The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
23-12-2018
Tsunami & Volcanic Blast in Sumatra Indonesia - Mt. Krakatau 55,000 ft Explosion (Video)
Tsunami & Volcanic Blast in Sumatra Indonesia - Mt. Krakatau 55,000 ft Explosion (Video)
December 22-23, 2018 – An extremely large seismic event has taken place in Sumatra Indonesia, including a large blast + region wide tsunami originating from Mount Krakatau.
This week , a 7 day warning was issued on December 17, 2018 for Sumatra and Mt. Krakatau -
Indonesia’s disaster management agency says the death toll from a tsunami believed to be triggered by a volcanic eruption has climbed to 222, with 843 others injured and 28 missing.
That was an amazing feed from you. So much information you were showing us. I really enjoyed it, well sort of because it’s bad news so it’s not enjoyable but important that you identify it first!!!! Bravo to you. Yes, you get an appreciation from me to say well done!! Everyone should be following you. Alpha Omega
CARITA BEACH, Indonesia (AP) — A tsunami believed to be triggered by a volcanic eruption killed at least 222 people in Indonesia during a busy holiday weekend, sweeping away hotels, hundreds of houses and a group of people attending a beach concert.
More than 800 were reported injured and 28 missing after the tsunami hit around the Sunda Strait on Saturday night, the Disaster Management Agency said. The toll could continue to rise because some areas had not yet been reached. USNews
High-powered brain scanner may find the human ‘soul’
High-powered brain scanner may find the human ‘soul’
By Jon Lockett, The Sun
Shutterstock
Chinese scientists are developing a $126 million state-of-the-art brain scanner to try and find the human soul.
They will use powerful magnetic forces to observe the structure and activities of every neuron in a living brain.
The aim is to build the world’s most powerful MRI device — which may one day be able to help answer one of life’s big questions.
The mystical soul, according to many religious, philosophical and mythological traditions, is the true essence of a living being.
Simply stated, it’s said to be the part of a person that is not physical and lives on long after the body experiences death.
The scanner “will revolutionize brain studies,” said a senior scientist working on the top-secret project in Shenzhen.
The total budget for the state-backed facility will even exceed that of FAST, the world’s largest telescope in Pingtan.
“It will show us a different world with phenomenon unseen before…maybe even the soul,” one scientist told the South China Morning Post.
“We may for the first time capture a full picture of human consciousness or even the essence of life itself,” said another physicist.
“Then we can define them and explain how they work in precise physical terms – just like Newton and Einstein defined and explained the universe,” he said.
The Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology revealed the first phase of the project has been given the green light.
The technology can also help study or diagnose neurodegenerative conditions including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.
Current MRI scanners can only visualize objects larger than 1 mm, but the new device is aimed to visualize objects 1,000 times smaller.
However, professor He Rongqiao, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, was skeptical about the project.
He said: “What is consciousness? There is not even a scientific definition.
“If you can’t even define it, how do you know what you see is what you are looking for?”
There are some stories that just scream “Wait, what?” This is one of them. A high school biohacker in France claims he created a DNA sequence out of passages from the Bible and the Koran, converted them into previously unknown proteins and injected himself with them. Did he break any commandments?
A biohacker injected himself with DNA sequence made from Bible and Koran verses
GETTY – CONTRIBUTOR
“Since it is possible to convert digital information into DNA, I wondered whether it would be possible to convert a religious text into DNA and to inject it in a living being. It is the first time that someone injects himself [with] macromolecules developed from a text. It is very symbolic even if it does not have much interest.”
Not much interest? Adrien Locatelli of Grenoble, France, has the Internet’s attention with his self-published paper on what has to be the most creative, if not dangerous, experiment of the year. DNA code is represented by a linear, non-overlapping sequence of the nitrogenous bases Adenine (A), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C) and Thymine (T). The four letters are used to create three-letter words strung together to represent a single amino acid in a polypeptide chain. Locatelli claims he created a new DNA sequence using letters he got from the Bible and the Koran.
How? He started at the beginning – Genesis. Locatelli claims he replaced every character in the Hebrew Book of Genesis with a word using the characters AGCT (there are 64 possible combinations). He says he left out Genesis 2:10-14, 5, and 7:1-5 because they were “controversial.” (Genesis 2:10-14 mentions the unknown rivers Pishon and Gihon; Genesis 5 is the family tree from Adam to Noah; and Genesis 7:1-5 is the story of Noah building an ark.) Locatelli then did the same thing with the Arabic letters from the 13th chapter from the Koran, the Surah Ar-Ra’d.
With this new DNA sequence, Locatelli says he used a home gene engineering kit (possibly like this one) to edit the DNA provided into the new proteins (it’s not clear if he created two or one), then inject the proteins into his legs. And the results? Did he see God? Adam? Noah?
“The subcutaneous injection of the vector VB180513-1026kbp in my left thigh only caused at the injection site a minorinflammation which persisted a few day and the subcutaneous injection of the peptide RS27 12-16 in my right thigh provoked nothing.”
Despite that, even with the religious overtones, experts and Internet commenters give Locatelli’s strange experiment a big “Kids – for God’s sake — DON’T try this at home.” Did he take a huge risk? Definitely. Did he break any commandments by taking God’s name in vein? Probably not. (Hopefully that pun doesn’t either.) Did he break any laws of nature? Well, he’s still here.
Will he win the award for the Dumbest Thing Anybody Did in 2018? He’s definitely in the running.
China and Russia are working together to create something similar to the officially-released purpose of the American High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). Five experiments launched in June with the purpose of modifying the ionosphere above the Earth for both communication and military purposes. They were able to modify a zone more than 310 mile above a small Russian town in Eastern Europe called Vasilsursk, according to Chinese media. During the modification, the small town experienced an electric spike, which carried 10 times more negatively-charged subatomic particles than other regions.
A second experiment heated that portion of the atmosphere – a portion roughly half the size of Great Britain – more than 200 degrees Fahrenheit, due to particle flux. Those particles were shot into the ionosphere from a Soviet-Era atmospheric heating station in the small town called Sura. It was also utilized during the Cold War. This was done by an array of high-power antennae designed to spike the higher levels of the atmosphere with a large amount of microwave radiation. According to the Chinese report, the peak power of these waves was 260 megawatts, which is enough juice to light a small city.
