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.
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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!!!
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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.
17-04-2022
NUKES MIGHT’VE BEEN ON DESTROYED RUSSIAN WARSHIP
NUKES MIGHT’VE BEEN ON DESTROYED RUSSIAN WARSHIP
THAT DOESN'T SOUND GOOD.
GETTY / FUTURISM
Oh, Ship
History’s most twisted round of “which of these things do not belong” is playing out on the floor of the Black Sea this week because Russia may have lost nuclear weapons when its warship sank there.
“Russian warship Moskva may have been carrying two nuclear warheads when it was sunk by a Ukrainian missile strike yesterday. Intel and news reports conflicting,” lawyer Tristan Snell said on Twitter yesterday. “This is a huge story to watch.”
Given the high number of nukes and the country’s violence it’s not out of the question to think Russia might be trying to blow something up. Their actions in Mariupol show they have little regard for innocent civilian lives, and if they capture the city Russia’s army will have more access to a central location that provides strategic and logistical benefits.
It’s hard to say for sure, but it’s possible Russia had big plans for the nukes. Now they’re sleeping with the fishes.
Enough rare earth minerals have been found off Japan to last centuries
Rare earths are important materials for green technology, as well as medicine and manufacturing
Where would we be without all of our rare-earth magnets?
Rare earth elements are a set of 17 metals that are integral to our modern lifestyle and efforts to produce ever-greener technologies. The “rare” designation is a bit of a misnomer: It’s not that they’re not plentiful, but rather that they’re found in small concentrations, and are especially difficult to successfully extract since they blend in with and resemble other minerals in the ground. China currently produces over 90% of the world’s supply of rare metals, with seven other countries mining the rest. So though they’re not precisely “rare,” they are scarce. In 2010, the U.S. Department of energy issued a report that warned of a critical shortage of five of the elements. Now, however, Japan has found a massive deposit of rare earths sufficient to supply the world’s needs for hundreds of years.
The rare earth metals can be mostly found in the second row from the bottom in the Table of Elements. According to the Rare Earth Technology Alliance, due to the “unique magnetic, luminescent, and electrochemical properties, these elements help make many technologies perform with reduced weight, reduced emissions, and energy consumption; or give them greater efficiency, performance, miniaturization, speed, durability, and thermal stability.”
In order of atomic number, the rare earths are:
Scandium or Sc (21) — This is used in TVs and energy-saving lamps.
Yttrium or Y (39) — Yttrium is important in the medical world, used in cancer drugs, rheumatoid arthritis medications, and surgical supplies. It’s also used in superconductors and lasers.
Lanthanum or La (57) — Lanthanum finds use in camera/telescope lenses, special optical glasses, and infrared absorbing glass.
Cerium or Ce (58) — Cerium is found in catalytic converters, and is used for precision glass-polishing. It’s also found in alloys, magnets, electrodes, and carbon-arc lighting.
Praseodymium or Pr (59) — This is used in magnets and high-strength metals.
Neodymium or Nd (60) — Many of the magnets around you have neodymium in them: speakers and headphones, microphones, computer storage, and magnets in your car. It’s also found in high-powered industrial and military lasers. The mineral is especially important for green tech. Each Prius motor, for example, requires 2.2 lbs of neodymium, and its battery another 22-33 lbs. Wind turbine magnets require 43.2 kilograms of neodymium per megawatt of power.
Promethium or Pm (61) — This is used in pacemakers, watches, and research.
Samarium or Sm (62) — This mineral is used in magnets in addition to intravenous cancer radiation treatments and nuclear reactor control rods.
Europium or Eu (63) — Europium is used in color displays and compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Gadolinium or Gd (64) — It’s important for nuclear reactor shielding, cancer radiation treatments, as well as x-ray and bone-density diagnostic equipment.
Terbium or Tb (65) — Terbium has similar uses to Europium, though it’s also soft and thus possesses unique shaping capabilities .
Dysprosium or Dy (66) — This is added to other rare-earth magnets to help them work at high temperatures. It’s used for computer storage, in nuclear reactors, and in energy-efficient vehicles.
Holmium or Ho (67) — Holmium is used in nuclear control rods, microwaves, and magnetic flux concentrators.
Erbium or Er (68) — This is used in fiber-optic communication networks and lasers.
Thulium or Tm (69) — Thulium is another laser rare earth.
Ytterbium or Yb (70) — This mineral is used in cancer treatments, in stainless steel, and in seismic detection devices.
Lutetium or Lu (71) — Lutetium can target certain cancers, and is used in petroleum refining and positron emission tomography.
Minimatori Torishima Island
(Chief Master Sergeant Don Sutherland, U.S. Air Force)
Japan located the rare earths about 1,850 kilometers off the shore of Minamitori Island. Engineers located the minerals in 10-meter-deep cores taken from sea floor sediment. Mapping the cores revealed and area of approximately 2,500 square kilometers containing rare earths.
Japan’s engineers estimate there’s 16 million tons of rare earths down there. That’s five times the amount of the rare earth elements ever mined since 1900. According to Business Insider, there’s “enough yttrium to meet the global demand for 780 years, dysprosium for 730 years, europium for 620 years, and terbium for 420 years.”
