern on all the burial garments, indicating that the Vikings had specific connections with the Shiites, part of a branch of Islam. She made a point on how this research could possibly help clear up the fact that Vikings opposed Islam and instead personally embraced parts of the religion.
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3-D Printed Heart
A team at ETH Zurich has 3D printed a soft, artificial heart made of silicon that beats similarly to a real heart, putting us closer to replacing damaged hearts without having to do a transplant. The team says that the heart can beat continuously for about half an hour before the materials break down, but they are working to improve the invention. The heart has a left and a right ventricle or chamber as well as a third one that acts as the heart's engine by driving the external pump; pressurized air inflates and deflates this third chamber, which drives blood through the ventricles to make the heart function. The hope is that this artificial version can eventually replace mechanical pumps that cause a risk of failure or complications within the body. With about 26 million people worldwide suffering from heart failure and a shortage of donors, this is one step closer to finding a solution.
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| Artificial Sweeteners Connected to Weight Gain
Many think that artificial sweeteners are a low or zero-calorie way to enjoy something sweet and not gain weight, but a new study proves otherwise. The Canadian Medical Association Journal recently published a report in which researchers analyzed 37 studies on artificial sweeteners. The study tested about 400,000 artificial sweeteners in 10 years, some of which were randomized controlled trials. The results showed that artificial sweeteners didn't help people lose weight. Instead, it raised the risk of health issues like weight gain, obesity, diabetes and heart disease for those who consumed the sweeteners regularly, drinking one or more artificially-sweetened beverages per day. People often assume that zero calories mean zero harm, however, this is not true.
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Fight or Flight or Frozen
Fight and Flight are the primitive responses in humans, however, freeze is another response that animals usually do. Some humans "freeze" when they are in a threatening position, but this is involuntary. "Our primitive brain takes over and immobilizes us, " says Dr. Rachael Sharman, a psychologist. When that happens, humans are reported to have little or no memory from the trauma. This can only happen when the event is so shocking or overwhelming that the brain shuts down. Basically, when it comes down to a dangerous situation, you can "fight and flight" or freeze.
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New Smart Windows That Save Money
Researchers have developed a new, cheaper smart window, that is more durable and can dim in less than a minute. This is an updated version of a car window that typically takes about twenty minutes to dim. Moreover, this new window can save money,not only on heating and cooling, but also by eliminating the need for blinds. The windows are made of glass plates coated with a thin film of indium tin oxide, and are outlined with a liquid mixture of copper and another metal -either lead or silver. When charged with electrical current, the mixture spreads over the glass surface, blocking up to 95% of the passing light and it takes less than a minute for the window to become transparent again, allowing 80% of the light to pass through in the process. This new, updated version of a tinted window is not only economically viable, but also extremely effective in its purpose.
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| Too Focused on Protein
Adults are recommended to have a daily intake of 46 grams of protein for women and 56 grams for men. Most adults eat about double the recommended amount of protein, with some hoping to give themselves more energy while avoiding sugar, carbohydrates and steering towards high protein foods that are usually only necessary for athletes. Not only can protein be found in meat but also beans, legumes, nuts, broccoli and whole grains. For everyday people to be consuming this high of an amount of protein, it can lead to long term risks or kidney damage. It is also important for people to be able to identify high protein foods and monitor their consumption of the food to keep their bodies healthy.
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This $18 Key Could Protect You From Hackers
Hacking is a major problem on the internet, and the many people that use it seek protection from hackers, but many security methods are not very protective at all. However, Yubikey, created by Yubico, has a promising solution; it connects to a USB port of a computer and tells services like Gmail that the person logging in is not an intruder. Once plugged into a computer, it authenticates the person's identity and automatically creates a one-time-use password to log into an account, and data can not be intercepted in transit because it's a physical key. It takes just minutes to set up with services like Facebook and Google, which have an option to add it under Security Settings. Phishing, a common way for hackers to gain people's personal information by sending a malicious email pretending to be a trustworthy service, is one example of a cyber attack attempt that Yubikey works great at protecting people from. Yubikey is a great step forward in making the internet a safer place, and perhaps in the future, more promising security methods will also be available for people to use.
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Encoding Information into DNA
DNA stores genetic information, which encodes for protein synthesis, hormone secretion, cell activity, excretion, and everything else imaginable; it is the blueprint of human bodies. Recently, the famous motion picture of a galloping horse filmed in 1878 by Eadweard Muybridge was encoded in the DNA of a living cell. Dr. George Church, a geneticist at Harvard, and Seth Shipman, a geneticist as well, assigned each black-and-white pixel to a DNA code for each shade of gray using only four molecules: adenosine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine. The implications are endless, with one being that we can observe individual cells and the neurons of the brain. Many people underestimate how much data DNA can store in a small space; DNA will never become obsolete like floppy disks and ancient flash drives because it has been here for quite some time and information from them can be retrieved even if it was made millions of years ago. Although this may seem like a small and slow step, it’s important to remember that recently, in addition to the high expenses, people thought it would take years to sequence the genome.
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| New Smart Windows That Save Money
Researchers have developed a new, cheaper smart window, that is more durable and can dim in less than a minute. This is an updated version of a car window that typically takes about twenty minutes to dim. Moreover, this new window can save money,not only on heating and cooling, but also by eliminating the need for blinds. The windows are made of glass plates coated with a thin film of indium tin oxide, and are outlined with a liquid mixture of copper and another metal -either lead or silver. When charged with electrical current, the mixture spreads over the glass surface, blocking up to 95% of the passing light and it takes less than a minute for the window to become transparent again, allowing 80% of the light to pass through in the process. This new, updated version of a tinted window is not only economically viable, but also extremely effective in its purpose.
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A Change in Batteries
New alkaline batteries are cheaper and safer than the lithium-ion batteries we have today. The new battery is safer in that it is not prone to combustion that is regularly seen in lithium-ion batteries. The Massachusetts tech company, Ionic Materials, said that “prototypes of a rechargeable alkaline battery right now to have up to 400 recharge cycles.” Another positive outcome of this new battery is that it does not rely on cobalt which is mined in Africa and is accused of using child labor while leaving toxic waste behind. One downfall to this invention is that it cannot be recharged causing them to be inefficient in computers, smart phones or other electric vehicles. Although these new alkaline batteries would be heavier, they are safer, cheaper, and good for the environment.
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Virtual Reality Therapy
Dr. Dawn Jewell, a psychologist, is treating a patient that was a victim of a car crash through virtual reality by using exposure therapy to revisit the site of the crash. This is made possible by a service called Limbix which is provided through daydream view on the new Google headset. During this process, the patient will be able to describe to their psychologist their thoughts and feelings on the topic. People can face their problems through this new technology by virtually experiencing situations that may trigger their fears or addictions. This technology has been developing for the past two decades using research and clinical trials to further advance virtual reality. Using these new advancements, the patients will be engaged emotionally, forcing them to face these traumas and practice real life experiences in a safe environment; However, this technology is far from perfect at the moment.
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| New Sunscreen made from DNA
According to a recent study published in the journal, Science Reports, it shows that a DNA-based sunscreen would not only be able to protect the skin from ultraviolet light, but would also become more protective the longer you are exposed to the sun's rays. Scientists know that sunlight causes cancer because it alters DNA found in our cells, but they wondered what would occur if they exposed a thin sheet of DNA film to ultraviolet light. They took a solution of salmon DNA, smeared it on a glass, and took it out to dry to make the film. Then, the researchers exposed the film to UV light to see how much radiation would pass through. Using a spectrophotometer, an instrument to measure the intensity of light in the spectrum, the team discovered that the film stopped 90% of the UVB light from crossing through, and it allowed less light to pass through the longer it was exposed to the sun. The sunscreen can revolutionize the way we protect our skin against the harms of solar radiation.
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Possible Ocean On Early Venus
Scientific evidence shows that if Venus had the right amount of cloud cover, carbon dioxide and water, in its early stages of formation, it might have had an ocean. This finding indicates that life might have existed on the planet. Venus's slow rotation could have led to the buildup of continual cloud cover, allowing for temperatures as low as 15 degrees Celsius, around 715 million years ago. Such temperatures, way cooler than Venus's present 460 degrees Celsius, could have made it possible for the planet to have had a shallow ocean. This data can be used to find extraterrestrial life elsewhere. Therefore, though Venus is an uninhabitable planet now, this new information reliably indicates that it might have harbored life in the past.
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Ticks Are Spreading Rapidly
The tick population is growing at a rapid rate due to the expansion of wooded areas and the increase of mice and deer. These ticks can carry diseases from their original location along with pathogens from their new locations spreading several types of diseases to different regions. The Powassan virus is a rare virus that can be passed in just 15 minutes and can lead to permanent brain damage or even death. Another pathogen being passed from ticks can cause the human immune system to have an allergic reaction to red meat. This illness is called the alpha-gal syndrome. Something as little as walking in your garden barefoot can lead to getting bit by a tick. It is very important for people to take precautions towards these ticks and their diseases because it affects humans more than we realize.
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| Mission To Mars Is Farther Away Than We Thought
Though Earth is our natural home, increasing population and man's never-ending colonization of its resources has made it inevitable to look for other places and planets to inhabit. For many years, Mars was considered the most suitable candidate in the Solar System for human habitation, not just due to proximity, but also because it was the only planet that had the optimum temperature to sustain human life. NASA has been telling people, the world over, that the first mission to Mars will be launched in the year, 2030. However now, NASA has admitted that it does not possess enough funds to put humans on Mars. Though this does not mean that the mission to Mars is cancelled forever, it does mean that the mission is delayed till NASA receives enough funds to support the Mars mission. The delay of the Mars mission has opened doors for another moon mission, however that too will be expensive; either way, mission to Mars is farther away than we thought.
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Editing Human Embryos to Correct Diseases
Researchers are beginning to use a gene editing tool to modify the genomes of human embryos in order to correct genetic defects. Clustered, Regularly Interspaced, Short Palindromic Repeats, or CRISPR for short, allows scientists to cut and rework small pieces of DNA at certain areas in a strand to modify it. Although this piece of technology can prevent inherited diseases, the research has generated a lot of controversies. For example, one potential concern is that changes made in the DNA of these embryos can be later passed down from generation to generation, which can impact the genetic makeup of humans in erratic ways. Also, some may use this technique to manipulate DNA to enhance certain human characteristics, instead of using it to prevent diseases. However, with further research, CRISPR has the potential of preventing diseases such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, hemophilia, and mitochondrial diseases which can save many lives.