China, which does not make a habit of working on new technology and military projects with other foreign powers, declared the results of the experiment were “satisfactory.” Measurements of it were taken by an orbiting Chinese electromagnetic surveillance satellite called Zhangheng-1. It was able to switch to a “burst mode” to collect data samples every half-second. This was to ensure the data had a high resolution.
While this experiment has raised a lot of controversy, the facility from which it was launched was built in 1981 for this expressed purpose. Control of the ionosphere and for clandestine communications and detection of things ranging from submarines to natural resources, according to a Popular Mechanics article, which called the Chinese chase for a HAARP of their own a chase for weapons instead of science.
High-energy microwaves, such as those recently discharged by Russia and China in Russia allow the controller to manipulate communications. The Soviets used it to enhance submarine communication, the Americans were accused of using it for everything from manufactured earthquakes and tsunamis to weather manipulation – but these claims have been heavily disputed by official sources as “conspiracy theories.” In reality, they can penetrate ground or water as deep as 328 feet and even disrupt satellite communication.
HAARP was likely built by the Americans for the purpose of submarine and satellite communications when it was constructed in the 1990s in Alaska. It was able to produce about one gigawatt of power, which is four times more than the Sura experiment in June.
Not to be outdone, however, China is building its own – and much bigger – facility in Sanya inside the Hainan Province. Critics of this believe such a facility will be disruptive to international air travel from China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other nations flying over that city.
ORIGIN STORY The frigid and radiation-rich conditions in stellar nurseries like the Eagle Nebula, shown here in an image from the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Telescope, could have created the sugar that makes up DNA.
For the first time, scientists have made 2-deoxyribose, the sugar that makes up the backbone of DNA, under cosmic conditions in the lab by blasting ice with radiation. The result, reported December 18 in Nature Communications, suggests that there are several ways for prebiotic chemistry to take place in space, and supports the idea that the stuff of life could have been delivered to Earth from elsewhere.
“It tells us that this process happens everywhere, at least in our galaxy,” says astrochemist Michel Nuevo of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
Nuevo and his colleagues cooled ices of frozen water and methanol to about –260° Celsius inside a vacuum chamber and blasted the ice with ultraviolet light, mimicking the conditions found in interstellar clouds. Warming the irradiated ices simulated what happens when a young star is born. After analyzing the ice’s contents, the team identified 2-deoxyribose, as well as several other kinds of sugars made in similar experiments in the past (SN: 4/30/16, p. 18).
Experiments that had made ribose, the sugar of RNA, suggested that the sugars could be built up from reactions involving the simple molecule formaldehyde, which has been found in comets (SN Online: 10/23/14). But those reactions always lead to sugars with more oxygen molecules than deoxyribose has, Nuevo says. “The fact that we made deoxyribose points to another kind of mechanism.”
Nuevo and his colleagues also found simple deoxy sugars in meteorite samples, but not deoxyribose. That could suggest that, although deoxyribose can form in ices that predate stars, the sugar is not stable in the rocks that ultimately form planets.
Two ongoing asteroid missions might be able to help figure out why. Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission (SN Online: 6/27/18) and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission (SN Online: 12/10/18) will bring samples back to Earth, where scientists can search them for signs of deoxyribose and other biologically important molecules.
Donald Trump may have launched US Space Force army after learning about America’s UFO secrets, expert claims EXCLUSIVE
Donald Trump may have launched US Space Force army after learning about America’s UFO secrets, expert claims
EXCLUSIVE
By Emma Parry, Digital US Correspondent
PRESIDENT Donald Trump must know America’s UFO secrets - and it may have contributed to his plans for a military Space Force, according to a defence insider.
Nick Pope, who used to run the Ministry of Defence’s UFO project, said it would be “nonsense” to suggest the President is being kept in the dark about potential UFO threats, as some conspiracy theorists believe.
Donald Trump must know about America's UFO secrets, according to Nick Pope
Pope - often dubbed the real-life Fox Mulder for his official UFO research - says Trump must know about the Pentagon’s secret UFO research project - AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program), which was uncovered earlier this year.
He will be aware that the influential US Armed Services Committee has been investigating the money spent on the shadowy AATIP project, according to Pope.
Trump will also know that a Senate committee is currently investigating a 2004 incident in which US Navy pilots chased and filmed an unidentifiable white “tic-tac” shaped object which travelled at “balistic missile speed” off the coast of Mexico, Pope said.
Pope believes that this knowledge may have contributed towards the president's plans to create a Space Force, a new military branch dedicated to fighting wars in space.
The Space Force is due to be created by 2020, and has been championed by Trump, who tweeted in August: "Space Force all the way!"
Pope used to run the MoD's UFO programme which was axed in 2009
Pope told Sun Online: “There are conspiracy theories suggesting President Trump's plans for a Space Force reflect a need to protect Earth against hostile aliens. There were similar conspiracy theories about President Reagan's Star Wars plan.
“While there may not be an alien connection, President Trump surely knows all of America's UFO secrets - some of which were released earlier this year as part of the AATIP project - and this may have contributed to his keenness to develop a military Space Force.
“And of course he knows that the two key battlespaces in any future conflict are going to be cyberspace and outer space, so it's vitally important for the US to dominate those battlespaces.
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
US Navy pilots chased and filmed an unidentifiable white “tic-tac” shaped object in 2004
“In the 2016 Presidential campaign both Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta made some fairly strong 'pro-UFO' statements, but we don't know what President Trump knows or thinks about the issue.
“He'll know that the House Armed Services Committee is taking an interest in the Pentagon's AATIP project, which looked at the UFO phenomenon, and he'll know that the Senate Armed Services Committee is looking into the 2004 incident where US Navy pilots chased and filmed a UFO around the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.
“But we don't know - for example - whether he supports the move to hold formal Congressional hearings on this.”
Pope says that despite the conspiracy theories it was unbelievable to think that Trump would not know about any UFO secrets the US may be keeping from the public.
And he even suggested that those conspiracy theorists currently waiting for full disclosure of the US government's extra-terrestrial knowledge
“Many people in the UFO community believe in a conspiracy so vast, shadowy and deep that even the president doesn't know,” he said.
“They use phrases like 'need to know' and 'plausible deniability' to suggest POTUS is out of the loop.