The bad news, of course, is that Japan has to figure out how to extract the minerals from 6-12 feet under the seabed four miles beneath the ocean surface — that’s the next step for the country’s engineers. The good news is that the location sits squarely within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone, so their rights to the lucrative discovery will be undisputed.
During a research expedition that sounds indistinguishable from the first act of a horror movie, a team of intrepid scientists have discovered dozens of ancient, never-before-seen viruses within a sample of Tibetan ice.
The Ohio State University researchers behind the work are curious about how viruses have changed in response to shifting climates, according to a university press release. Of the 33 viruses they found in the ice, 28 are brand new to science, according to research published in the journal Microbiome on Tuesday — and probing their genetic codes could help explain the secrets of how life can survive extreme conditions both elsewhere on Earth and potentially even in places like Mars.
Let’s just hope that none of them infect anybody.
Veggie Viruses
Fortunately, the new viruses appear to have made their homes in ancient plants and soil-dwelling organisms rather than humans or animals before they froze abut 15,000 years ago. And the survivors seem to have fared so well all this time because they thrive in the harsh colds, not in spite of them.
“We know very little about viruses and microbes in these extreme environments, and what is actually there,” senior study author and Ohio State earth scientist Lonnie Thompson said in the release. “The documentation and understanding of that is extremely important: How do bacteria and viruses respond to climate change? What happens when we go from an ice age to a warm period like we’re in now?”
To that end, the researchers hope that the ancient viruses will help them piece together a sort of fossil record for the area — by peering at the viruses that lived farther back in time, they hope they’ll be able to paint a better picture of what the environment was like than ever before.
There are quite a few exceptional and extraordinarily cities in the world. Some are famous for their massive size and population, others for their scenic natural beauty while some are also renowned for their incredible architecture be it modern or medieval. It’s no secret that these amazing cities attract millions of tourists every year but did you know there are some places that might be so extreme that people would choose to steer clear of them? Turns out there’s some insanely dangerous cities built on the very edge of safety. After you finish watching this video may feel that something was seriously wrong with the people who built these. But fact is that they do exist and today we will introduce you to the most incredible of these cities.
Third Shipwreck Today, This One Has Treasure! March 20, 2022, UFO Sighting News.
Third Shipwreck Today, This One Has Treasure! March 20, 2022, UFO Sighting News.
Below you see lots of boxes holding treasure. The weight of the treasure makes the boxes stay in the same place they were when the ship sunk.
Date of discovery: March 20, 2022 Location of discovery: Uluma Reef, Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea
Google Coordinates: 11° 6'23.30"S 150°57'47.66"E
I was going over Google Earth Map and had a bit of bad luck today. Found a third sunken ship. This one was laden with treasure. The wooden hull of the craft is mostly gone, but its boxes of metallic objects, coins, swords, cannons and more are strewn about. I also see an area where there are about 8-10 wooden boxes with treasure in them. By now the wood is mostly gone, but the treasure is visible when I use a special focus on my photo program. It really pops out. There is something there, maybe millions worth of gold and silver, just waiting for someone to go get it.
This might not look like a shipwreck to many people, but as you know...I have an eye for it. It takes years of practice before it's easy to do.
There is also a legend of a Japanese transport (plane or ship is unknown) in WWII that left Papua New Guinea with 375 million US in gold bars, heading to Japan with boxes of gold bricks. I wonder, if this is that aircraft? Aircraft metal would deteriorate faster since is thin aluminum and corrodes more easily. The thickness of the craft does seem similar to what we see here. Also would explain the debris field around it.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
I believe it's the metallic luminosity of gold that causes the photo to adjust this was below. The boxes are gone, but the gold bars mostly remain, some is strewn about.
Second Ancient Shipwreck Today Found On Google Earth, March 20, 2022, UFO Sighting News.
Second Ancient Shipwreck Today Found On Google Earth, March 20, 2022, UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: March 20, 2022
Location of discovery: Pana Waipona Island
Google coordinates: 11°16'8.27"S 152° 8'37.59"E
More bad news, didn't find a UFO or base, but found a second sunken ship. This one is torn into three pieces and sits about 5-10 meters below the ocean water. This one would be 50-60meters long and 8 meters wide. very cool and strange, but since it is a discovery of another unknown shipwreck I decided to post it here to share. Maybe one day some treasure hunters will find this post and say...lets go explore it. Only by understanding our past, can we understand our future.
Ancient Shipwreck Off Island Of Sabara, Google Earth Map, March 20, 2022, UFO Sighting News.
Ancient Shipwreck Off Island Of Sabara, Google Earth Map, March 20, 2022, UFO Sighting News.
Date of discovery: March 20, 2022
Location of discovery: Island of Sabara, Netherlands Google coordinates: 11° 6'14.40"S 153° 4'52.84"E
I was searching on Google Earth map when I found an old ship wreck of the edge of Sabara Island. Google ruler measures the ship to be 40 meters long and 7.5 meters wide. I can clearly see a tall mast at its back quarter area. The hull of the ship is dark in the depth of the ocean, and its difficult to decide if its metal or wooden. This doesn't resemble any fishing vessel I have ever seen. I think for this wreck to go overlooked for so long, it must be a few hundred years old. I thought this one is undocumented and may be of archeological value to a museum who wishes to explore and recover any museum worthy material it may have. I believe it to be an undocumented ship wreck. I could find nothing of it when doing a Google search.