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Google AI Teaches Itself To Walk, Run, and Jump
Google has created its own artificial intelligence program that can teach itself to walk. Though Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been on the rise for the past few years, yet there have only been few successful attempts at creating a program that can teach itself. Despite running throughout the course with its arms flailing out and body completely unstable, Google's artificial intelligence program was impressive. The program ran on four and two legs, gradually learning how to run through every course it was given. Although the program experienced some failures while running throughout its courses, it always learned from its mistakes. If Google's artificial intelligence program could learn how to walk, all by itself, in just a matter of days, who knows what the future of artificial intelligence is going to be?
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| Nike Looks to Sell 3-D Shoes
Nike has plans to create and mass-produce sneakers by using 3-D printers. The printer, the Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution, can produce sneakers 10 times faster than regular productions at half the cost. The Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printing Solution is the world's first production-ready 3-D printer. There is not enough information regarding what Nike will 3-D print, but Nike will most likely use it for custom or on-demand items. There are other companies that are using the same printer like BMW and Johnson&Johnson. Once Nike starts creating 3-D printed shoes, the trend of printed shoes will become popular.
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Slug-Inspired Glue Patches Hearts
A newly discovered adhesive can stick to wet surfaces, including hearts, without rupturing when stretched or deformed. Jianyu Li, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University's Wyss Institute, and his colleagues applied the durable adhesive to a beating pig's heart and found that the glue worked better than any other surgical glue. The glue was inspired from Arion subfuscus, a species of slug that is capable of excreting a sticky slime that adheres to wet surfaces. A newly discovered adhesive can stick to wet surfaces, including hearts, without rupturing when stretched or deformed. This motivated Li and his colleagues to create an artificial version of the slime that can of close skin wounds and fix beating hearts. Continued investigation of this slug-inspired glue can significantly improve the success rates of many surgeries.
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Tattoo-like Sensor Developed by Scientists
Scientists have developed a new body sensor that has the ability to monitor body temperature and muscle activity. This new sensor is very thin and people cannot even feel the existence of the devices on the skin, according to Professor Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo. The current sensors irritate the skin causing redness and itching while the new sensor can be applied similarly to temporary tattoos: by dampening the patch with water and applying it onto the skin. It also allows the skin to breathe, preventing irritation, by molding and adapting into the skin. This breakthrough may soon be used to control prosthetics by electric muscle signals and monitor patients to see their progress.
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| Strange Signals 11 Light Years Away from Earth
On May 12, the Arecibo Observatory, known for searching for signals from aliens, picked up strange signals coming from the direction of a red dwarf star, about 2,800 times dimmer than the sun, known as Ross 128. Abel Méndez, an astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, said the signal was observed for 10 minutes, during which the signal was “almost periodic.” Méndez said that it is unlikely for the signals to be a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence; instead he considers the possibility of the signals coming from something humans put in space. Méndez also added that some communication satellites transmit the same type of frequencies observed, but a blog post from July 12 about the mystery of Ross 128 wrote “we have never seen satellites emit bursts like that” and called the signals “very peculiar.” Another possibility is a stellar flare, which includes outbursts of energy from a star’s surface that travel at the speed of light, emit powerful radio signals, and can disrupt communications and satellites on Earth. However, the SETI Institute confirmed that the group is aware of the signals and will use its “Allen Telescope Array in California to investigate further; perhaps one day we’ll discover that we are indeed not alone.
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Here's What's Wrong with Schools Teaching Subjects
School is a place for learning, but not everyone is as enthusiastic as other people may be, and there could be a reason for that. To explain how schools aren’t doing enough to explain to students why they’re learning the subject rather than just teaching it, Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, said "You just sort of get dumped into math. Why are you learning that? It seems like, 'Why am I being asked to do these strange problems?' Our brain has evolved to discard information that it thinks has irrelevance." Musk suggested that schools focus their teaching around solving a specific problem, such as building a satellite or taking apart an engine: in this way, students will have to learn and master subjects like math and physics in order to get on the path to solve the problem. Musk says it’s very powerful to try to solve a problem because it establishes relevance and excites students about what they’re working on, thus causing the knowledge to stick with them. Musk’s goal of getting to Mars and making humanity a multi-planetary species drove him to learn about and become an expert in rockets in order to be able to achieve his goals. If schools started following this procedure of teaching, students may not only become more enthusiastic about learning, but may also just do much better academically.
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RED Announces First Holographic Phone Ever to be Made
Most of us use our smartphones on a daily basis, whether it would be for calling, texting, playing games or music, and the like.Red, a company best known for creating high-end professional cameras, has created "Hydrogen One," the first holographic phone ever to be created. While very little information has been released about the new phone, the company did say that the new holographic phone comes in aluminum ($1,195) and titanium ($1,595) and preorder is available now. Hydrogen One has impressed many people with their proposed new tech, still, there were many skeptics and disbelievers when the new phone was announced due to the fact that many analysts believe that such a breakthrough won't make such a big change to the phone industry. If this new holographic phone is possible, it will no doubt be a massive breakthrough in the smartphone industry.
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| Five Future Transportation Technologies that Might Actually Happen
Our technology, including transportation, is advancing very rapidly, which could mean a completely revolutionized technological world in the future. The five future transportation technologies are as follows: a hyperloop, maglev trains, autonomous vehicles, smart cars, and urban transport pods. Maglev trains, which use magnets as its source of acceleration, are already in use in Shanghai and Japan and can reach speeds of up to 310 mph, while hyperloops, which are trains in an airless tube, will be able to reach speeds of 800 mph. Autonomous cars, meaning hands-off driving, are also going to be the future – Ford has announced a project called “Traffic Jam Assist,” and Cadillac is working on something called “Super Cruise,” which will integrate autonomous technology. Smart cars, on the other hand, have already been around for many years, but smart car technology could develop into a standard for all cars, and could eventually turn into urban transport pods, which would be autonomous with the idea that a passenger could tell it where to go via a touchscreen on the windshield. Transportation technology is changing so rapidly that in a few decades, our world could be completely redesigned and unrecognizable from now.
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How Tomatoes Can Prevent Skin Cancer
Most people think that a simple way to prevent skin cancer is to always wear sunscreen when going out. However, in a recent study, including mice, has shown how your diet can play a key role in your chances of developing this disease. According to this study, male mice who consumed a diet of 10 percent red tomato powder over 35 weeks saw their risk of skin cancer decrease by 50 percent as opposed to mice who didn't consume dehydrated tomatoes. The results are shown as such because tomatoes contain carotenoids which can protect the skin from UV light damage and reduce one's chances of developing skin cancer tumors. This new discovery has the potential of saving many people from acquiring this disease.
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NASA is Creating Drones to Operate in Space
NASA is working on inventing robots to explore other planets and asteroids. The agency is investigating ways to explore outer space using a craft that can fly to places that rovers typically can't reach while using cold-gas jets that can move the craft through the thin atmosphere found in space. They are currently testing if the drone can fly autonomously or if someone back on Earth must operate it. This new drone would work similarly to rovers by collecting samples using a variety of tools, but unlike rovers, they would be able to access places like the inside of Martian volcanoes which are impossible for rovers to reach. These drones can scout volcanic craters to determine its safety for the astronauts wanting to set up a base for further investigation. This new technological breakthrough can significantly advance our knowledge of outer space.
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| Eating Better Can Allow You to Live Longer
A new study shows how your diet can have a huge impact on your lifespan. Even people who make small and healthier changes in their diet can live a longer period of time. According to The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that a 20 percent increase in people's diet quality caused them to decrease their risk of death by 8 to 17 percent. The study also showed that when participants worsened their diet quality over the study period, their chances of dying in the 12-year period increased by 6 to 2 percent. Furthermore, consuming healthier food such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, grains, and fish can significantly reduce one's chances of getting certain chronic diseases. Having a healthier diet can decrease one's risk of having high blood pressure, heart attack, or stroke. As we can see, a healthier lifestyle can significantly increase our lifespans.
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Airbus Working on Delivering Cheap Internet to the Entire World
The internet is something that many rely on; many use it do almost everything in their daily lives, but it isn’t available to billions of people. This could change: Airbus and a company called “OneWeb” are working on the first of 900 satellites that could one day deliver cheap internet to the entire world by orbiting Earth. Airbus will produce the first 10 satellites, expected to cost under $1.1 million each, in Toulouse, France; the rest will be produced at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. OneWeb plans to start sending satellites into orbit around March 2018, with one launch every 21 days from a space center in French Guiana; the satellites will orbit at a close distance of about 750 miles high to speed up the delivery of the signal. OneWeb expects to cover the entire globe by 2020, but instead of individual directly receiving the internet, they plan to sell capacity to providers such as AT&T and Verizon. Airbus and OneWeb are not alone in this project - other tech and aerospace companies are racing each other to complete this project, and, if successful, the new technology can bring internet access to billions of people who currently lack it.
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Drones Can Help Fix Our Endangered Forests
Forests, today, are depleting at a much faster rate than humans can replant. Burning down so many trees are quickly deteriorating the environment by contributing to the rapidly increasing rate of climate change. Dr. Susan Graham, an engineer, is helping to solve this crisis by creating technology to fight the obstacle of deforestation. She has recently invented drones that can plant trees at a much faster rate than humans can. First, the drones search an area of land, looking for an ideal place to plant the trees. After the location is found, the drone shoots seeds into the ground at a speed of one seed per second, meaning the drone can plant about 100,000 trees per day. Their efficiency and fast speed have the potential of saving the environment from the effects of deforestation.
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| A Bright Future with Our Sun
The sun is a vital part of our lives, and studying it has brought many revelations. Though the sun may seem special at first, it is a “solar-type” star and functions like many other stars. Many stars follow a cycle, which depend on luminosity, the brightness of the star, and rotation, how long it takes for a point on the star to circle completely around it; together, the two make up the star’s Rossby number. Our sun has an eleven-year cycle during which the magnetic poles flip. The solar minimum is when activity is low and the solar maximum is when activity is high. Learning about the sun’s cycle can help us predict its activity and the effect it has on the earth. During the solar maximum, the surface is covered with sunspots. These sunspots are dark and are phenomena that can erupt to affect satellites and even power grids on Earth. Although much has yet to have been discovered, the future is looking bright.
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New Trash Compactors to Decrease Rat Population
A plan to decrease the rats population will use $32 million Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his plan to eliminate at least 70% of the rat population by replacing the city’s trash cans. The areas set to have these rat-proof trash compactors and steel cans include Chinatown, the East Village, the Lower East Side in Manhattan, the Grand Concourse area of the Bronx, and the Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant areas. Rats are a menace to the health and well-being of those who live in the city. Because of them, a rare disease was transferred to three people, one of which is dead; the others are severely ill. With these new trash receptacles come a legislation that would regulate the hours that garbage could be left on the curb and increase fines for illegal dumping. The new trash compacters will be installed in September.