“This is nonsense. If the US had proof that aliens have visited Earth, the President would have to know, because in his role as Commander-in-Chief he might have to make immediate top-level strategic decisions, if the situation suddenly became hostile.
Many conspiracy theorist believe that even the US president wouldn't know if aliens had visited earth or not
“The President needs to know all the big, important things, as part of a culture of no surprises. If anyone in the military industrial complex is keeping UFO secrets from President Trump, or suggesting he keep quiet about things, they may be in for a rude awakening.
“He's a particularly forceful and strong-willed president, and won't take kindly to being kept in the dark or told how to play the UFO issue.
“The UFO community fantasize about 'Disclosure' - maybe President Trump will just Tweet it one evening.”
AP:ASSOCIATED PRESS
Donald Trump signing his Space Policy Directive calling on the Pentagon and Department of Defence to begin plans to set up a Space Force
Pope, who ran the UK’s now defunct UFO project from 1991 to 1994 said he hopes the president takes an interest in the issue - and would be happy to use his expertise to help him.
“I hope President Trump takes a personal interest in this and I'd be happy to get involved,” he said.
“The UK government axed its UFO project in 2009, so there's no current subject matter expert, but having done this job in the Nineties I'm happy to help in any presidential briefings and Congressional hearings, to explain what some of us in the MoD concluded about the threats and opportunities that arise from the UFO phenomenon, whatever its true nature.”
The Pentagon and US Department of Defence have been tasked with creating the new force to ensure what Trump called "American dominance" of space.
Trump said he wants to counter Russian and Chinese developments in space tech.
And he said he wants US agencies to "implement a state-of-the-art framework for space traffic management".
Announcing the decision on 18 June 2018, Trump said: "We are going to have the Air Force, but we are going to have the Space Force — separate but equal."
Vice President Mike Pence later said Space Force was needed to ensure America's dominance in space amid heightened competition and threats from China and Russia.
He added that while space was once peaceful and uncontested, it was now crowded and adversarial.
I wasn't too sure where to put this video... I mean it's kinda 'Nature', kinda would be 'Preppers' but allegedly coming from the CIA, I guess it could be a 'Conspiracy Theory'
People have been 'doomin' and gloomin' since the global floods last receded.... People talk about polar flips, tidal waves and killer bees.... This allegedly comes right from the CIA's website, but I wasn't clickin no links or going to their site.... Says it's from a report that was eventually released but is heavily redacted...
What sayeth thou Disclose.tv? Just another stupid annual prediction of death? Or is the end nigh?
Google Earth: Are these the secret S4 UFO hangars of Area 51?
Google Earth: Are these the secret S4 UFO hangars of Area 51?
Pictures on Google Earth show something that could be a hangar for aircraft.
The video shows an area that Lazar called S4 or Site 4 at the time - and which he said was a hangar hidden in a mountain where the UFOs were located. The place looks like a huge construction site, and you see at least three big hangar gates.
Yes, I know Tyler has a questionable reputation, but the Google Earth discoveries are still interesting:
Scientist: “The Soul Enters The Fetus 49 Days After The Formation Of The Pineal Gland”
Scientist: “The Soul Enters The Fetus 49 Days After The Formation Of The Pineal Gland”
Dr. Rick Strassman finds fascinating coincidences between the development of the human fetus and the descriptions of the Book of Death Beta: Does the soul enter the human body through the pineal gland?
Dr. Rick Strassman suggests in his book DMT: The Spirit Molecule, a fascinating hypothesis: that the human soul is incarnated in the body in the seventh week after conception, using the pineal gland as a spiritual channel and the molecule dimethyltriptamine ( DMT) as a Catalyst.
Strassman is an American doctor specializing in psychiatry with a research fellowship in clinical psychopharmacology.
The DMT
It is a powerful psychedelic substance that occurs naturally in the pineal gland, something that has recently been shown, and that could also be linked to near-death experiences (NDE).
In fact, the research published in the journal Biomedical Chromatography documents the presence of DMT in the glands of living rats.
According to the researchers, the discovery of the pineal gland as a source of DMT “reinforces the idea of the enigmatic stellar role in unusual states of consciousness”.
Dimethyltryptamine
It has been related to the generation of images in dreams, with the states of consciousness that generate near-death experiences and all kinds of mystical experiences.
The curious thing is that the pineal gland becomes visible in the human fetus at 49 days, which is the number of days that a soul takes to reincarnate according to the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead). These coincidences have led Strassman to affirm that the soul is incarnated in the body in the seventh week of pregnancy.
Following the reports of near-death experiences in which moments of awareness outside the body are described, Strasslarizes that it is the DMT that makes these states of consciousness accessible.
In his opinion, the pineal gland could act as an antenna or lightning rod for the soul.
Although many people do not believe in the existence of the soul, others consider it to be immaterial: Plato and the Neoplatonists believe, for example, that the soul creates the body. And there are those who have managed to photograph him.Rene Descartes, located the seat of the soul, in the pineal gland, something that could now be tested. Anyway, the coincidence found by Strassmannos surprises.
Should we be worried about the creation of artificial intelligence? For me, this is a simple question with an even simpler, three letter answer: yes. Many people, including the late physicist Stephen Hawking, have raised concerns that the rise of powerful AI systems could spell the end for humanity.
In the video below, I delve into a few reason technology should concern us all. Especially when scientists entertain the idea of giving machines their own ‘reasonings skills’ and the ability to deny a direct order from humans.
The polar vortex could sweep across the east coast this winter, bringing with it harsh conditions, climate scientists have warned.
Climate researchers are sounding the alarm on a polar vortex that’s predicted to sweep through the U.S.’ east coast later this month and inflict one of the harshest winters in years, The Washington Post reported.
Judah Cohen, a researcher from Atmospheric and Environmental Research, told the outlet his climate models indicate a vortex is likely to hit in late December or early January. A polar vortex disruption occurs when the stratosphere – which is above the troposphere where weather occurs – suddenly warms, causing winds to decrease or change direction. The vortex will then be displaced and split apart, spilling cold air into the mid-latitudes.
“Confidence is growing in a significant PolarVortex disruption in the coming weeks. This could be the single most important determinant of the weather this winter across the Northern Hemisphere,” Cohen wrote on his blog and Twitter feed last week.