A visit to the beach is something we often look forward to. There’s nothing quite like letting off some steam by just sitting on the coastline and enjoying the view of the sea and the waves crashing. But sometimes, an innocent wave might drop off something unexpected and take you by surprise.
RONDWORM MET MINIBREIN NEEMT BEHOORLIJK SLIMME BESLISSINGEN
RONDWORM MET MINIBREIN NEEMT BEHOORLIJK SLIMME BESLISSINGEN
Jean-Paul Keulen
Een wormpje met een behoorlijk klein stel hersenen zet zijn beet op doordachte wijze in bij het bewaken van zijn voedselvoorraad.
In eerste instantie lijkt het eetgedrag van de rondworm Pristionchus pacificus (P. pacificus) ontzettend simpel. Het enige wat dit wormpje van ongeveer een millimeter lang doet, is bijten. Komt het bacteriën tegen die het kan eten? Hap. Komt het een larve tegen van de worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans)? Hap. Komt het een volwassen exemplaar van C. elegans tegen? Hap.
Maar, zo hebben neurowetenschappers Kathleen Quach en Sreekanth Chalasani van het Salk Institute for Biological Studies vastgesteld in hun lab: in werkelijkheid lijken er flink wat afwegingen schuil te gaan achter de beten van P. pacificus. En dat terwijl het diertje het moet doen met een brein dat maar zo’n driehonderd neuronen bevat, waar onze hersenen er zo’n 86 miljard hebben.
Zes uur bijten
Wat de situatie rond P. pacificus en C. elegans complex maakt, is dat C. elegans een dubbelrol speelt. Deze worm is zowel een prooi van P. pacifus, als een concurrent. Hij voedt zich namelijk met dezelfde bacteriën als P. pacificus, maar doet dat anderhalf keer zo snel.
Daarbij komt dat vooral de larven van C. elegans geschikt zijn als prooi. Die bijt P. pacificus in één keer dood, waarna de maaltijd kan beginnen. Wil P. pacificus zich vergrijpen aan een volwassen C. elegans, dan wordt het een heel ander verhaal. Zes uur bijten voordat de prooi/concurrent het loodje legt, is geen uitzondering, zo blijkt uit de experimenten van Quach en Chalasani. Maar: een gebeten C. elegans druipt wel af na een enkele beet – en zal dan dus minder van de bacteriën opeten waar P. pacificus het ook op heeft voorzien.
Een C. elegans-worm (rechts) vlucht weg voor een bijtende P. pacificus.
Kortom, het bijtgedrag van P. pacificus kan twee doelen dienen. Ofwel het gaat om eten (van bacteriën of larven), ofwel het gaat om het wegjagen van concurrenten om de voedselvoorraad te beschermen.
Eten of verjagen
Nu zou je kunnen denken dat P. pacificus zich simpelweg in alles vastbijt dat op voedsel lijkt. Blijkt dat een kwakje bacteriën of een larve, dan heeft hij meteen wat te eten. Zet hij zijn tanden per ongeluk in een volwassen C. elegans, dan heeft hij in eerste instantie pech: zo’n grote worm krijgt hij niet zomaar dood. Maar dat pakt dan op de langere termijn toch positief uit voor de hoeveelheid bacteriën die tot zijn beschikking staat.
Het zit echter complexer dan dat. Als er weinig tot geen bacteriën in de buurt zijn, blijkt P. pacificus de volwassen C. elegans-wormen voornamelijk met rust te laten. Bij een overvloed aan bacteriën idem dito. Alleen als er een schaarse hoeveelheid bacteriën is, moeten volwassen C. elegans gaan uitkijken: dan zet P. pacificus het op een bijten. Bovendien lijkt P. pacificus in die situatie sneller te gaan bewegen en actief op zoek te gaan naar C. elegans die het op ‘zijn’ bacteriën voorzien hebben.
Zijn kleine brein ten spijt, lijkt P. pacificus dus behoorlijk slim te werk te gaan. Zijn beet kan bedoeld zijn om te eten of te verjagen, afhankelijk van de omstandigheden.
Bijtbereidheid
Quach en Chalasani zijn allesbehalve uitgekeken op hun wormpjes en hebben volop plannen voor vervolgonderzoek. Zo keken ze nu alleen naar hoeveel energie bacteriën of wormen P. pacificus opleverden, niet naar specifieke voedings- of giftige stoffen. Ook varieert de ‘bijtbereidheid’ per worm; de onderzoekers zouden graag begrijpen waarom sommige exemplaren van P. pacificus zoveel agressiever zijn dan andere.
Maar, zo schrijven ze, hun uiteindelijke doel is om uit te vinden hoe dat handjevol neuronen zulke complexe beslissingen neemt.
ALLE GERELATEERDE VIDEO'S, uitgekozen en gepost door peter2011
Advances in flow cytometry drive small bioparticle research
Advances in flow cytometry drive small bioparticle research
For researchers exploring the nature of small bioparticles, like extracellular vesicles or artificial nanoparticles, flow cytometry has largely been out of reach. No longer.
During the process of exocytosis, cells release membrane-bound vesicles (shown) into the extracellular space. Such bioparticles facilitate cell-to-cell signalling.
Credit: Meletios Verras/Shutterstock
In science, some of the most valuable discoveries hide in plain sight. Such was the case for extracellular vesicles (EVs). The small lipid-bilayer compartments are released from cells and contain nucleic acids, proteins and lipids. For decades, most researchers considered them insignificant. Many referred to them simply as platelet dust1.