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Aurora Borealis to Put on Light Show this Sunday
This phenomenon has always been famed for beautiful, natural neon colored lights that fill the sky. These magnificent lights are actually the result of a geomagnetic storm, caused by coronal mass ejections from our sun. Originally named after the Roman goddess of dawn, these lights happen when electrons and protons that have been electrically charged in our magnetic fields are impacted by neutral atoms. This Sunday, the lights have expanded and can now be seen "as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state." These lights will be visible between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. on Sunday. They can also be seen again the next day between 2 a.m. to 5 a.m. If these lights are happening near you, take the time to look up and see these lights created by the sun.
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| Problem: Plastic, Cause: Humans
Plastic has been a problem in the oceans for a long time, but lately, it has gotten worse. Captain Charles Moore is the founder of a non-profit organization, Algalita Marine Research, and he and his team have been searching for “garbage patches.” These large accumulations of debris have been documented in the North Pacific, but are now found in the South Pacific, Arctic, and Mediterranean. Captain Moore transports groups of scientists to these patches are located where they study the debris and hope to learn more about how it affects marine life. Lanternfish, which are an essential part of many animals’ diets, are ingesting plastic, and this may trigger a domino effect all the way to the top of the food chain. The surface of the problem seems to be the waste accumulating in the ocean, but the roots of the problem lead to us, humans.
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A New Step Towards Finding a Cure for Cancer
Two recent studies have shown how cancer vaccinations can help cancer patients become tumor free. The purpose of these vaccinations is to help the immune system attack the cancer cells found within the patient's body to eliminate the tumor. In both studies, researchers tested the vaccines on patients who suffered from a deadly skin cancer known as melanoma. Both studies resulted in a majority of patients having their tumors completely eliminated after being given the vaccine. The vaccine is successful by allowing the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as harmful to the body. Afterward, the immune system can produce T cells and other defenders to attack the cancerous cells, helping to eliminate the tumor. Further research in cancer vaccines can mean the key to curing this deadly disease facing humanity.
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Ravens: Terrifyingly Smart
When it comes to thinking of ravens, many are either terrified or annoyed by these birds. However, these "terrifying" birds are a lot smarter than we thought. Ravens can solve puzzles, use animals to their disposal, and communicate with each other. Two scientists at Lund University, in Sweden, examined the behavior of some ravens and found an incredible discovery. In the experiment, the ravens had the choice of a tiny food crumb or a tool, they would rather use the tool to open a container of more food. When it comes down to it, these ravens should not be feared, but should be admired for their intelligence.
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| Moon Express Coming Soon
Moon Express is hoping to be the first commercial company to land on the Moon and win the $20 million XPrize. Not only that, Moon Express also has plans for building a robotic outpost on the Moon by 2020. Moon Express is assembling three different robots for three different missions: the first, "Lunar Scout" will launch this year and it will dispatch a small telescope and a laser range finder to achieve the prize of $20 million, the second, called "Lunar Outpost" will inspect the frozen water and minerals in and on the Moon, the third robot, “Harvest Moon", will extract samples of the Moon and will be used for scientific purposes. Like many other experiences with space equipment, the price of materials is expensive so the company is hoping to receive federal funding for the project. However, if Moon Express does not receive the necessary funding, then there will be cost overruns and delays. With some hard work and a little bit of luck, Moon Express will achieve the goal of winning the XPrize competition and going into space.
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The Question of Immortality's Morality
We, as humans, have always wanted to live longer. With many ways to live longer and life expectancy already varies greatly, but we won’t become immortal. There are many ethical reasons that humans shouldn’t live longer than regular expectancy. One concern is that if there is a method to live longer, not everyone can have the money to pay for either the procedure or medicine. Another example is, lifespan extension can change the way of political, social change, inheritance, and other important factors of life. In conclusion, if we are able to live longer, there will be many complications for humans all over the world.
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Scientists Discover Why Coral Shines Bright in the Dark Ocean
Scientists recently discovered the method behind the fluorescent glow of the coral that lay deep in the ocean where little light can reach. The proteins in the coral absorb as much light as they can to shine bright colors of red and orange. The algae, that live in the coral's tissue, then use this light for photosynthesis, providing food and energy for the coral in exchange for shelter. Scientists are dwelling on the idea that this adaptation can be helpful for when shallow reefs are in danger from the heat. On the other hand, scientists are concerned that shallow reef coral may not be able to adapt to the lack of light in that environment. This discovery can benefit many species of shallow-water corals in the future with further testing and research.
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| Searching for Other Earth-Like Planets
NASA's Kepler telescope has been discovering Earth-like planets, which are possibly capable of supporting life as we know it, ever since it was first launched on March 7, 2009, in a quest to answer humanity's ultimate question: "Are we alone?". A list has been released with 4,034 new planets that scientists are 90% sure orbit other stars. Many of these planets are astonishingly similar to Earth, varying just slightly in size and orbit distance, such as KOI 7711 (KOI for Kepler Object of Interest); this planet in particular is just 30% wider than Earth, and occupies an orbit which matches almost exactly one year. Newly released data is setting up a foundation for NASA to design a new telescope, which will be capable of discerning the images of planets orbiting other stars; such a telescope is expected to be a reality around the time period of 2030. 219 new planets have become candidates, ten of them in the habitable zone of their stars. The habitable zone is known as the Goldilocks zone: the zone around a sun where the temperature is just right for water to exist in its liquid form, which is essential for intelligent life to exist. Over the years, the Kepler team has discovered that nature likes to make planets in two ways: rocky like Earth and gaseous like Neptune. Rocky planets can get up to one and a half times the size of Earth and gaseous planets become twice the size of Earth. All this data being provided to the Kepler team is bringing humanity one step closer each time in potentially encountering our first neighbors.
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The Return of Patrick Nyarko Brings Back D.C. United Offense
Patrick Nyarko is ranked one of the most powerful attackers in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the past decade. Though he hasn't been considered a spot on the end-of-year all-league team, Nyarko claims he is working for his team, not himself. Due to a concussion last season, Nyarko remained in the sidelines for six matches. As a result, United averaged at most one goal per game. Last week when United had a 2-1 win over Atlanta, Nyarko was the one who scored the game-winning point. His attitude and determination makes him a great player for MLS and his teammates.
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Increasing International Airport Security
Rather than banning devices such as laptops and tablets, the U.S. decided to boost the amount of security in international flights. This means incoming travelers will be subject to a screening process, which will more than likely lead to delays. The reasons for the placements of these new measures are past terrorist attacks and the safety of the public. The U.S. has already banned electronics in a ban that affected flights from eight different major Muslim countries, but adjudicated on not banning them on other international flights. Raising aviation security will hopefully create a more secure environment.
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| Avoiding Cancer by Putting Sunscreen on Your Eyelids
A majority of sunscreen bottles contain warnings that tell people to avoid putting sunscreen on areas near their eyes. However, dermatologists have conducted research that shows that following these instructions puts people at a higher risk of cancer. The regions covered in the warnings are the site of a significant amount of skin cancers; 10% of these cancers begin in the eyelids. In spite of the study, most people still stray away from applying sunscreen around their eyes; an alternative for them would be to wear sunglasses. Experts believe that the sunscreen products are causing too much concern; sunbathers should cover themselves head-to-toe with at least a factor 30 sun cream or sunscreen.
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Engineering with Replicas to Save Real Dams
Michael Johnson, Utah State University hydraulics engineering professor, and other engineers created the Oroville Dam replica. Michael Johnson created this dam replica to examine one of two channels that run the width of the spillway to allow air into the water to prevent bubble formations that can damage the concrete spillway of the real dam. These new channels, called aerators, cost $300 million to reconstruct and will be applied by November when the winter rains and snow come to increase the water's volume in the dam. The simulation of the 100-foot (30-meter) long replica, that took 40 days to build, begins with a crew member opening a large valve that sends water down a chute modeled after the spillway and crashing into blocks that disperse and send waves to a replica of the river. With the help of the simulation, hydrologists can calculate the velocity of the water and track down how much air is going into the water, which can lead to the complete testing of the aerators. By utilizing this new type of technology, there will be fewer floods, evacuations, and less anxiety about the disastrous effects of inefficient dams.
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Broccoli Sprouts Maybe a New Cure to Diabetes
Scientists have found out that with the help of broccoli, patients with type 2 diabetes can control their sugar levels. Type 2 diabetes is a very common disease. In fact, there are 29.1 million people alone in the U.S. who have the disease. There may be many more patients who are not diagnosed. Even with the extreme number of cases, many cannot take the drug used to fight type 2 diabetes, metformin, because of the possibility of kidney damage. While running tests on mice, scientists have found that sulforaphane, a substance found in broccoli, worked best in rejecting genes with too much glucose. After giving a dose of sulforaphane to obese patients daily, the scientists found that it reduced glucose by 10 percent. The key to curing diabetes may just be in a simple vegetable.
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| United Nations Project World Population to be 9.8B by 2050
By July of 2017, the world's approximate population will be over 7.5 billion, however by 2050, the population is expected to be at 9.8 billion. The United Nations has released a report stating that the world's population will increase by over 2 billion people in the next thirty years. Although global fertility rates have decreased in the last few years, still, approximately 83 million people have continued to increase the world's population every year. The two most populated countries in the world, China and India, will switch places as top populace holders with India, currently having 1.3 Billion, overtaking China having a population of 1.4 billion. The United States is currently the third most-populous country and will lose its position to Nigeria by 2050. With many third world nations increasing their populations and the push for first world nations to decrease theirs, the near future may have a great disparity of first and third world nations which could have serious repercussions for advanced civilizations.