Last year a vortex that originated in Eurasia swept eastern North America, causing windstorms that lasted weeks.
“We were still feeling the impacts into the end of April,” Cohen said.
This Jan. 6, 2014 photo shows a satellite image of a polar vortex pushing southward over the U.S.
(nasa.gov)
Still, models are notoriously unreliable. American models and European models, for instance, yield different conclusions on when exactly a disruption will occur.
Amy Butler, a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, tweeted: “[N]ot all other models on board yet so still reason to be cautious.”
Confidence is growing in a significant #PolarVortex disruption in the coming weeks. This could be the single most important determinant of the weather this #winter across the Northern Hemisphere. Likely impacts discussed in today's blog: https://bit.ly/2DVbhhg
'Stay Back From The Ocean Or Risk CERTAIN DEATH', NWS Warns People In San Francisco
'Stay Back From The Ocean Or Risk CERTAIN DEATH', NWS Warns People In San Francisco
The NWS is not exactly known for a sensational and exaggerated choice of words. The more striking is the urgent warning that is spread through social media. Residents of Sonoma and Monterey counties are warned to stay away from the Ocean, otherwise, they would risk their "certain death".
HIGH SURF WARNING continues in effect along the coast from Sonoma County through Monterey County 9 AM Sun to 9 PM Mon. STAY WELL BACK FROM THE OCEAN OR RISK CERTAIN DEATH.
The storms forecast to pummel the Bay Area this weekend—one Friday night and a second, much larger one anticipated Sunday—will bring a particularly dangerous element to San Francisco’s coastline, as the National Weather Service [NWS] warns of huge and potentially deadly waves.
Deep biosphere beneath the seafloor explored at American Geophysical Union fall meeting Scientists present recent findings on 'dark energy' in the subsurface biosphere
Deep biosphere beneath the seafloor explored at American Geophysical Union fall meeting
Scientists present recent findings on 'dark energy' in the subsurface biosphere
Scientists have found that rocks beneath the seafloor are teeming with microbial life.
This material is available primarily for archival purposes. Telephone numbers or other contact information may be out of date; please see current contact information at media contacts.
"Who in his wildest dreams could have imagined that, beneath the crust of our Earth, there could exist a real ocean...a sea that has given shelter to species unknown?"
So wrote Jules Verne almost 150 years ago in A Journey to the Center of the Earth. Verne probably couldn't have imagined the diversity of life that researchers observe today under the ocean floor.
Scientists affiliated with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (C-DEBI) will discuss recent progress in understanding life beneath the seafloor at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) fall meeting, held in San Francisco from Dec. 3-7, 2012.
Once considered a barren plain dotted with hydrothermal vents, the seafloor and the crust beneath it are humming with microbial life--with "dark energy," says Katrina Edwards of the University of Southern California, director of C-DEBI.
Seafloor and subseafloor bacteria not only exist, they're more abundant and diverse than previously thought. The bacteria "feed" on the planet's oceanic crust, posing questions about ocean chemistry and the co-evolution of Earth and life.
"We now know that this remote region is teeming with microbes, more so than anyone guessed," says David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences, which funds C-DEBI.
While scientists have estimated that microbes living in deep ocean sediments may represent as much as one-third of Earth's total biomass, the habitable part of the ocean crust may be ten times as great.
Dark environments appeared to offer little energy for sustaining life. But the abundance of microbes in the subseafloor causes scientists to wonder how long life may have thrived there.
Researchers are working to answer such questions as:
What is the nature of subseafloor microbial communities, and what is their role in the alteration of young ocean crust?
Are these communities unique, especially in comparison with seafloor and sedimentary communities?
Where do microbes in the ocean crust come from--sediment, rock, seawater or another source?
"Dark energy" is found in ocean depths: life abounds above and below the seafloor.
Credit: WHOI
C-DEBI-related sessions at AGU include:
InterRidge Session: The Deep Subseafloor Biosphere
Understanding the subseafloor biosphere and its relationship to energy and material fluxes transported by fluid flow has the potential to answer questions about the evolution of life on Earth. This session provides an opportunity to hear results and ideas from various scientific disciplines.
OS13A. InterRidge Session on: Deep Subseafloor Biosphere I Posters Monday 12/3/12 1:40 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.; Hall A-C (Moscone South)
OS22A. InterRidge Session on: Deep Subseafloor Biosphere II Tuesday 12/4/12 10:20 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.; 3024 (Moscone West)
OS23B. InterRidge Session on: Deep Subseafloor Biosphere III Tuesday 12/4/12 1:40 p.m. - 3:40 p.m.; 3024 (Moscone West)
OS24B. InterRidge Session on: Deep Subseafloor Biosphere IV Tuesday 12/4/12 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.; 3024 (Moscone West)
The Deep Biosphere: Recent Progress in Understanding Life in the Deep Subsurface
This interdisciplinary session brings together researchers studying the size, distribution, activity and consequence of a microbial deep biosphere in the Earth's subsurface. Scientists involved in recent ocean drilling program expeditions and other deep biosphere programs will take part.
B42C. The Deep Biosphere: Recent Progress in Understanding Life in the Deep Subsurface I Thursday 12/6/12 10:20 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.; 2004 (Moscone West)
B43G. The Deep Biosphere: Recent Progress in Understanding Life in the Deep Subsurface II Posters Thursday 12/6/12 1:40 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.; Hall A-C (Moscone South)
InterRidge Session: Fast Moving Research at Slow Spreading Ridges
The range of processes that occurs at slow and ultra-slow spreading ridges has stimulated several multi-national research programs. The findings are relevant for understanding tectonic plate accretion, marine minerals, and chemosynthetic life. With an emphasis on previously overlooked ridge systems in the Northern Hemisphere (Arctic Ridges, Red Sea, Mid-Cayman Rise), and on new findings in the Southern Hemisphere, this session highlights recent results in the geophysical, geological, ocean and life sciences.