In 2006, a series of published papers detailed the roles of EVs in intracellular communication. The findings spurred a wave of research. Between 2010 and 2019, the published mentions of EVs grew by 10 times from around 400 to more than 50002. Researchers now believe that EVs, which can be characterized into distinct subtypes, are vital in cell-to-cell signaling, and could serve as drug-delivery vectors and disease biomarkers.
“Extracellular vesicles are a really hot area of research right now,” says Stephanie Brunelle, a molecular biologist, and senior product manager for flow cytometry at the biotechnology company, Luminex in Seattle. “Many think they could be the next big biomarker.”
The challenge, Brunelle says, is analyzing and quantifying them.
While a number of methods exist, one of the most logical ones, flow cytometry, was until recently out of reach3. Flow cytometry is a bench-standard technique for cell sorting and quantification, and lends itself to high-throughput methods. But it was not sensitive enough to assess EVs or any other small bioparticles, whether artificial nanoparticles or small bacterial cells. Advances in imaging, assays and software are now enabling small-particle flow cytometry, and will almost certainly drive an even bigger wave of published EV research in the years ahead.
A better flow
Researchers have long used flow cytometry to count and characterize cells as microfluidics guide them over a detector. But human cells can be relatively large, up to 150 micrometres in diameter. EVs are decidedly smaller. One particularly interesting subtype of EVs, exosomes, have diameters between 30 to 100 nanometres, three orders of magnitude smaller than the average cell4.
Particles that small often emit signals too dim for standard flow cytometers to reliably detect, pushing researchers and companies to improve them. For example, flow cytometers traditionally used a photomultiplier tube as a sensor, but more modern devices incorporate more sensitive avalanche photodiodes or even CCD cameras, which can be five to 10 times as sensitive as PMTs. Luminex, for instance, makes a camera-based system.
“This technology is really great for detecting small particles,” Brunelle says.
Likewise researchers have developed improved assays and detection algorithms and their efforts have made the latest flow cytometers and techniques well suited to analysing and quantifying bioparticles.
Work is now ongoing to detect even dimmer signals. Many researchers are now interested in specific molecules inside EVs or carried on their surface, which can yield important clues about EVs’ purpose and mechanisms. But signals from those molecules can be between 10,000 and one million times dimmer than standard cells.
“This is the crux of why it's been hard to apply flow cytometry, which works so well in cells, for these small particles,” says John Nolan, a biochemist at the Scintillon Institute, a research organization in San Diego, California, and CEO of Cellarcus Biosciences. At Cellarcus, Nolan and others have developed a membrane stain that causes EVs to fluoresce brightly enough for a camera to detect5. The company also uses fluorescent-tagged antibodies, which they validate to make sure they’re selectively binding to the desired surface molecules.
While researchers could develop similar tools themselves, the availability of a simple kit can be a force multiplier for research. “It’s a hard measurement to make, and you have to do about a dozen things correctly,” Nolan says. “You don’t want it to be a physics project. You want it to be a clinical test at some point.”
The right signal
Gains in the sensitivity of flow cytometry are welcome, but they also can increase noise, whether from debris in the sample, autofluorescence in the buffer, or other factors. Researchers need to manage that risk to get reproducible results.
Perhaps the most important consideration, Brunelle says, is to run controls to calibrate the equipment, as well as to validate the EV sample. Researchers need to look at the buffer solution first by itself and then with fluorescent stain or antibodies added in order to calibrate their equipment. That way, when they make measurements on actual samples, those will be comparable to measurements made at a different time or on a different sample.
Likewise, Brunelle recommends performing incremental dilutions on a sample. By gradually reducing the concentration, researchers can determine which mixtures emit too much signal, saturating the detector, and which yield too little to be seen.
Using established standards and protocols is also important. Because small particle flow cytometry is still new, not all the standards have been set. But the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles publishes a series of guidelines laying out the controls and protocols scientists should follow to make sure they have a well validated particle population.
“Not all researchers are aware of this because EV research is still a little bit like the wild west, where people are kind of doing whatever they want,” Brunelle says. “But how can you be so sure that what you're seeing is true and real without using all the proper controls, especially something that's so technically challenging because it's so small?” Software, too, can help reduce noise by picking out weak signals. Luminex has an algorithm that can determine that a dim streak across the field of view of the camera is a signal from a single particle moving across the detector. It will then integrate that into a stronger signal.
More work remains. Nolan acknowledges that some of the smallest particles are still at the edge of reliable detection for flow cytometry. Also, researchers have found a surprising heterogeneity in EVs. It would be useful to sort small particles into different subgroups as they pass through the flow cytometer, as is done commonly with cell types. That could help researchers pair their work with further analysis, such as mass spectrometry. One possibility, Nolan says, could be to attach magnetic beads to antibodies, but those would then need to be removed somehow, and unlike cells, which can proliferate after sorting, it’s not clear how to get a large enough volume of EVs.
Almost certainly, these incremental improvements will come. “This is building on 20, 25 years of quantitative flow cytometry, and these concepts are well established for quantitative cell analysis,” Nolan says. “We are largely just adapting it down to this new, dim regime.”