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The Health Ranger Takes on the EPA
The ever-vigilant, health conscious Mike Adams, AKA the Health Ranger, has pronounced that he will single-handedly assure that the U.S.'s water supply will be tested for its contaminants. Adams and his associates have processed over six hundred water samples in the last year, and in 2017, an additional 364 which have tested positive for heavy metals. Such heavy metals as copper, arsenic, and lead, along with aluminum, with its possible neurotoxic detrimental effects, have been found in the water samples violating the EPA's water quality limits. Allegedly, the EPA routinely covers up such scientific evidence, refusing to tell the American people of the toxins in their drinking water. In the testing, CWC Labs donated all of the lab time and materials for the water tests to be evaluated and the results to be produced to expose the U.S.'s toxic water supplies. The site, Natural News, has stated that "(it) is willing to take over the nationwide testing of the water supply from the incompetent EPA... in terms of testing the national water supply" continuing with " I’m going to announce an offer to President Trump, explaining that we will test the entire national water supply and publish all the results for just $1 per year...handling up to 5,000 water samples per year for the American people"
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Pheonix to Cancel Flights Due to Heat
This summer, much of the Phoenix region will rise up to temperatures of 120 degrees. This estimation is just two degrees lower than the hottest recorded temperature in Phoenix since 1990. Due to this extreme heat, many flights departing for Phoenix Sky Harbor will be postponed and canceled. Airlines have stated that these air crafts can only work under the temperature of 118 degrees. If the temperatures are too hot, then the air gets thinner, thus needing more speed for the planes to take off. Not only is Phoenix expecting high temperatures, but Las Vegas is also expecting temperatures of 177 degrees, which is going to tie their hottest record; this may affect their airlines as well.
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| Olive Oil to Alzheimer Patients' Rescue
Alzheimer's disease cases are rising and the disease is the most occurring form of dementia in the U.S. This type of dementia can influence someone’s thought, language, and memory. With no cure for this disease, scientists are trying to find out ways to prevent and cure Alzheimer's. In this study, scientists tested two groups of mice: one group with olive oil in their diet and the other group without. After 9-12 months, there was a significant difference in the mice's memory that had olive oil in their diet, and they had better spatial memory and learning ability. Olive oil can lower inflammation of the brain and starts a process in which debris and toxins are removed from the brain. The debris and toxins can be the cause of Alzheimer's disease and without the autophagy process, people over 60 are more likely to get Alzheimer's. With the help of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) many people will be able to prevent Alzheimer's.
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Coconut Oil May Not Be as Good as First Thought
Many people have used coconut oil as a "healthy" alternative to other unhealthy oils. However, coconut oil is much worse than other oils. A new study by the American Heart Association showed the ruse that coconut oil was healthy was a mistake. It turns out, 82 percent of fat in coconut oil is saturated fat. Some studies showed that coconut oil increases bad cholesterol or LDL cholesterol. This can be the cause of cardiovascular disease, so it is better to stick with oils that have lower saturated fats. So, coconut oil would be better for you if you put it on your skin rather than in your body.
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Russia Threatens to Target Jets
Russia Threatens to Target American Jets Russia has threatened that any target operating above the Russian and Syrian airspace. The Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, and American warplanes launched an attack to retake a town called Ja'Din. After the attack concluded, a Syrian fighter jet launched airstrikes on SDF troops which led an American warplane to take it out.That was the first air-to-air engagement between the US and Russia since 1999. In Moscow, Russian officials applied the necessary adjustments in the Syria war policy because of the shoot-down of a Syrian military aircraft by a US fighter. In conclusion, the Russians will try to stay cautious with the Americans attacking ISIS.
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| Rivers Legally Receiving "Personhood"
In the fight against water pollution, New Zealand, Ecuador and India are substantially leaping ahead to save their rivers. Although not the same rights as humans, these countries assigned legal aspects to the rivers, similar to what corporations have, for the nations and overseers to legally sue any entity, person, corporation, and/or nation who pollute the rivers. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River has been legally recognized to protect from pollution and for the relationship held between it and the Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. In Ecuador, the Constitution states that nature must be respected for its right to exist, maintain itself, and regenerate its life cycles, structures, functions and evolutionary processes and that anyone can demand Ecuadorian authorities enforce these rights. The high court of Uttarakhand, in India, ruled that the Ganga and Yamuna rivers have the same legal rights as a person. By assigning legal rights to nature as a legal entity, the appointed guardians of the rivers can enter and enforce regulations to protect the rivers from pollution. So, as many mythological stories tell that nature transforms to man, in these cases, at least legally, the rivers have in fact gained "Personhood".
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The Complex Diet of a Vegetarian/Vegan
When it comes to a vegan or vegetarian diet, many choose two different ways of eating, either the plant diet index(PDI), the healthful plant-based diet(hPDI), or the unhealthy plant-based diet(uPDI). In Ambika Satija's case, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, she created an experiment of people who have a PDI or an hPDI. From the data compiled from both diets, hPDI had a reduced risk of heart disease and attacks compared to PDI and uPDI. People who ate the hPDI diet digested more foods like whole grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables, but less of sugar foods, potatoes, animal fat, and meat. People shouldn't call themselves vegetarians or vegans when they eat junk foods like sugary beverages, french fries, and fake fried chicken. Thus, individuals must choose wisely of what is eaten and drunken to sustain a healthy vegetarian/vegan diet.
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The History of Father's day
People from all around the world will be celebrating Father's day today, a day of celebration and honoring your fathers. What you probably didn't know about this holiday is that it came from the inspiration of Mother's Days. Fifty- eight years before Father's day was made official by President Richard Nixon, Mother's day was made official by President Woodrow Wilson. One woman, Sonara Smart Dodd was raised by a widower and tried to create an equivalent to Mother's day for male parents. Her attempt for supporting a father's day caught on and Washington State celebrated the nation’s first Father’s Day on June 19, 1910. The new holiday began to slowly spread and President Wilson the day was honored by President Wilson with a special acknowledgement. Now, only in the United States there are 70 million fathers and Americans spend more than a billion dollars a year for Father's day gifts.
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| Amazon to Buy Whole Foods for 13.7 billion dollars
Amazon Leads Whole Foods Into the On-demand Grocery System Amazon announced the second generation of its Dash Wand, an Alexa-enabled home barcode scanner that can add your grocery items to your AmazonFresh cart. The company's way to improve the Dash Wand was by announcing their $13.7 billion deal to buy the Whole Foods Grocery chain, which includes 461 stores across the US, Canada, and the UK. Whole Foods stores are accessible to many Americans because it is usually an hour's drive to the store, which makes Amazon's on-demand grocery delivery easier. Amazon created this second-generation tool because interacting with the Alexa or Echo device can be as easy as saying "Honey, we need eggs." The order will arrive to its destination in a matter of an hour or so, completely fresh, organic, and straight off the shelves of the nearest Whole Foods store. With the new technology being created, buying groceries will be easier and faster.
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Netflix Crushes Cable by Millions
In the challenge of whether a customer likes expensive prechosen programs, or cheap choose-it -yourself entertainment, Netflix is quickly becoming the champion.Over the last six years, the online streaming provider has been gaining on cable TV providers and now Netflix has toppled Cable TV with millions of more subscribers. In the beginning of 2017, cable tv had fourty-eight million subscribers while Netflix advanced to fifty-nine million, the first time the online streaming company has overtaken cable since its inception in the US. The fact that users would rather pay Netflix's lower prices of between $7.99 - $11.99 to cable TV's $24.00 to sometimes more than $200.00 for the works, and $85.00 for the average pricing. Clearly, with millions of subscribers choosing Netflix, Cable TV will have to alter its pricing or go the way of Blockbuster.
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An Egg a Day Keeps you Big in Many A Way
According to Gaston, from "Beauty and the Beast", as a child, he ate four dozen eggs every morning to get large. However, just eating one egg a day can do the same. Eggs are high in protein, vitamin B12, riboflavin, choline, and other vitamins and minerals. A team of public health researchers from the United States and Ecuador tested this in an impoverished country like Ecuador. The group gathered up mother-infant pairs, separating one group with eggs and the other without eggs. After the six-month process, the kids who ate eggs were much taller and larger than the ones that didn't eat eggs. Therefore, if this experiment worked on children, then having an egg-based diet will have many health benefits for adults as well.
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| Jailed U.S. College Student Released from North Korean Prison in a Vegetative State
A 22-year-old college student named Otto Warmbier attempted to steal a propaganda sign from a North Korean hotel and has been released to return home with significant brain damage. Warmbier may have also been forced to confess to his crime, where he said that he took the sign as a trophy and that he wanted to “harm the work ethic and motivation of the Korean people.” This serious crime in North Korea resulted in Mr. Warmbier’s imprisonment and sentence of 15 year’s hard labor. However, although the sentence was 15 years, the student is being evacuated from the country after 17 months of imprisonment after seemingly suffering a heart attack which led to his brain loss. North Korean sources said Otto Warmbier was given a sleeping pill due to botulism, a form of food poisoning, and has been in a coma ever since, however, upon medical analysis in the U.S., his system had no signs of botulism. The father of the victim of North Korea said, "There's no excuse for the way the North Koreans treated our son and the way they have treated so many others," and that " They lure Americans and then they take them hostage and then they do things to them — and that is what happened to my son."; these statements tell us all we need to know if planning to visit North Korea.
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Dry Drowning Danger
Last week, a Texas family lost their four-year-old due to an extremely rare fatality. The boy was playing in the water when a wave knocked him over. After a few days, the child developed diarrhea, vomiting, and a pain in his should; unfortunately, within a few days he stopped breathing and died. The condition that the child had was called “pulmonary edema,” resulting from fluid build-up in the lungs, thus making it harder for oxygen to come into the body. There are two different types of atypical drownings: dry drowning, which occurs immediately or shortly after the water inhalation incident, and secondary drowning, which can occur between one and 24 hours after the incident. The symptoms from secondary or dry drowning are: troubled breathing, coughing, sleepiness, drop in energy level, chest pain, and vomiting. Parents can avoid dry drowning by teaching their kids about water safety, taking their kids to swimming lessons, and watching their children very closely.
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Nike to Cut 2% of its Total Workforce
The world’s largest sporting goods brand is reorganizing their company, which also means that they have to fire 2% of their workers. In order to keep up with their customers and continue to surpass competition, Nike has to change the way they produce and sell sneakers. Their goal for this is to increase the sales made right to the customers, rather than with retail partners. With about 70,000 employees worldwide, Nike will have to fire 1,400 employees, leaving 1,400 people without jobs. As another result from their reorganization, Nike will decrease the amount of styles of shoes they have and will focus more on franchises and categories that have the most potential. Using new technology, Nike will cut the time it takes to make the products by half. Nike is keeping up with the times and is doing the best it can to continue being the world's largest sporting goods brand.
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| Drones to the Heart's Rescue
Heart attacks, or cardiac arrests, are the number one killer worldwide, but a new study might put drones to use to change those numbers. In the U.S., approximately 350,000 people and more than 6 million people each year die due to heart attacks. Without proper treatment , a person suffering a heart attack can die within minutes which is the fate of over ninety percent of people who suffer one outside of a hospital. Recent trials have begun deploying drones to the scene of numerous heart attack simulations. The drones carrying a defibrillator arrived to the location after five minutes of its launch, seventeen minutes faster than an average ambulance. Technology and the people who find uses for it have once again put their collective brains together and come up with a plus for most all of humanity.