OS11E. InterRidge Session on: Fast Moving Research at Slow Spreading Ridges I Monday 12/3/12 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m; 3011 (Moscone West)
OS12A. InterRidge Session on: Fast Moving Research at Slow Spreading Ridges II Monday 12/3/12 10:20 a.m - 12:20 p.m.; 3011 (Moscone West)
OS13B. InterRidge Session on: Fast Moving Research at Slow Spreading Ridges III Posters Monday 12/3/12 1:40 p.m - 6:00 p.m.; Hall A-C (Moscone South)
OS22B. InterRidge Session on: Fast Moving Research at Slow Spreading Ridges IV Tuesday 12/4/12 10:20 a.m - 12:20 p.m.; 3022 (Moscone West)
Rocks made of basalt on and under the ocean bottom harbor abundant deep-sea bacteria.
Credit: NOAA/WHOI
The drillship JOIDES Resolution, used to take samples of life far beneath the sea-floor.
Credit: IODP/USIO, Jennifer Magnusson
A recovery tool for sea-floor equipment rises through the ship's moonpool. Credit: IODP/USIO
JOIDES Resolution crew members prep an instrument that will remain under the sea-floor.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2018, its budget is $7.8 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives more than 50,000 competitive proposals for funding and makes about 12,000 new funding awards.
THE EARTH SOUNDED LIKE A BELL FOR 20 MINUTES AND SCIENTISTS CAN NOT EXPLAIN IT
THE EARTH SOUNDED LIKE A BELL FOR 20 MINUTES AND SCIENTISTS CAN NOT EXPLAIN IT
On November 11, something really strange happened that he learned from scientists.
The scientific instruments detected unexplained earthquakes that originated about 15 miles off the coasts of a French island between Africa and Madagascar.
The strange thing is that it was not an earthquake.
In fact, scientists have no idea what happened.
Was it a meteorite impact? A submarine volcano? Did a secret nuclear test happen? Was it extraterrestrial?
Nobody seems to have an answer.
Waves collected by seismic instruments rippled far from the banks of Mayotte, the French island where everything began. Soon after, seismic sensors located in Zambia, Kenya and Ethiopia detected the same.
The fact that the seismic sensor detected seismic activity in Zambia, Kenya and Ethiopia may not seem strange at first.
However, shortly thereafter, the seismic wave continued to travel until it was finally picked up by researchers as far away as Chile, New Zealand, Canada and even Hawaii, approximately 11,000 miles away.
It becomes even stranger.
The mysterious phenomenon made our planet sound like a massive bell for a period of about twenty minutes, and while all this was going on, not a single human felt anything out of the ordinary.
It is one of the strangest things that happens, so the experts are not fully prepared.
Göran Ekström, a seismologist at the University of Colombia, explained that while our planet sounded like a bell, the waves maintained a monotonous tone of low frequency as it propagated.
Accelerated course on earthquakes
When earthquakes occur, scientists usually detect a short, sharp crack.
Due to the tensions that exist in the terrestrial cortex as it is released, scientists can pick up pulses of identifiable seismic waves that radiate outward from where earthquakes occur.
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The most mind-blowing, life-altering scientific discoveries of 2018 - PART III
The most mind-blowing, life-altering scientific discoveries of 2018 -PART III
25. This was a banner year for scientists in US politics: Americans elected at least 10 new science pros to Congress.
Foto: Congressional candidate Kim Schrier addresses the crowd at an election night party for Democrats on November 6, 2018, in Bellevue, Washington.sourceElaine Thompson/AP
Researchers hope it’ll give men and their families more male birth control options than the standard condoms and vasectomies.
The year-long trial just got underway, but no pharmaceutical companies have stepped forward yet to fund the drug.
28. A Paris-sized impact crater was discovered under Greenland’s ice. The meteorite responsible may have have weighed 5 billion tons.
Foto: An illustration of asteroids careening toward northern Greenland.sourceNatural History Museum of Denmark/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
A study published in November described thecrater, which was made by a half-mile-wide iron asteroid that slammed into Greenland between 12,000 and 3 million years ago.
A giant meteor could still slam into us today, which is why one retired astronaut is urging NASA to send a telescope up into space to spot the threats.
“For God’s sake, fund it,” retired NASA astronaut Russell “Rusty” Schweickart told Business Insider.
29. There’s a lot more fascinating science to look forward to in 2019. For one, there’s a new lander on Mars.
Foto: Scientists and engineers inside mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrate the landing of the InSight Mars probe on November 26, 2018.sourceAL Seib/AP
The NASA InSight lander spent more than six months careening through space before it landed safely on Martian soil in November.
The quake-hunting robot could reveal new secrets about why Earth became such a nice place for us to live, while Mars wound up a cold desert planet.
30. People will continue striving to push human limits on Earth, too. At the bottom of the world, two men are attempting to become to travel across Antarctica unaided — which would be a first for humanity.
Foto: sourceCourtesy of Colin O’Brady
“Everyone has reservoirs of untapped potential inside of themselves and can achieve really incredible things,” 33-year-old adventurer Colin O’Brady said in November, before starting his 70-day trek.
The most mind-blowing, life-altering scientific discoveries of 2018 - PART II
The most mind-blowing, life-altering scientific discoveries of 2018 - PART II
12. The FDA also approved a new drug that targets cancers based on DNA instead of tumor location.
Foto: sourcektsdesign/Shutterstock
The drug, called Vitrakvi (larotrectinib), was developed by pharmaceutical company Loxo Oncology and approved by the FDA in November. Vitrakvi has already been tested on patients with lung, colon, breast and thyroid cancers.
Rather than going after certain types of cancer, the drug targets cancers based on genetically similar features (biomarkers).
“This new site-agnostic oncology therapy isn’t specific to a cancer arising in a particular body organ, such as breast or colon cancer,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a release. “Its approval reflects advances in the use of biomarkers to guide drug development and the more targeted delivery of medicine.”
According to data released in October, Loxo said that 81% of patients who tried the drug saw their tumors shrink, while 17% of patients had their tumors disappear entirely.
The drug comes with a steep price tag, though: $393,000 a year.
13. Researchers have also been developing medical robots that are 1,000 times smaller than a human hair and can suffocate tumors.
Foto: sourceJason Drees/Arizona State University
This IV-injectable robot has been successfully deployed inside mice and pigs with breast, skin, ovary and lung cancers. After five years of research, the team of scientists behind the nanorobot published their work in February.
The killer robot attacks the tumor by blocking off its supply of fresh blood. Scientists haven’t tested it out in humans yet, though.
14. Cancer researchers also found new evidence that high-fat, low-sugar diets might help kill cancer cells when used in tandem with a certain type of drug.