To learn more about flow cytometry instruments and assays suitable for small bioparticle research, visit our website.
References
Hargett LA, Bauer NN. On the origin of microparticles: From "platelet dust" to mediators of intercellular communication. Pulm Circ. 2013;3(2):329-340. doi:10.4103/2045-8932.114760
Veziroglu Eren M., Mias George I. Characterizing Extracellular Vesicles and Their Diverse RNA Contents. Front. Genet. (11) 700 2020 https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2020.00700
Welsh, Joshua A, et al MIFlowCty-EV: A framework for standard reporting of extracellular flow cytometry experiments. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles. 9:1, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1080/20013078.2020.1713526
van Niel, G., D'Angelo, G. & Raposo, G. Shedding light on the cell biology of extracellular vesicles. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 19, 213–228 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm.2017.125
Crooks ET, et al. Engineering well-expressed, V2-immunofocusing HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein membrane trimers for use in heterologous prime-boost vaccine regimens. PLoS Pathog 17(10): e1009807. (2021) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1009807
Wetenschappers ontdekken dat brein van ex-coronapatiënten is gekrompen
Wie besmet raakte met het coronavirus, blijkt nadien meer tekenen van hersenveroudering te vertonen dan mensen die geen corona hebben gehad of die een andere luchtweginfectie doormaakten. Dat hebben onderzoekers aan de universiteit van Oxford ontdekt. Het brein van ex-coronapatiënten is een klein beetje gekrompen en toont vooral beschadigingen in hersengebieden die verbonden zijn met het reukcentrum.
De wetenschappers delen hun bevindingen in het wetenschappelijk vakblad Nature. Wie corona doormaakte blijkt gemiddeld ook iets langer te doen over een simpel puzzelspelletje als ‘verbind de punten’. “Dat zegt iets over de verwerkingssnelheid en uitvoerende functies van het brein, oftewel iemands vermogen om een complexe taak uit te voeren”, zegt professor Gwenaëlle Douaud van de faculteit neurowetenschap aan de Oxford Universiteit.
Douaud en haar team bestudeerden de hersenscans van ongeveer achthonderd Britten tussen 50 en 80 jaar oud die meedoen aan een al lopend langdurig medisch volgonderzoek. De helft had tussendoor corona gehad, de andere helft niet, waardoor de onderzoekers goed de situatie voor en na de infectie konden vergelijken.
Het gaat om zeer subtiele verschillen, die bovendien per persoon verschillen, benadrukt de wetenschapper. Gemiddeld werd tijdens de studie 0,2 tot 2 procentpunt extra verval boven op de schade die mensen sowieso met de jaren oplopen vastgesteld. Over het algemeen zijn de door het coronavirus aangetaste hersengebieden zo’n tien jaar ‘ouder’ dan ze anders waren geweest, stelt het onderzoek. Het is nog niet duidelijk of dit verlies aan hersenmassa weer bijtrekt. “Dat is nu een van de grote vragen”, aldus Douaud.
Opmerkelijk is dat de verschillen ook zichtbaar zijn bij patiënten die thuis konden uitzieken. Bij de meeste andere studies naar de langetermijneffecten van corona gaat om patiënten die zwaar ziek in het ziekenhuis lagen.
Reukverlies
De wetenschappers vermoeden dat de schade te maken heeft met het reukverlies dat tot voor kort een kenmerkend symptoom was van corona – bij de omikronvariant komen reukstoornissen minder vaak voor. Wellicht komt het virus zelf via het reukcentrum het brein binnen, maar de schade kan ook het gevolg zijn van een ontstekingsreactie. Een andere mogelijkheid is dat de schade gewoon komt doordat patiënten een tijd hun reukcentrum niet gebruikten: in het brein beginnen ongebruikte gebiedjes vaak vanzelf te krimpen.
In our oceans lie the biggest mysteries of our world. It’s one of the reasons why divers are fascinated with the bottom of the ocean. And it is due to their relentless submerging in the darkest depths of our seas that we have made some of the most bizarre discoveries. These span from shipwrecks that were deemed forever-gone, to entire submerged cities that we didn’t even know about. Stay close to explore with us the 10 most exciting discoveries made by deep-sea divers!
Our lives really DO flash before us: Scientists record the brain activity of an 87-year-old man at the moment he died, revealing a rapid 'memory retrieval' process
Our lives really DO flash before us: Scientists record the brain activity of an 87-year-old man at the moment he died, revealing a rapid 'memory retrieval' process
Researchers recorded brain activity of 87-year-old as he died from a heart attack
Brain waves indicated rapid memory retrieval process occurred at time of death
Findings suggest our life does flash before our eyes through 'memory retrieval'
What happens in the brain as we die has been a source of mystery for centuries, but a new study suggests our lives really do flash before our eyes in our final moments.
Neuroscientists inadvertently recorded a dying brain while they were using electroencephalography (EEG) to detect and treat seizures in an 87-year-old man, and he suffered a cardiac arrest.
It was the first time ever that scientists had recorded the activity of a dying human brain, according to the team.
Rhythmic brain wave patterns were observed to be similar to those occurring during memory retrieval, as well as dreaming and meditation.
This supports a theory known as 'life recall' – that we relive our entire life in the space of seconds like a flash of lightning just prior to death.
In fact, the brain may remain active and coordinated during and after the transition to death, and may even be programmed to 'orchestrate the whole ordeal', according to the researchers.