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The Super Speed Boat
China has created a new amphibious armored car that is the fastest in the world. The North China Institute of Vehicle Research has built a 4x4 armored fighting vehicle (AFV) that can reach the speed of 31 mph. The casing of the AFV has a v-shaped hull, which helps let the car reach the speed of 31 mph and gives a good protection from impoverished explosive devices (IEDs). This armored car, about 5.5 tons without armor or weapons, is lightweight, which made the car go so fast. It can also deploy Chinese hovercrafts, like the Type 726 and the Type 071, on its landing platform dock. In conclusion, the Chinese have created this boat to an amazing significance, which makes the American armored car look terrible.
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Puerto Rico Votes for Statehood in the U.S.
After Hawaii joined the United States 58 years ago, the island of Puerto Rico looked to join as the 51st state. Now, due to an enormous debt of $120 billion and the inability to pay it, Puerto Rico is considering joining the U.S. However, some rival parties on the island are boycotting this decision and refuse to take part. Governor Ricardo Rossello supports Puerto Rico becoming the 51st state. As part of his campaign, he promises referendum if elected. Rosello argues that joining the United States would help the island with its debt crisis. Thus, due to debt, Puerto Rico is in favor of joining the United States as the fifty first state in the United States of America.
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| Can Astronauts Bake Bread in Space?
A new experiment will test whether fresh bread can be baked in space. Using a micro gravity oven and special dough, crumb-less bread can be baked in space for the first time in history. In 2018, the experiment is slated to launch to the International Space Station to test the bread. Not only is the task of baking bread in space a feat, but the bread must not have any crumbs. In space, crumbs could cause major problems in they got into the electrical system, as well as cause a health risk if inhaled. So, the bread must not have any crumbs, but must also be pleasurable to the consumers. This would be a huge step up because former astronauts did not have the luxury of freshly baked bread in space. Instead, they had to use tortillas as their bread when making sandwiches or burgers. If successful, the space bread can also be sold to the people of Earth as a new product!
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Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to be Drained
After 80 ducklings in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool were found dead, the National Park Service decided to drain the largest reflecting pool in Washington D.C. The cause of the deaths is a parasite found in the pool. These parasites grow in the snails that live in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. People who come in contact with the parasite will start to get cercarial dermatitis. This uncomfortable skin condition is not contagious and is not serious enough to require medical treatment, but is dangerous to local ducklings. In order to get rid of these unhealthy parasites, the National Park Service will have to drain the pool. Fortunately, the pool with be filled by Friday and everything will be as it was.
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Shrinking Brain but Big Mental Surge
A new study published in Journal of Neuroscience helps to explain the extent and intensity of changes in behavior and mental ability that take place between childhood and adolescence. Long have scientists known that the volume of the brain's gray matter decreases during adolescence, but mental performance improves dramatically from childhood to young adulthood. Speech, sight, hearing, memory, emotions, decision-making and self-control, are some of the mental and physical actions that the gray matter of the brain control or regulate. The study finds that the gray matter becomes more dense to compensate the shrinking of it during adolescence. Girls have lower brain volume, but their gray matter is denser while boys have more brain volume, this denser amount may be the reason why both boys and girls have similar mental skills abilities. One of the conclusions the researchers have come to is that this may be why adolescents have a change in the way they deal with themselves and others.
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| The Classics are Back Again, Again
Throughout the ages, the two oldest methods of education, the Socratic method and the great books, have in some way always been with us in education, but through programs at universities known as the Great Books programs, are resurging to stimulate minds once again. Some universities that have a form of the program are Columbia, Boston College, the University of Texas at Austin and Kentucky State and others without the program as an excellent curriculum for getting a classical liberal arts education. Schools such as these around the U.S. are continuing the tradition of implementing programs where students read the great books and have a dialectical mode of inquiry, the Socratic Method, to examine their lives, the ideas that shaped them, and the purpose of existence. Students who participated in these programs read a lot of books and became great proponents of the great books education one student stating, “Great books has been one of the most valuable experiences in my life. It provided me with the opportunity to read some of the greatest books ever written, as well as to explore the way that other peoples’ experiences intersected with the important lessons of whatever book we were reading.” In Boston College's great books class students can participate in the program and receive credit as a dual theology/philosophy requirement during their freshmen year while at Kentucky State University students are taking intensive classical education courses, including Greek or Latin linguistics. By studying the classics through the Great Books programs students begin questioning the ideas and common knowledge so many of us just live; they begin to think critically and thereby help the betterment of mankind.
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Mind Riot
Evergreen State College, a small, public liberal arts institution, planned its annual "Day of Absence", but with a twist to it: white people are told to leave the campus. The "Day of Absence" is a "symbolic" act based on the Douglas Turner Ward play in which all black people of a Southern town don't show up one morning. Unfortunately, this was reversed and the non-white students wanted all white students, staff, and faculty to leave the premises of the college. One teacher, Prof.Weinstein, objected in an email to all staff and faculty saying,"On a college campus, one's right to speak -or to be- must never be based on skin color." A month later, student mobs formed on the campus chanting "Black Power","Racist", and demanded the teacher resign. A college is an institution of higher learning, not a cauldron of racism, hate, and discord; these types of demonstrations are meant for the streets and political rallies.
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Practice, Practice, Practice for a Better SAT Score
The College Board, a company that states its mission is to "help...students prepare for a successful transition to college through programs and services in college readiness and college success and a marketing company have teamed up to create a video on how students who practice for their SATs can improve greatly. For anyone who hopes to take, or has taken the SAT, knows, the better the SAT score, the more likely for the student to get into a good college. As a result, for decades, test preparation companies have been teaching students the best ways to prepare for the SAT, and practice like crazy for it. More recently, the online study website, Khan Academy, has teamed up with the College Board to allow access to free SAT studies through lessons, tips and tricks, and free practice tests. A recent advertisement campaign for the College Board has focused on as with sports, music, and other extracurricular activity, students know that regular practice is the only way to get better and that on 20 hours of free online SAT practice can improve a students score by an average of 115 points. So, the old adage "practice makes perfect" is once again proven to be true, even in the computer age.
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| Oh! Rats!
Rats in NYC schools are a troubling concern for not only the frightened students, but for health concerns of the parents, teachers, and administration. For months two NYC schools, P.S./I.S. 217 and its neighboring preschool have been dealing with a rat infestation. Some of the residents in the vicinity of the schools say the cause of the infestation is that P.S./I.S. 217 leave its garbage outside for long periods of time without any protective containers, just the clear bags. The preschool's administration stated that the rats cross over the school yard to its school and makes the infestation spread. The most recent initiative taken by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is to offer a rodent educational class to the local residents, an act most likely not the most prudent response by the people affected by the rat infestation. If anything, it would seem that the schools need to invest in some dumpsters to limit the rats' access to a food supply.
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NASA to the Sun
The exploration of the Sun announced by NASA is a big step into understanding the star of our solar system and helps to learn how to improve equipment. The spacecraft is called the Parker Solar Probe, named after an astrophysicist Eugene Parker, who helped discover phenomena about the sun and developed theories too. The probe will travel into the Corona, or outer layer of the Sun, and will be exposed to extreme temperatures. If this succeeds, scientists will be able to observe the surface of the Sun closely. Observing the Sun up-close and personal helps scientists understand things about gases and magnetic fields at high temperatures rather than making similar simulations on Earth. This mission will also help expand knowledge on space weather and how the Sun gets radiations to build up that can potentially interfere with satellites and penetrate Earth’s protective shield. The high temperatures are a big obstacle and hopefully, the Parker Solar Probe will be able to stand the heat.
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Mexico Sending over Illegal Immigrants and Illegal Toxic Waste
For decades, Mexican toxic waste has poured over the border to California without the Mexican government taking responsibility and actions to stop its flow. Outdated Mexican wastewater plants have been unable to process hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater over the years resulting from heavy winter rains and other over-flooding events. These sewage floods pick up chemical pollutants, poisonous salts, and heavy metals and flow into the Tijuana River, cross the border and leave the inundated areas with toxic sludge and surrounding areas. Not only does it destroy the environment, but Border Patrol agents and Navy SEAL teams who patrol and exercise in the area are becoming infected with rashes and fear further illnesses in the future such as genetic abnormalities and cancer. An additional problem caused by the toxic levels of the land are that these areas become danger zones where U.S. personnel are off limits to which opens up routes for illegal immigrants and smugglers to cross into the U.S. Mexico needs to clean up its act environmentally and politically in order to be a good neighbor and until then, the U.S. must do whatever it takes to ensure our nation's security.
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| DNA Changing Properties of Tea
Throughout the ages tea has been the most consumed beverage of all people in the world, now science is proving what people of the past knew; tea is good for you. The journal Human Molecular Genetics published a study that drinking tea causes epigenetic changes, changes in gene function. The study involving more than 3,000 people focused on a gene signaling tool called DNA methylation which switches genes in a non-functioning position and is suppresses tumor growth and inflammation. The study shows that DNA methylation was triggered in women who drank tea especially with the genes that involve estrogen metabolism and cancer. Besides these possible findings, tea is known to have benefits stemming from antioxidant properties to clean the body of toxins and flavonoids to help lower heart attack and stroke. Before grabbing a cold soft drink filled with sugar, boil up some water, steep a pinch of tea, add a bit of honey, and stick it in the fridge, then drink it 30 minutes later, costs less money and may be healthier in the long run.
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More Organic Coffee for Less Liver Cancer
Coffee drinkers around the world may want to increase their daily intake for coffee's life-saving properties. 26 studies with a total of more than 2.25 million participants have possible results that drinking organic coffee may decrease the likelihood liver cancer will develop. Health experts at the University of Southampton and the University of Edinburgh in the U.K. pooled the data from 26 separate studies. The studies' alleged results were that participants who consumed an increasing amount of cups of coffee per day had a correlating decrease in their chances of getting the disease. However, the study did not report the fact that over drinking, as with anything, could have other ill-effects. Still, with moderation, and taking into account your bed time, coffee lovers might just be able to add a couple of more cups to their morning drinking ritual.
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New Research Tells why Colossal Giants Came to Be in the Oceans
Whales are the largest animals in the world to have ever existed and it took millions of years to get that way. These beautiful behemoths came to be their gargantuan sizes very recently in geological time– only within the past 4.5 million years – due to climate change. Whales started as land mammals, but over some millions of years, they adapted to their environment, developed fins, and soon, relatively speaking in evolutionary terms, were marine mammals.They also learned how to filter-feed, which allows them to consume large amounts of zooplankton and krill in one big gulp. At the same time, runoff from glaciers and seasonal upwelling cycles brought nutrients, which allowed populations of zooplankton and krill to grow essentially providing an excess of food for whales to feed on and grow. This just goes to show that evolution and adaptation are something to be worth noting over the course of millions of years.