Foto: sourceAfrica Studio/Shutterstock
Researchers are zeroing in on potential ways to make cancer drugs more effective by changing patients’ diets.
In July, a team of doctors published the results of a study in which they put mice with cancer on low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diets while administering a treatment called a PI3K inhibitor that’s designed to kill tumors. The results showed that the diet-treatment combination improved the medication’s effects.
Scientists are now moving forward with a human trial.
“We hope very much that we would see, in the future, a much more careful assessment of what diet means and how diet can affect chemotherapy,” Siddartha Mukherjee, the study’s lead co-author and an oncologist at Columbia University’s Irving Medical Center, told Business Insider.
15. Scientists figured out a way to grow meat in a lab without relying on any products from slaughtered animals.
Foto: sourceShutterstock
A handful of startups are racing to create real pieces of meat out of animal cells in a lab.
But for the most part, the food that’s used to coax those cells to proliferate is an animal product called fetal bovine serum, which comes from slaughtered cows. That means the lab-grown meat isn’t yet cruelty-free.
However, the Dutch startup Meatable claims to have solved that problem by using only stem cells from animals’ umbilical cords.
“This way, we don’t harm the animals at all, and it’s material that would otherwise get thrown away,” Krijn De Nood, Meatable’s CEO, told Business Insider in September.
The company aims to begin serving its slaughter-free burgers and sausages to restaurants in roughly four years.
16. In Egypt, archaeologists opened a 30-ton black sarcophagus and found three skeletons.
Foto: Archaeologists unearth coffin containing three mummies in Alexandria, Egypt on July 19, 2018.sourceREUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
The 2,000-year-old sarcophagus was discovered in July by a construction crew working in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
“I was the first to put my whole head inside the sarcophagus,” Waziri said. “Here I stand before you … I am fine.”
The three skeletons found in the sarcophagus were most likely soldiers, according to Egypt’s antiquities ministry, and one skull showed signs of fractures caused by a sharp instrument.
17. Egyptian excavators also found a 3,200-year-old dairy product: the world’s oldest cheese.
Foto: sourceUniversity of Catania and Cairo University
The cheese was found in the tomb of a 13th-century BCE mayor of Memphis, Egypt, excavators announced in August.
Investigators think it’s either cow- or goat-milk cheese.
Cheese-lovers on social media quickly exclaimed that they wanted to eat the ancient curd, even though it might contain deadly bacteria.
18.Chinese scientists announced in January that they’d cloned monkeys, thereby breaking the “technical barrier” for cloning humans.
Foto: Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, two cloned macaque monkeys at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.sourceThomson Reuters
The scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Neuroscience cloned the monkeys using the same technique that produced Dolly the sheep two decades ago. But it’s still very difficult to clone primates: it took 127 eggs to produce two live macaques. (Scientists named the baby monkeys Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua.)
The researchers said they do not intend to clone people any time soon. Instead, they want to use the scientific breakthrough to better study diseases and potential new drugs.
19. Researchers also figured out other advanced new ways to make babies. But a recent announcement about genetically edited babies drew questions and criticism from scientists around the world.
But a more controversial announcement came from Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who claims to have successfully edited the genes in a pair of twins born in China in November. By using a cut-and-paste DNA-editing technique called CRISPR, he said, the babies were born immune to HIV.
Jiankui hasn’t produced any evidence to back up his claims, though, and it’s not clear why anyone would need to genetically edit babies to ward off HIV, since life-saving drugs already exist for the auto-immune disease.
Scientists also worry that if Jiankui’s claims are true, the changes he made could have far-reaching consequences, since any genetic mutations the babies may have would get passed on to their offspring.
20. Scientists also learned more about our human ancestors this year. It turns out that early humans didn’t hesitate to get freaky with other species, and interbred with hominins like Denisovans and Neanderthals.
Foto: Neanderthal paintings can be seen in a cave in Pasiega.sourceThomson Reuters
A genetic study published in March revealed that as early Homo Sapiens made their way out of Africa, they had sex and interbred with Denisovans on numerous occasions.
21. A female scientist won the Nobel Prize in physics this year for only the third time ever.
Foto: sourceCole Burston/Getty Images
Donna Strickland, an associate professor of physics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in physics with a French scientist for her work on lasers.
“All this tremendous beauty and complexity of the biological world all comes about through this one simple, beautiful design algorithm,” Arnold said after she won half of the 2018 prize. “What I do is use that algorithm to build new biological things.”
The Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to 210 people. Strickland, whose Wikipedia entry had previously been rejected because she wasn’t famous enough, was surprised to learn that out of all those winners, she was only the third woman.
“Is that all, really? I thought there might have been more,” she said.“We need to celebrate women physicists, because we’re out there.”
This year, a female chemist won the Nobel Prize, too. Frances Arnold became the fifth womansince 1901 to get it. The award recognized her work in using directed evolution to produce enzymes for new chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The Nobel Prize in chemistry prize has been awarded to 181 people since 1901.
22. Scientists discovered two new kinds of giant dinosaurs.
Foto: Here’s how the Ingentia Prima dinosaur may have looked.sourceJorge A. Gonzales
A study about one new species, which was discovered in Argentina, was published in July. The creature is called Ingentia Prima, a name derived from the Latin words for “huge” and “first.” The dinosaur weighed as much as three African elephants when it roamed 210 million years ago (that’s 30 million years earlier than scientists previously thought giant dinosaurs existed).
Another dinosaur, called Ledumahadi mafube, was discovered in South Africa, according to research published in September. It’s believed to have lived roughly 200 million years ago. That means both creatures would’ve been around at the time of Pangea, when the world’s land was still one supercontinent.
23. Climate scientists learned more about how our warming planet is hurting us.
Foto: Augustin Dieudomme looks out at the flooded entrance to his apartment complex near the Cape Fear River as it continues to rise in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in Fayetteville, North Carolina on September 18, 2018.sourceAP Photo/David Goldman
The heat-trapping gas that’s been added to Earth’s atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels also means that a trillion dollars in coastal real estate could be threatened by the end of this century. That’s according to a recent report released by the Trump administration, which also found that thousands more people will die each year from heat-related conditions if we keep up business-as-usual.