The team recorded a dying brain while they were using electroencephalography (EEG) to detect and treat seizures in an 87-year-old man and the patient suffered a heart attack. Pictured is EEG output over a 900 second period encompassing a seizure (S), suppression of left cerebral hemisphere activity (LS), suppression of bilateral cerebral hemisphere activity (BS), and cardiac arrest (CA). Point of death is CA, coinciding with changes in EEG patterns. FP1, F7, T3 and so on refer to different electrodes of the EEG which are attached or contact different regions on the scalp of the patient. Left indicates left brain hemisphere, right indicates right brain hemisphere
Scientists have recorded the brain activity of a 87-year-old male epilepsy patient while he was dying from a heart attack. Pictured are CT scans of the patient, whose identity was not disclosed. A and B show effects of subdural hematoma - a serious condition where blood collects between the skull and the surface of the brain - with a larger mass effect on the left side. C and D show the same scan sequences after decompressive craniotomy - a surgery to treat the condition
THE LIFE RECALL THEORY
Imagine reliving your entire life in the space of seconds.
Like a flash of lightning, you are outside of your body, watching memorable moments you lived through.
This process, known as 'life recall', can be similar to what it's like to have a near-death experience.
What happens inside your brain during these experiences and after death are questions that have puzzled neuroscientists for centuries.
The patient, who is unnamed, was admitted to the Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, where neurosurgeon Dr Ajmal Zemmar was working at the time.
The researchers took EEG recordings from his brain before he eventually underwent a fatal cardiac arrest.
EEG is a method of recording electrical activity of the brain that involves electrodes placed along the scalp.
'We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating,' said Dr Zemmar, now based at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.
'Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha and beta oscillations.'
Brain oscillations (more commonly known as 'brain waves') are patterns of rhythmic brain activity normally present in living human brains.
The different types of oscillations, including gamma, are involved in high-cognitive functions, such as concentrating, dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval, information processing, and conscious perception, just like those associated with memory flashbacks.
'Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences,' Zemmar said.
'These findings challenge our understanding of when exactly life ends and generate important subsequent questions, such as those related to the timing of organ donation.'
While this study is the first of its kind to measure live brain activity during the process of dying in humans, similar changes in gamma oscillations have been previously observed in rats kept in controlled environments.
This means it is possible that, during death, the brain organises and executes a biological response that could be conserved across species.
Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method of recording electrical activity of the brain that involves electrodes placed along the scalp
(file photo)
These measurements are, however, based on a single case and stem from the brain of a patient who had suffered injury, seizures and swelling.
This complicates the interpretation of the data, although Dr Zemmar said he hopes to investigate more cases in future.
'As a neurosurgeon, I deal with loss at times. It is indescribably difficult to deliver the news of death to distraught family members,' he said.
'Something we may learn from this research is: although our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us to rest, their brains may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.'
An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a recording of brain activity which was originally developed for clinical use.
During the test, small sensors are attached to the scalp to pick up the electrical signals produced when brain cells send messages to each other.
In the medical field, EEGs are typically carried out by a highly trained specialist known as a clinical neurophysiologist.
These signals are recorded by a machine and are analysed by a medical professional to determine whether they're unusual.
An EEG can be used to help diagnose and monitor a number of conditions that affect the brain.
It may help identify the cause of certain symptoms, such as seizures or memory problems.
More recently, technology companies have used the technique to create brain-computer interfaces, sometimes referred to as 'mind-reading' devices.
This has led to the creation and design of a number of futuristic sounding gadgets.
These have ranged from a machine that can decipher words from brainwaves without them being spoken to a headband design that would let computer users open apps using the power of thought.
It’s a cliché that everyone has heard when person tells of being in danger or in a near-death experiences: “I saw my life flash before my eyes.” Could this really happen? An 87-year-old man with epilepsy was connected to a brain-scanning monitor tracking seizures when he suffered a heart attack and died … with the monitor recording his brain activity until it stopped. His doctors now had an image of his thoughts before death. What, if anything flashed before his eyes? Will it happen to all of us?
“We measured 900 seconds of brain activity around the time of death and set a specific focus to investigate what happened in the 30 seconds before and after the heart stopped beating. Just before and after the heart stopped working, we saw changes in a specific band of neural oscillations, so-called gamma oscillations, but also in others such as delta, theta, alpha and beta oscillations.”
In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, research leader Dr Ajmal Zemmar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, explains the unnamed man in Estonia was on a continuous electroencephalography (EEG) machine while doctors attempted to captures his brain waves during a seizure and attempt to diagnose and treat his problem. The sudden heart attack leading to death allowed them to inadvertently record the activity of a dying human brain for the first time. Those brain waves answered the question.
“Brain oscillations (more commonly known as ‘brain waves’) are patterns of rhythmic brain activity normally present in living human brains. The different types of oscillations, including gamma, are involved in high-cognitive functions, such as concentrating, dreaming, meditation, memory retrieval, information processing, and conscious perception, just like those associated with memory flashbacks.”
The man showed the same brain waves a person has during memory flashbacks. In addition, the waves showed signs of concentration, memory retrieval and information processing – exactly the activities a rain would perform when tasked with organizing the facts, images and memories of a person’s life. Zemmar sounds confident that’s when the EEG recorded.