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| U.S. President and Vietnamese PrimeMinister Talk Trade
After successful trade talks, U.S. President Donald Trump announced trade deals between the U.S. and its former Vietnam War enemy. The Communist nation of Vietnam has the intention of increasing trade with the U.S. to protect its own economy from the growing threat of the Chinese economy, another Communist nation. Trump administration officials want to ensure that whatever trade deals come about that these deals will lessen the disparity of the trade deficit which is approximately thirty-two billion dollars. Some of the purchases the Prime Minister wants are power plants from General Electric and jet engines made by a GE affiliate all within the billions of dollars. With careful attention to trade specifics, hopefully, these erstwhile enemies can form a friendship that will benefit both nations.
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Trump Helps Homeless Woman for 8 Years
For eight years, a black homeless woman had lived in Trump Tower with Trump's generosity. The woman had been treated spectacularly, had three meals a day, had her own room, and got fresh flowers every week. Unfortunately, all of the mainstream media make trump into a racist bigot; they don't include the good deeds that Trump had done. The homeless woman is very displeased with the way that the media is not telling the truth of Trump's good deeds. She also said that if trump evicted her, she would be on the streets homeless, or dead. The homeless woman concludes that Trump is not the bad person many think he is, he's a wonderful man.
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Don't Sleep and Drive
Students in America are infamously known to sleep very late, pull all-nighters, and complain about their sleep schedules.Not only does sleepiness diminish their well-being, but it also increases their chances of being at risk and injury, such as driving in the morning. One-quarter of sixteen- to eighteen-year-olds reported that they have driven while being very sleepy, and had a hard time their eyes open. Driving after sleeping for four to five hours puts you at the same risk as driving with a legal alcohol limit. The reason why teens sleep later is that they don’t get sleepy until much later on in the night, and this is all because of biology. Students also do better on tests and do well in classes given in the afternoon than in the morning. It’s important that schools take into account the biological makeup of the average teenager and start acknowledging it.
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| T-shirts! They're Alive!
Researchers from MIT have created a shirt that vents itself automatically in response to sweat and gives out a nice aroma. Wen Wang, a bio-engineer and former scientist at MIT's Media Lab, experimented with two structures, latex and bacteria (B subtilis). The two layered shirt, bacteria in the inside and latex on the outside, can absorb moisture and relax, which creates a little ventilation flap. Unfortunately, Wang hasn't found a way to wash the clothes without killing the bacteria. On the other hand, Wen said that there is no reason to wash the clothes because the bacteria will "eat" the remains and give out a redolent smell. Until Wen can figure out how to clean the shirts without killing the little fellas inside, the possibility of a self-cleaning shirt may still be a bit away.
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Basketball Fans Feeling Played
In this season of the NBA playoffs, fans have been complaining about the lack of entertainment: too many blowouts, boring series, and no new winners. Then there was a third consecutive NBA Finals match up between the Cavaliers and the Warriors, which everyone had already predicted, seeing as they have six of the top 20 players. However, people are not looking forward to watching Cavs-Warrior play-offs for the third consecutive time. Fans argue that competition was way better in the time of Michael Jordan, his team winning 6 straight NBA titles. Since we can't do anything to change the fate of these two teams, those watching the game will have to wait and be optimistic on the level of entertainment basketball players and teams will give fans in the future.
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Choose Better Sunscreen For Safer Skin
During the sunny summer days, customers often have the problem of choosing the safest sunscreen that will protect their skin. Some sunscreens do not do as they are advertised and others contain ingredients that you’d rather not put on your skin. The safest bet on your skin would be to purchase sunscreens that block UVA and UVB rays, the rays that cause skin cancer.A SPF of 30 in sunscreen is recommended by The American Academy of Dermatology because it blocks 97% of UVB rays.Spray–on sunscreens have become popular over that past summers, but these sunscreens offer even less protection that the conventional sunscreen creams. This lack of protection is a result of people applying less spray-on sunscreen than when using the traditional creams. Protect your skin from the harmful rays of the sun by choosing the right sunscreen.
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| Watch Out: Parasite in Swimming Pools
A nasty diarrhea causing parasite is spreading in a place you’ll probably be this summer, the public swimming pool. This parasitic infection named Cryptosporidium, also called Crypto, can be found not only in pools, but water-parks as well. Some of the symptoms of the parasitic infection are watery diarrhea, nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting and dehydration for up to three weeks. People who don’t shower before entering the pool or recently had diarrhea can risk spreading this parasite since the chlorine levels in most pools are not enough to kill this parasite as it does others. During a crypto outbreak in Milwaukee in 1993 where more than 400,000 people got acute, watery diarrhea from contaminated municipal water supplies, one hundred and four people died. Even with the severity of the parasite, crypto can be killed if contaminated pools are closed and decontaminated with several hours of “hyper chlorination.” So, the next time you’re at a pool this summer, be careful not to swallow any pool water.
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The Deadliest Fat We Eat
The movement of a single hydrogen atom from one side of a molecule to the other can create a potentially deadly substance when continuously absorbed into the body. The transformed ingredient is called Trans Fatty Acid(trans fats), which causes heart attacks, strokes, and sudden cardiac deaths. About 30,000 to 100,000 Americans die from excessive amounts of trans fats. A study in some New York counties that ban Trans Fats shows in contrast to counties that do not have the ban that death rates and medical costs decrease when Trans Fats are not taken into the body. Based on the limited evidence, getting rid of trans fats in human diet may help people live longer and healthier.
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The World's First Robot Policeman
The first operational "robot cop" was revealed in Dubai as part of the United Arab Emirates' planned robot police force. The robot, 5ft 5in tall and weighing 100kg, can speak six different languages and can read facial expressions. This new officer of the law also comes with a built-in tablet so people can pay fines or report crimes. Now the robot is tech eye-candy at the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference, but the robot will go into the real world of law enforcement and do what it's programmed to do; it will fight crime, keep the city safe, and improve happiness. A high ranking officer said, "The launch of the world's first operational Robocop is a significant milestone for the Emirates and a step towards realizing Dubai's vision to be a global leader in smart cities technology adoption." Surely, Robocop is a milestone for the Emirate in Dubai, but with robots on the verge of eliminating many jobs in areas such as taxis, trucking, agriculture, and many other industries, robots may be more of a problem than they are worth.
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| Possible Man-Made Bubble Around The Earth
Earth Radio waves might have accidentally formed a protective bubble around our planet which could be protecting us from space weather. The Navy uses Very Low Frequency radio waves, VLF for short, to send messages to submarines and sometimes these radio waves reach space A new finding from the Van Allen Probes, two robotic spacecraft being used to study the Van Allen radiation belts that surround Earth, show that these long wavelengths may be forming a bubble protecting our planet's atmosphere. A radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles, most of which originate from the solar wind that is captured by and held around a planet by that planet's magnetic field. During a major geomagnetic storm in 2015, these belts surprisingly didn't come any closer to the earth than the plasmasphere, and the radio signals stopped at the same area where the electron particles stopped passing through, thus hinting that something else might be affecting which may just be this man-made bubble. The U.S. Air Force is planning on testing the strength of VLF waves from space pollution and storms, and learn more about Earth's new "bubble". Unlike with most of man's by-products, it would seem, at least for now, that this one may be helping our planet fight off the terrors of space.
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Win The Home Mortgage Payment Game
Most home owners pay their home mortgages according to the payment plan set up when originally signing to buy the house. Mortgage borrowers who buy homes with low interest rates can use the savings that those with higher rates have to pay off their loans quicker. When a borrower overpays their mortgage they can pay it off quicker because the borrower is paying off the interest on the loan which usually is the first few years of the loan's term. However, if a borrower needs to check with their bank to know how much extra to pay each month because some bank have a maximum limit which when hit, they charge penalties. In order to make a dent in your mortgage, it is not necessary to pay too much, even a little extra a month will pay off in the long run. It all boils down to who wants to keep more of their hard earned cash and who wants the banks to get it.
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The Show Will Not Go On
The world famous Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus has been putting on thrilling and amazing shows for almost a century and a half, but its time has come to an end. As a result of diminishing ticket sales, high operating costs, and animal rights' protests the circus will be unable to continue circus goers with their shows. A community of circus employees, numbering close to 500, that had been living and traveling together on the train will be separated, creating uncertainty in their future occupations. Although many people will be unhappy with the closing, animal abuse protesters rejoice with this victory. Many acts during the performances resulted in injured animals and angry protesters. Concluding 146 years in the business, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus closed down after performing their last show on May 21, 2017.
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| Drones To Warn About Tornadoes
The weather technology that we have now can only give tornado prone area residents 13 minutes to prepare before a tornado strikes. However, mechanical engineer Jamey Jacob would like to extend the time to more than an hour. Jamey and his team have created an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), which can withstand rain, hail, and wind up to 120 mph, to collect data from violent tornadoes. These stormproof UAVs, will give weather forecasters better views of the developing storms and provide important information about the creation of tornadoes. On the other hand, Jamey's drones aren't ready to fly at a moment's notice; it takes four hours to prepare the drone, computers, and weather tools. In the long run, weather drones will predict the tornadoes and hopefully people can prepare for tornadoes before they come.
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Walmart To Lead Companies in Carbon Reduction Emissions With Project Gigaton
The mega superchain store is working within their operations and with its suppliers to significantly reduce greenhouse gases by a gigaton, one billion tons. Walmart has researched and designed a sceince-based plan to reduce emissions and will provide a toolkit to its suppliers, mostly in manufacturing, materials, and product usage, which will be their guide to implementing and fulfilling this new initiative. The focus of their climate efforts will be in the operations that supply their products such as agriculture, energy, packaging, waste, and others. By implementing these changes, the corporation will be enacting the equivalent of taking off 211 million passenger vehicles from the streets in America per year. Walmart and other organization representatives hope Walmart's lead will be an example for other companies to follow suit and work to decrease greenhouse gases. All it takes is one to take the lead and the rest will follow, in this case, can Walmart and its plan appeal enough for the other corporations to take the lead.