24. Investigators cracked the Golden State Killer case using DNA matching. The implications of that strategy are huge.
Foto: Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who authorities said was identified by DNA evidence as the serial predator dubbed the Golden State Killer, appears at his arraignment in Sacramento, California on April 27, 2018.sourceFred Greaves/Reuters
A study released in October estimates that 60% of white Americans- who are the biggest consumers of DNA testing services- could now be identified up to a “third cousin or closer” using available DNA data.
Foto: REUTERS/Gregg Newton Spectators at Cocoa Beach watch SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center on February 6, 2018.
These and other accomplishments were an encouraging reminder that every day, scientists across the globe are learning more about how life and the universe work.
As the new year approaches, take a look back at some of the most marvelous, life-altering, and astonishing scientific discoveries and feats from 2018.
1. In February, SpaceX nailed an impressive feat: the company launched its re-usable, 27-engine Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time. It’s the company’s most powerful yet.
Foto: sourceThom Baur/Reuters
After Falcon Heavy launched on February 6, 2018, two of the rocket’s three reusable boosterslanded safely on the ground in Florida.
The core booster, however, missed its landing pad on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
“Apparently it hit the water at 300 miles an hour and took out two of the engines on the drone ship,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said. That loss was relatively minor in the context of the launch’s overall success, though.
2. The payload on that Falcon Heavy rocket was Musk’s red Tesla Roadster, complete with a dummy driver and a note on the dash: “DON’T PANIC!”
Foto: sourceYouTube / SpaceX
The car is still cruising the solar system today. In November, SpaceX announced it had sailed past Mars.
3. In March, scientists at NASA revealed new findings about how living in space can mess with your eyes and immune system.
Foto: NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, and his identical twin brother Mark Kelly.sourceGetty Images/Bill Ingalls/NASA
When NASA astronaut Scott Kelly left his identical twin brother Mark on Earth and spent a year in space, scientists seized on the opportunity to learn more about out how life away from our home planet can change a person.
Researchers found that up to 7% of Scott’s gene expression hasn’t returned to its Earthly “normal” state since he came back. Those changes may be part of the body’s response to the stress of living in space, and they could lead to lasting consequences for Kelly’s immune system and retinas.
4. Star-gazers spotted a new kind of aurora that travels farther south than most. Its name is STEVE.
Foto: STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) and the Milky Way at Childs Lake, Manitoba, Canada.sourceKrista Trinder/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The strange lights were first reported by citizen scientists in Canada in 2015. The amateurs formed a group and started working with researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The result of that collaboration – the discovery of a new kind of aurora – was published in the journal Science Advances on March 14.
STEVE (which stands for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancementcan be tough to see, though, because the display typically lasts for less than an hour.
5. After three years of studying Mars, Italian scientists determined in July that it’s possible the red planet has a 20-kilometer-wide lake of liquid water at its polar ice cap.
Foto: This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about four billion years ago, when it had an ocean of water.sourceESO/M. Kornmesser
“If these researchers are right, this is the first time we’ve found evidence of a large water body on Mars,” Cassie Stuurman, a geophysicist at the University of Texas told the Associated Press.
Other parts of Mars are too cold for water to stay liquid.
6. Astronomers found a ghost particle in Antarctica, revealing a source of some of the most high-energy radiation in the universe.
Foto: An illustration of a blazar, or spinning black hole that gobbles up matter and shoots out jets of high-energy radiation and particles.sourceDESY/Science Communication Lab
Researchers found the particle, a neutrino, in September using IceCube, an array of sensors embedded in Antarctic ice.
“When scientists tracked the particle back to its source they found a galactic monster called a blazar: a rapidly spinning black hole, millions of times the mass of the sun, that’s gobbling up gas and dust,” Business Insider’s Dave Mosher reported.
7. Humans came closer to touching the sun than ever before, after the Parker Solar Probe launched in November.
Foto: The Parker Solar Probe will come closer to the sun than any other probe before it.sourceNASA Goddard / Youtube
Solar experts hope that by traveling through scorching-hot areas of the sun, which can be 3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit, the robot will help unlock mysteries about how our star works.
8. Back on Earth, a bountiful pirate’s booty worth as much as $17 billion was discovered off the coast of Columbia.
Foto: This photo reveals a key distinguishing feature of the San José—its cannons.sourceREMUS image, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The wreck was first found in 2015, and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts sent a submarine drone down to explore it in more detail. In May 2018, they finally revealed the details of their discovery.
The sunken bounty may include gold, silver, and emeralds.
9. A 24-year-old Dutch man invented and launched a plastic-trapping pipe that he hopes will help heal our oceans. (But it’s running into some technical issues.)
Foto: sourceThe Ocean Cleanup
Boyan Slat hopes that his Ocean Cleanup device, which launched in September, will help make a dent in the growing plastic pollution problem. Plastics in the ocean are killing sea turtles and other life in the water at alarming rates.
But as the device combs through plastic stuck in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it’s letting some of that plastic waste escape back out into the ocean, Slat wrote in November.
“We are positive we are close to making it work,” he said.
10. Drugmakers scored some wins this year, too. There’s a new pill for peanut allergies, but it can come with nasty side effects.
Foto: Two new therapies use peanuts to desensitize those with the allergy, in hopes of protecting people from accidental exposure. These products could be the first peanut allergy therapies approved in the US.sourceShayanne Gal/BI Graphics
New allergy drugs like the one from Aimmune aim to re-train people’s immune systems to tolerate allergens like peanuts. Promising data from a trial, which was published in November, showed that after a year on the treatment, 67% of kids with peanut allergies were able to tolerate about two peanuts, compared to only 4% of those who got the placebo.
But the results aren’t always finger-licking good – because the drug includes peanuts, people can have severe reactions. More than 50 people in that trial had to get a shot of epinephrine after they had an allergic reaction.
11. Drugmaker Eli Lilly created a new kind of migraine drug, but it costs $575 a month.
Foto: sourceSamantha Lee/Business Insider
The treatment, which got the green light from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September, is the first drug that’s been approved to treat migraines. Previously, migraine treatment involved tools or medications originally created to serve a different purpose, like Botox and anti-seizure medicines.