“Through generating oscillations involved in memory retrieval, the brain may be playing a last recall of important life events just before we die, similar to the ones reported in near-death experiences.”
This new information affects both the science and ethics of death. This brain activity impacts determining the moment of death for organ donations. It also impacts how family, hospice providers and others present at the deathbed react to what they are seeing – while the loved one may be still, their mind may be racing though many decades of memories, which would dictate a bedside manner that allows it to finish and perhaps even aids in the activity.
Will this happen to all of us eventually?
Before drawing any conclusions, the press release reminds us that this is a single case and the patient had an epileptic brain that was injured. Nonetheless, this type of activity has been observed in a controlled rodent study. Taken together, it “suggests that the brain may pass through a series of stereotyped activity patterns during death.” In other words … we may all see our lives pass before our eyes at the time of death.
What is humanity? Do our minds set us apart from the rest of nature and from the rest of Earth? Or does Earth have a collective mind of its own, and we’re simply part of that mind? On the literal face of it, that last question might sound ridiculous.
But a new thought experiment explores it more deeply, and while there’s no firm conclusion about humanity and a planetary mind, just thinking about it invites minds to reconsider their relationship with nature.
Overcoming our challenges requires a better understanding of ourselves and nature, and the same is true for any other civilizations that make it past the Great Filter.
Humanity is pretty proud of itself sometimes. We’ve built a more-or-less global civilization, we’ve wiped out deadly diseases, and we’ve travelled to the Moon. We’re so smart we’re taking steps to protect Earth from the type of calamitous impact that wiped out Earth’s previous tenants, the dinosaurs. But that’s just one perspective.
Another perspective says that we’re still primitive. That billions of us are in the grip of ancient superstitions. That nuclear war haunts us like a spectre. That tribalism still drives us to do horrible animalistic things to one another. That we’re not wise enough to manage our own technological advancement.
Both perspectives are equally valid. All that can really be said is that we’re not as primitive as we used to be, but we’re nowhere near as mature as we need to be if we hope to persist beyond the Great Filter.
The Juno spacecraft took this image of Earth during a gravity assist flyby of our planet in 2013. The fact that we can make a spacecraft take a picture of our home planet is a sign of intelligence. But how intelligent are we really? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill.
Can we come up with a way to explain what stage we’re at in our development? The authors of a new article think they can. And they think we can only do that if we take into account Earth’s planetary history, the collective mind, and the state of our technology.
This trio of scientists wrote the new article in the International Journal of Astrobiology. It’s titled “Intelligence as a planetary scale process.” The authors are Adam Frank from the University of Rochester, David Grinspoon from the Planetary Science Institute, and Sara Walker from Arizona State University. The article is a thought experiment based on our scientific understanding of Earth alongside questions about how life has altered and continues to alter the planet.
Humans tend to think of intelligence as a property belonging to individuals. But it’s also a property belonging to collectives. Social insects use their collective intelligence to make decisions. The authors take the idea of intelligence even further: from individual intelligence to collective intelligence, to planetary intelligence. “Here, we broaden the idea of intelligence as a collective property and extend it to the planetary scale,” the authors write. “We consider the ways in which the appearance of technological intelligence may represent a kind of planetary-scale transition, and thus might be seen not as something which happens on a planet but to a planet, much as some models propose the origin of life itself was a planetary phenomenon.”
We’ve divided Earth’s life forms into species. We recognize that evolution drove the development of all these species. But are we missing something in our urge to classify? Is it more correct to view life as planetary rather than as individual species? After all, species didn’t suddenly appear; each one appeared in an ongoing chain of evolution. (Except for the original species, whose origins remain clouded in mystery.) And all species are linked together in the biosphere. It’s often pointed out that Earth is a bacterial world and the rest of us are only here because of bacteria.
It’s worthwhile to recall the work of Vladimir Vernadsky. Vernadsky was an important founder of biogeochemistry. Wikipedia defines biogeochemistry as “… the scientific discipline that involves the study of the chemical, physical, geological, and biological processes and reactions that govern the composition of the natural environment (including the biosphere, the cryosphere, the hydrosphere, the pedosphere, the atmosphere, and the lithosphere).
Vernadsky saw that the biosphere system is strongly linked to the Earth’s non-living systems. It’s difficult to understand the biosphere without looking at how it’s linked with other systems like the atmosphere. The linkage allows the biosphere to shape Earth’s other “spheres.”
Vernadsky wrote: “Activated by radiation, the matter of the biosphere collects and redistributes solar energy and converts it ultimately into free energy capable of doing work on Earth. A new character is imparted to the planet by this powerful cosmic force. The radiations that pour upon the Earth cause the biosphere to take on properties unknown to lifeless planetary surfaces, and thus transform the face of the Earth.”
In their article, the authors point out how organisms changed Earth’s biosphere. When the ability to photosynthesize appeared in lifeforms, individual lifeforms used it to great benefit. But collectively, they oxygenated Earth’s atmosphere in the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE.) The photosynthesizers opened a pathway for their own continuation and for more complex life to develop. It not only changed the course of evolution, but it also changed the very geology and geochemistry of the planet. The authors liken the collective activity of photosynthetic organisms to collective intelligence.