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Fungi Eats Plastic, Then We Eat It
Most of us have learned in science class not to waste or just toss plastic because it is a nonbiodegradable material that never breaks down. Professor of molecular biochemistry Scott Strobel at Yale University and a group of students on the university's annual Rainforest Expedition and Laboratory discovered a plastic-eating fungi found in Amazon. This newly found fungi, Pestalotiopsis microspora, eats common plastic such as bottles, containers, bags, and many other plastic made products thereby potentially solving the problem of over filled landfills. The research was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology which started a craze of how fungi can break down plastic and not retain toxicity that eventually got Katharina Unger to think if the fungi were edible. Unger and a partner researched and created a process in which edible mushrooms would be the result, along with a few recipes one with mango and carrots another with chocolate and yogurt. Still, with this great new discovery, we should continue to implement the 3 Rs of reduce, reuse, and recycle as well as make sure the research is all in before eating something potentially dangerous.
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| Dad Proves Body Transformation Possible After Hitting 40s
A British father of three, Ben Jackson, underwent a rigorous body and life-changing transformation. The 45 year old, proves that within a 12-week period his simple methods can not only work for him, but for many others. By eliminating foods with carbohydrates, chocolate bars, energy drinks and alcohol, and replacing them with healthy foods such as chicken, fish, eggs, and shakes, Ben was able to lose the fat. Along with his change in food choices, Ben exercised in a gym 5 times a week. As a result of his lifestyle change, he got rid of his extra pounds and noticed an increase in energy levels, along with improvement in both his physical and mental states. Ben's effort goes to show that when there's the will, there's the way.
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Classified Unmanned U.S. Air Force Space Plane Returns
Questions concerning the US Air Force’s secretive X-37B space plane's existence have been brought to the public's attention. On May7th, the unmanned X-37B landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after 2 years in orbit. Before landing, the space craft created a sonic boom, which informed local civilians about X-37B and made it difficult for the Air Force to deny the craft’s existence. However, the US Air Force officials refuse to reveal to the public about the “missions” of the space plane; even the craft’s budget is a secret. The X-37B is another one of the US Air Force’s many secrets and speculations about the craft’s purpose cannot be determined yet, given the information provided at the moment.
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Bye Bye Wheelchairs and Walkers, Hello Exo-suit
Throughout our existence, we humans have crept, crawled, stood, walked, ran, limped, hobbled, and wheeled our way from here to there, now, with the exo-suit, we can move around with the flexing of muscles. A new exoskeleton, allows people with difficulty walking, to walk again and the most important aspect of the machine is that it prevents falls from happening. The suit is able to do this by using adaptive mechanisms that activate only when it senses that the wearer is about to fall while walking. The exoskeleton works on an algorithm that picks up on subtle muscular changes from the body movement, which predicts if any elderly or paralyzed person is about to fall. Unfortunately, before something like this can be put to use, there must be more tests on elderly or paralyzed subjects to understand how elders fall. Continued research with a larger sample of participants will be able to show if this exoskeleton suit will be used for the people who need it.
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| Vomiting, Nausea, and Fever with Your Sushi
Well known by the medical community, disregarded by the sushi loving hipsters, eating sushi may lead to parasitic infections of the stomach. The parasitic infestation is known as herring worm disease, also known as anisakiasis is found in many but not all raw fish. In one case, a person ingested a parasitic worm that caused him stomach pains and after an examination it was found that white larvae were burrowing into an area of swollen and inflamed gut lining. In some cases, the parasite can cause severe reactions including erratic heartbeat and respiratory failure. When eating food, sometimes it may be best to think about how you eat it, not just following popular trends.
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Tesla's Solar Roofing Tiles Available For Houses
The genius futurist Elon Musk once again has stunned the global community by creating 'invisible' roofing tiles for homes which is currently on sale in the U.S. only. The pricing of the tiles are $21.85 per square foot, significantly higher than the average cost of below $4.00 per square foot. Unlike the tiles long-used cousin, solar panels, these glass tiles look like a traditional roof, and come in slate and terracotta styles. The roofing tiles contain photovoltaic cells and are invisible from the street. To state the positives of the tiles, Musk said, 'The goal is to have solar roofs that look better than a normal roof, generate electricity, last longer, have better insulation, and actually have a total cost that is less than the price of a normal roof plus electricity,' Musk said. With heavyweight Elon Musk behind these roofing tiles, it looks like people will be installing them not only to be hip and environmentally friendly, but also to buy a Tesla that can be recharged from the roof.
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NASA Back On Track To Space Exploration
New moon mission will be a year long endeavor which will provide vital research data for NASA's goal of reaching Mars in the 2030s. During the Humans To Mars summit held in Washington DC, NASA laid out its four stage plan. The plan includes; Stage 1: lunar trips, construction of the Deep Space Gateway staging area, and the beginning of the assembly of the Deep Space Transport. Stage 2: Complete the Deep Space Transport, and conduct yearlong Mars simulation mission. Stages 3 & 4: Begin sustained crew to Martian system and surface of Mars. The first and biggest leap will be in the creation of allow for construction of a habitat which will provide a staging area for the journey. In 2027, astronauts will spend 12 months on the space station simulating the circumstances for research in preparation of a 1,000-day mission to the Mars system and back. With this new vision of NASA's, it would seem as if the U.S. is back on track with JFK's vision once again.
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| American Oil to Help or Hinder America's People
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is a pipeline in North Dakota which transports crude oil from domestic wells to American consumers. With this pipeline, thousands of new jobs will be created not only in the states where the pipeline crosses, but also to the processing plants. TransCanada the company that owns the pipeline says that the pipeline would create 20,000 direct jobs, but also create 118,000 additional jobs that support the pipeline and its workers throughout the states the pipeline runs. However, the State Dept. disagreed with the number lowering it to 42,000 new jobs during construction, and 160 jobs to maintain the pipeline. Once the pipeline is operational on June 1st, the pluses are that it will create $1.37 billion, generate $55 million in property taxes, which will be given to the North Dakota, and lower the price of oil. Possible negative aspects are, as protestors argue, that the completing of the pipeline would destroy ancestral lands, threaten the water supply, and increase the pollution of land if oil spills, such as the one that happened in April, continue to happen. Though the positives and negatives are debateable, the fact that the U.S. needs cheaper energy is one that exists and have strong economic concerns.
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Readers Speak Out on South Korea’s New Leader
The outcome of the South Korean presidential election sparked a great deal of controversy. It turns out that most citizens elected Moon Jae-in, hoping to see the country fix both the political and social divisions that had significantly increased during the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. Many people expressed their concerns on the what seems to be permanent economic corruption and the burdensome threat from North Korea. One citizen expects Mr. Moon to bring peace with the North, clean up the major corruption of the family-owned corporations, and find ways to strengthen the society by addressing social inequalities and fighting social exclusion. Others declare that the reason they voted for Moon Jae-in is due to his belief in the Sunshine Policy, a policy that emphasized peaceful cooperation in short-term working together until the reunification of both Koreas which some claim was a major part of financing the nuclear capability of North Korea that currently threatens the South. If their new president manages to find solutions to all these obstacles, then South Korea may be able to slowly regain its status from its recent corruption scandals.
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The 15-minute Hack That Increases School Grades
As experience tells most of us, a short amount of focused time can outweigh, in productivity and results, time that is spent without purposeful reflection. Patricia Chen, a Stanford researcher, says students who spend 15 minutes focusing on 'study strategy' can out perform students who routinely attend to their studies. Ms. Chen created a survey that helps students think about how they will perform by asking them questions about performance, prefered grades and scores, resources used to study, and more. The students who answered the survey outperformed other students by 1/3 of a letter grade. The students who did the answer the questions on the survey twice performed twice as well as the students that answered the survey only one time. As seen by this research, the brain is an phenomenal learning machine that when tweaked, can reach better and higher results
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| Trump's Border Policies are Slowing Illegal Immigrants
Over the last few decades, millions of illegal immigrants have crossed the southern U.S. border, yet with President Trump's enforcement of the border, the flow is at an all time low. The amount of illegal immigrants crossing over the border is down 76% since the newly elected President took office. Families with children, which has always been a dangerous and treacherous journey has dropped more than previous years. The number of those being apprehended, according to border patrol and government statistics released on Tuesday, is the lowest in decades for the month of April that number being 11,129. At one point in a one month period during the last decade, the amount of illegals crossing over the border was approximated at 700,000. With Mr. Trump's promise of quick deportations and expansion of holding facilities, the fear of being sent back to their nations of origin is too big to risk the chance. Though America has always been a country accepting legal immigrants to our land, those who break the law to get here must decrease for the sake of the citizens currently here; nearly most of the world's 7+ billion people would like to come, that's far too much for any nation to accept.
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More Yoga for a Better School life
Yoga and meditation make students calmer not only in their minds, but their bodies as well. new yoga and meditation for kids is is very different than it is for adults because it's play-based and children see these games and activities as fun. Studies have shown that the possible benefits are stress reduction, emotional regulation, improved mental, and physical health. Together with such studies, teachers who practice yoga in the classroom believe it helps students learn better and relax, it can help kids who like to fidget as well. By practicing such yoga the idea is to improve youth' s behavior by positively influencing emotions and regulating them. If by effecting students' brains through yoga and meditation helps their physical, mental, and and emotional states, then perhaps more yoga and meditation would be helpful to the world.
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Research Shows Possible Diet Soda and Stroke/Dementia Link
Along with the multitude of other health problems that soda causes, soda's alternative, diet soda, seems to have problems of its own. New research suggests that the drink may cause stroke and dementia. Individuals who drank at least one artificially sweetened beverage a day allegedly had almost three times the risk of developing stroke or dementia than those who drank less. The stroke's cause is when blood vessels in the brain become obstructed and Alzheimer’s disease dementia sets in, diet soda may have a connection with this obstruction. Though the research's theory sounds damning for diet soda, the percentage of people who might develop these conditions are low, three percent for stroke and five percent for dementia. The obvious logical idea that comes to mind is to drink diet soda, or even soda, with moderation.
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| France Continues on Socialist Path
France has decided to stay on its socialistic trajectory with its rejection of Marine Le Pen and election of Emmanuel Macron. Macron had 66.1 percent to LePen's 34.99 percent, with 100% of the votes being counted.Even worse, Macron crushed Le Pen in Paris with 89.7 percent, his strongest area of support in the nation. During the campaign Le Pen labeled him as a socialist while Macron characterized her as an extremist. In a criticizing statement associating Macron with Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, Le Pen said, "In any case," she said, "France will be run by a woman -- me or Madame Merkel." Perhaps one contributing factor to Le Pen's massive defeat is that approximately a quarter of French people abstained in the second round of the election. With the defeat of Le Pen, many of France's nationalists fear a continuation of the socialist policies and negative effects of them on their country.