Watch Russian Tu-160s drill with Venezuelan jets from INSIDE strategic bomber’s cockpit (VIDEOS)
Watch Russian Tu-160s drill with Venezuelan jets from INSIDE strategic bomber’s cockpit(VIDEOS)
After Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers performed a rare 10-hour-long practice flight with the Venezuelan Air Force over the Caribbean, the Defense Ministry has released footage showing the drill from a unique perspective.
During the flight mission, which lasted roughly ten hours, two White Swans practiced “interaction” with Venezuela’s Su-30 and F-16 fighter jets which shadowed the nuclear-capable supersonic strategic bombers for part of the exercise, in “full accordance” with international laws, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement accompanying the spectacular footage.
One video shot inside the cockpit shows Tu-160 pilots in orange flight suits and combat helmets taking off from Maiquetia Airport and conducting their drills over the cloudy skies and clear blue waters of the Caribbean.
Other footage released by the MoD features the strategic bombers take-off under the cover of darkness and returning to base hours later in rays of sunlight, accompanied by Venezuelan fighters.
The arrival of two strategic bombers, nicknamed the ‘White Swan’ in Russia and designated as ‘Blackjack’ by NATO, to Venezuela after a 10,000-kilometer flight over the Atlantic, has angered Washington as an apparent ‘projection of power’ in its backyard, even though the Russian military never mentioned anything related to the US.
Caracas in the meantime slammed the US for meddling in its “sovereign right to defense and security cooperation,”especially hypocritical amid Washington’s insinuations about a possible military intervention in Venezuela.
A new shape-shifting drone promises to offer rescue teams robotic help even in those hard-to-reach areas.
The drone in it’s T-shape configuration (more on that later). Image credits UZH.
Teams digging through collapsed or damaged buildings are often the only chance of salvation for those trapped after fires, earthquakes, or similar events. It’s obviously dangerous and laborious work. Not only are such structures very unstable, but they’re usually also very hard to navigate (on account of all the fallen rubble).
Needless to say, having drones scour collapsed buildings ahead of human teams would be the safest course of action. However, drones would often have to enter such sites through narrow points — a crack in a wall, a partially open window, through bars — something the typical size of a drone does not allow. A team of researchers from the Robotics and Perception Group at the University of Zurich and the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at the Lausanne Federal Polytechnic School (EPFL) plans to address this issue.
The little drone that folded
“Our solution is quite simple from a mechanical point of view, but it is very versatile and very autonomous, with onboard perception and control systems,” explains Davide Falanga, researcher at the University of Zurich and the paper’s first author.
The drone’s most obvious advantage over counterparts is its ability to morph in shape to tackle cramped environments. and guarantee a stable flight at all times. The team says they’ve drawn inspiration from birds that fold their wings mid-air to navigate narrow passages. In a very similar fashion, the drone can squeeze itself to pass through gaps and then go back to its previous shape while flying. The drone can also transport objects, including during this morphing process.
Both teams collaborated closely to design the drone — a quadrotor with four propellers that rotate independently, each mounted on mobile arms outfitted with servo-motors that can fold around the frame. It also sports a video camera. What really keeps the drone aloft during these foldings is a control system designed and programmed by the team. It keeps tabs on each propeller’s position in real time, adjusting their thrust as the drone weaves and bobs through the air.
The drone’s standard configuration is the traditional quadcopter X-shape (like these drones here), with the four arms stretched out and the propellers at the widest possible distance from each other. When faced with a narrow passage, the drone can morph into an H-shape, with all arms lined up along one axis. It can also take on an O-shape (with all arms folded as close as possible to the body) or a T-shape, which can be used to bring the onboard camera as close as possible to objects that the drone needs to inspect.
“The morphing drone can adopt different configurations according to what is needed in the field,” adds Stefano Mintchev, co-author and researcher at EPFL.
The researchers plan to further improve the structure of their drone so that it can fold in all three dimensions. They also want to develop software that will make the drone truly autonomous, so it can find its own way through rubble and collapsed buildings in real-life scenarios. “The final goal is to give the drone a high-level instruction such as ‘enter that building, inspect every room and come back’ and let it figure out by itself how to do it,” says Falanga.
The paper “The Foldable Drone: A Morphing Quadrotor that can Squeeze and Fly” has been published in the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
Factory Robot Went Havoc, Impales Worker With Steel Spikes
Factory Robot Went Havoc, Impales Worker With Steel Spikes
A factory in China had a robot malfunction, which caused a worker to be impaled. The work in question managed to survive being impaled by 10 metal spikes.
49-year-old Mr. Zhou was working a night shift at a porcelain factory in the Hunan province when he was struck by a falling robotic arm. The accident had him impaled with foot long, half-inch thick metal rods. At first, he was taken to a local hospital before he was transferred to the Xiangya Hospital of Central South University to be handled by specialists due to the nature and severity of his injuries. There were six steel rods fixed on a plate that pierces his right shoulder and chest. Four rods pierced other parts of his body. During the operation, doctors found that one of the rods missed an artery by just 0.1mm.
The reds were troublesome during the operation as they prevented doctors from carrying out X-Rays. This meant the surgery was essentially done blind. Surgeons worked throughout the night to remove all the rods. Mr. Zhou's condition is now stabilized and he will be undergoing treatment and physiotherapy to assist his recovery. He is already doing great however and has regained control of his right arm.
Mr. Zhou was lucky not to suffer the same fate as an American factor worker named Wanda Holbrook. The maintenance technician was killed by a rogue robot who had entered the area she was working in and then crushed her head. At the time, she was inspecting an area where components were assembled. This was when the robot entered the section she was working in, much to her surprise.
These are not the only cases of deaths due to malfunctions and robots going rogue. In 2015, another car industry worker in Germany was also killed by a robot. The 22-year-old male, who is unnamed, was part of a team that was set up the stationary robot at a Volkswagen plant when it grabbed and crushed him against a metal plate. Another case last year, was when a construction worker somehow survived after he was electrocuted, the shock throwing him from his workstation, which caused him to be impaled through the anus by a four-feet steel bar.
There was also the case of Tang Ming, 37 years old, who had accidentally touched live wires on a building site and the shock sent him flying backward onto the protruding metal rod. Rescuers wisely left the pole inside of him and rushed him to the hospital where surgeons managed to extract it. Ming had to undergo seven exhausting hours of surgery at the Sichuan University West China Hospital in Chengdu, capital of China's southwestern Sichuan Province.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 75 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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