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Happy Teachers' Day
May 9th is the day set aside to appreciate those special people who teach us throughout our school years, teachers! National Teachers' Day was pronounced on this day by Congress in 1953 which officially made the Tuesday of the first full week of May the day to honor teachers. However, the dialog began a decade earlier in 1944 when an Arkansas teacher initiated talks with political leaders to assign a day nationally for teachers. Though the day is one to revere teachers by their students, as with any "special day" in this time and age, commercialism has begun to take hold as companies are increasing their marketing efforts to sell to both teachers and students by offering discounts. Yet, sometimes teachers just like the traditional displays of appreciation such as an apple on their desk, a student made bookmark, or a letter that shows how much they do appreciate their teachers. So, on this special day only for educators all around the nation, show how much you appreciate them by saying it out loud, " Thank you teachers!"
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Clean Teeth For a Lifetime
Personal dental care is second nature to most people, brushing and flossing their teeth two or even three times a day. However, scientists say that the way people brush and floss their teeth does not help with cavity prevention. Philippe Hujoel, a dentist and professor of oral health, said that the best way to prevent cavities is to avoid sugar and simple carbohydrates. Hujoel also said, the best way to floss is softly, not snapping or yanking the dental floss into position with such force that it snaps against your gums. This causes soreness and constantly flossing your teeth improperly will create a "black interproximal triangle" which is when food gets trapped and holes become permanent and irreversible. For brushing, Hujoel suggests to brush your teeth with a toothpaste containing fluoride slowly and in circles to get rid of unwanted plaque and food particles. By following the professor's suggestions, people can keep their oral hygiene squeaky clean.
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| Obamacare Repealed, Obamacare Lite Installed
For years Republicans have sworn to repeal Obamacare, the healthcare system installed by former President Barack Obama, today the House of Representatives have done part of the job, now, to fully repeal it, the Senate must follow suit. While many of the supporters of the bill, known as the American Health Care Act, were unsure of its passing, the majority of the House of Representatives, Republicans, passed it. President Donald Trump confidently said, "We are going to get this passed through the Senate. I am so confident. ... This is a great plan. I actually think it will get even better. Make no mistake, this is a repeal and a replace of Obamacare." Though every Democrat in the House opposed the bill, the Republicans were able to squeak it through with a vote count of 217 to 213; 20 Republicans voted with the Democrats. Now, the uphill battle for getting the Senate to vote for the bill is next with the gap between Republican and Democratic members much smaller, a difference of only four seats. For the sake of the nation and us the citizens, let us all hope that what they passed is what is necessary for all Americans to have the health care we all need. For the sake of the nation and us the citizens, let us all hope that what they passed is what is necessary for all Americans to have the health care we all need.
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Self Repairing Clothes
Scientists at University of Freiburg have created self repairing clothes that can 'shed their skin' when damaged. In a demonstration, a scientist scratched the material and submerged it in water, which then percolated into the cut and dissolved the polymer. The cloth consists of 3 layers that are a water-repellent film, water-soluble polymer, and silicon. Initiating the self-repairing capabilities is easy enough, just drop it in water, then the damaged layer peels off leaving the undamaged surface visible. The benefits of such clothing would mean that parents wouldn't have to buy new clothes every time their kid fell and ripped them and the next time Superman or Thor fight an evil alien, they wouldn't have to send out for a new uniform from Reed Richards.
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Pope to Appear in New Movie
The Roman Catholic Church's patriarch, Pope Francis, may be the head of the church, but will also be doing a little moonlighting in an upcoming movie. We mostly know him as being a populist, a dealmaker, hard-working, focused, and a role model to some. Therefore, it’s impressive to know that Pope Francis will be starring in the movie “Beyond the Sun.” This movie was originally his idea, since he believed it would help spread awareness about Jesus’ message to children. The profit that will be made from this movie will be donated to two charities, El Almendro and Los Hogares de Cristo, that are of significant importance to the Pope. By applying his generosity and selflessness to real world problems, Pope Francis is taking a step further in purveying the 12 chief disciple of Jesus Christ.
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| The House of Representative Vote to Repeal an Replace Obamacare
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, with the Republicans American Health Care Act, or the AHCA. Republicans, who have the majority of the votes in the House will be voting to pass the bill although many of them fought to keep aspects of Obamacare to allow people with pre-existing conditions to be covered by insurance companies. However, a breakthrough in the form of an amendment that provides $8 billion over five years helping people with pre-existing conditions in states granted a waiver from Obamacare's protections. The waivers allow states to opt out of Obamacare standards setting minimum benefits that health plans must offer. They also allow states to opt out of the community rating requirement that prevents insurers from charging different prices based on a client's health status or age. Insurance companies would be required to cover older people and individuals with pre-existing conditions, but be able to charge them more with the waivers. Though some are calling it "Obamacare lite", in order for the nation to have some working health care system, compromise may be the only way to satisfiy all concerned parties, especially us.
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Boozing" Is the Reason Behind Brad Pitt's Divorce From Angelina JolieThough much has been speculated of the two A-List actors' divorce, Brad Pitt has revealed that the true reason was due to the devastating effects of alcohol on him. The divorce was of his own decision from his inability to stop drinking. Pitt's cesesion from alcohol is contributed to his recent and ongoing therapy which he praises as being a positive effect in his life. But as with any addiction problem and its end, he stated that "he" didn't want to live that way because drinking had become a problem for him. Since his decision, he and his former wife have been working on limiting their court suits for the sake of the children. As seen by an American super-star and billions of others, alcohol can be a destructive substance that ruins lives; don't start it, then you'll never have to quit it.
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The New No-No: Trashing Electronics
So many of us just toss our electronics into the trash, but with so many millions, even billions of people doing this, the ramifications could harsh for the environment and its inhabitants. This trash, known as e-waste , can include everything from cell phones all the various smart devices, computers and their accessories, CDs, cords and plugs, gaming consoles, and perhaps the worst, batteries. Batteries, as well as the other e-waste, allow seepage of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and other toxic materials into the soil which eventually can affect our drinking water and soil for food. By recycling electronics we can help in the conservation of natural resources and the reduction of energy needed to produce new electronic equipment, plus we can save valuable resources such as aluminum, copper, gold, silver, plastics, and ferrous metals. In an effort to help in such conservation efforts, more and more large companies, such as Staples and Best Buy, are accepting the e-waste, still, we can help in the efforts by practicing one or more of the 3 R’s: refurbish, reuse, and recycle them. Whether we do the job ourselves or allow the big corporations to lend a hand, taking care of e-waste is an important action we must participate in to protect our lives and the lives of those who come after us.
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| Flying Suit Makes Iron Man A Reality
Richard Browning has just made the reality of an Iron Man armor that much closer. His engineering marvel is a suit that has miniature jet engines attached to an exoskeleton. The suit is controlled by moving the arms and the display in his helmet updates him on fuel consumption. The suit is capable of speeds of up to 200 mph, reachng thousands of feet in altitude, and maintain sustained flight for about 10 min. Browning has created a company, Gravity, and is working on an updated version called Daedalus. Looks like Stan Lee's ideas on super and augmented humans might have been more prophetic than sci fi after all.
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Blockchain's Greatness Being Realized
Blockchain, the technology that allows the crypto currency Bitcoin to exist, could have many more posible applications, one being in the energy industry. The blockchain technology can manage the producer of energy, the user of the energy, the middlemen, the amount being used, the billing, and so much more. As a result, the energy industry is interested in its usage to not only apply the mentioned reasons, but to upgrade for the future to integrate alternative energy production such as solar, wind, and others. At some point in the future, it would allow energy companies to trade business amongst themselves at a specific time of day and allow for the usage of personal consumers to trade the energy they produce from solar with companies and/or individuals. Two other areas where blockchain might be applicable are in switching power suppliers easily and without the hassle as well as being the tech that can find problems in the networks and repair them. Blockchain is new, unproven, and uncertain, but the potential for egalitarian economic parity is the upside.
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How China is Battling Against Drones
During a soccer match in China, a trespassing drone entered the stadium, the authorities’ response was to blast it with a drone-jamming gun. In the case of the city of Wuhan, where the drone trespassed, the jammers are called “guns”, because they shoot radio waves, and also because they look like an assault rifle. Each jammer costs approximately $19,000, and can jam control signals up to a kilometer away. Many other countries have built similar jammers to defend themselves from drone attacks. For example, the Battelle Drone Defender—an American jamming rifle—is used by allied forces in Iraq to shut down the ISIS terrorists’ quadcopters; which are used for surveillance and grenade attacks. Drone technology is and will be a threat. As a result, the only way to stop threats is to create weapons such as this jamming rifle.
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| Trump out of NAFTA
The Trump administration could possibly pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA for short. Basically, NAFTA eliminates tariffs and allows for the free flow of goods and services between Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Since both nations border the U.S., it would only make sense for the agreement or some form of it to continue to exist, thus leading some to speculate whether Trump's initiative could only be to make the agreement more favorable to U.S. interests. Last week, the President said on NAFTA, “It's been very, very bad for our companies and for our workers, and we’re going to make some very big changes or we are going to get rid of NAFTA once and for all," President Trump expressed his views on last year's $63 billion deficit with Mexico and a need for change in the disparity. The primary goal of NAFTA is tariffs being lifted on the majority of goods produced by the nations and that the future gradual elimination of most remaining barriers to cross-border investment and to the movement of goods and services among the three countries. If one country can produce products cheaper than another, and that country exports more of such products than the other does, then it only makes sense that there is an unfair trade disparity between the nations, thus causing such a deficits.
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First Americans Claim Sparks Controversy
According to popular historic views, the earliest date recorded for humans arriving in America is 25,000 years ago. However, unearthed bones and the conclusions they derived suggest that this estimation might be about 100,000 years . At a site in California, scientists discovered stone tools and broken remains of a mastodon, likely to be the doings of a human. Researchers used uranium-thorium dating and found the bones to date 130,000 years back. Some experts, however, don’t fully align themselves with the conclusions and believe that humans might not have been the reason behind the broken bones. This is a debatable subject since scientists would have to use some generalizations to come to a conclusion on the bone remains of the extinct relative of mammoths and elephants.
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Trump to Kill the Border Tax Plan
President Donald Trump may have decided to discontinue the idea of the border adjustment tax on imports in order to focus on the White House’s new tax plan. Some fear that the border taxes would cause financial problems for retailers by increasing prices. In an interview, Trump said that the border tax could increase job opportunities in the U.S. by producing the same product, but the opposition to his plan disagreed with this statement. Though somewhat uncertain of the Republican proposed border tax itself at times, it might be a possibility later in the future. The effort of the Republicans to repeal the act failed, but the President could use this to help him create a more competitive economy. (Source: NY Times)
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