This figure from the article illustrates multi-level networks as a property of planetary-scale operation of intelligence. Each layer of the coupled planetary systems constitutes its own network of chemical and physical interactions. Specific nodes in each layer represent links connecting the layers. Thus, the geosphere contains chemical/physical networks associated with processes such as atmospheric circulation, evaporation, condensation and weathering. These are modified by the biosphere via additional networks of processes such as microbial chemical processing and leaf transpiration. The technosphere adds an additional layer of networked processes such as industrial-scale agriculture, manufacturing byproducts and energy generation. Image Credit: Frank et al. 2022.
“Making sense of how a planet’s intelligence might be defined and understood helps shine a little light on humanity’s future on this planet—or lack thereof,” they write. “If we ever hope to survive as a species, we must use our intelligence for the greater good of the planet,” said Adam Frank.
That won’t come as a shock to Universe Today readers.
The authors point out how collective activity changes the planet. They base their experiment partly on the Gaia hypothesis, which says that the Earth’s non-biological systems—geochemistry, plate tectonics, the atmosphere, the oceans—interact with living systems to maintain the entire planet in a habitable state. Without the “collective intelligence” of the biological world, the Earth wouldn’t be habitable.
The authors use an example from forests to illustrate the point.
Earth’s great forests couldn’t exist without the network of mycorrhizal fungi that live below ground. Tree roots interact with the network and the network moves nutrients around in the forest. The fungi get carbon in return. Without this network, the trees couldn’t survive, and no great forests would emerge.
Mycorrhizal fungi are in a symbiotic relationship with plants. The relationship is usually mutualistic, the fungus providing the plant with water and minerals from the soil and the plants providing the fungus with photosynthesis products. Parasitic organisms are also part of the network. Image Credit: By Charlotte Roy, Salsero35, Nefronus – Adapted from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:R%C3%A9seau_mycorhizien.svg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92921450
As schoolchildren, we learn that plants produce the oxygen we need to breathe. Without photosynthetic organisms, we couldn’t survive. So the collective activity of the plant world (and algae, etc.) changes the planet to a place hospitable for humanity and other complex life. But now in our short time on Earth, we’ve developed technology, which is the most powerful expression of our collective planetary intelligence. What does that mean for Earth?
The authors talk about four stages of Earth’s development and how we can understand the idea of collective planetary intelligence as those stages evolve.
“Planets evolve through immature and mature stages, and planetary intelligence is indicative of when you get to a mature planet.”
Adam Frank, co-author, “Intelligence as a planetary scale process.”
The first stage is an immature biosphere. Billions of years ago the Earth was an immature biosphere. The only lifeform was bacteria, which couldn’t exert much force on Earth’s planetary systems. Because of this, there was no important global feedback between life and the planet. There was no collective intelligence.
The second stage was a mature biosphere. This was about 2.5 billion to 540 million years ago. Photosynthesis appeared and then plants. Photosynthesis oxygenated Earth’s atmosphere and an ozone layer developed. Life was making the Earth more stable and hospitable for itself. This is the collective planetary intelligence the authors are talking about.
Earth’s immature biosphere and mature biosphere stages. The mature biosphere stage was only possible once photosynthetic organisms created feedback with Earth’s non-biological processes, oxygenating the atmosphere and creating an ozone layer. Image Credit: University of Rochester illustration / Michael Osadciw
The third stage is where we’re at now, according to the authors. We live in an immature technosphere of our own creation. Our communication, transportation, electrical, and governmental networks are increasingly linked into a technosphere. A quick scan of headlines in consumer tech media shows how we can get a little excited about what we’ve created as a species (Meta, anyone?) But it’s wise not to get too excited. Why?
Because our technosphere is not linked with natural systems. Our immature technosphere largely ignores its impact on the Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and the biosphere in general. We extract fossil fuels and push carbon into the atmosphere in an unregulated way. The danger is that this technological immaturity will force the Earth’s systems into a state that imperils the technosphere itself. The immature technosphere is working against itself and the biosphere that supports it.
The fourth stage represents a workable future. It’s the mature technosphere, and in a mature technosphere, our technological intelligence benefits the Earth. For example, renewable energy sources like solar energy will displace fossil fuels and help the climate regulate itself and maintain its habitability. Technological agriculture will strengthen the Earth’s soil systems rather than degrade them. We’ll use our technology to build cities that co-exist with natural systems rather than dominating them. But there are a lot of unknowns.
Earth’s immature technosphere and mature technosphere stages. The mature technosphere stage will be possible when we use our technology to maintain Earth’s life-supporting systems rather than to degrade them. Image Credit: University of Rochester illustration / Michael Osadciw
“Planets evolve through immature and mature stages, and planetary intelligence is indicative of when you get to a mature planet,” Frank says in a press release. “The million-dollar question is figuring out what planetary intelligence looks like and means for us in practice because we don’t know how to move to a mature technosphere yet.”
In a mature technosphere, systems would interact in mutually beneficial ways, like the trees and the mycorrhizal network in forests. A network of feedback loops both technological and natural would work intelligently to maintain habitability. This would be an entirely new arrangement, and the complexity would allow new capabilities to emerge. The emerging capabilities are one hallmark of a mature technosphere. Another is self-maintenance.
This figure from the article is a schematic representation of the evolution of coupled planetary systems in terms of degrees of planetary intelligence. The authors propose five possible properties required for a world to show cognitive activity operating across planetary scales (i.e. planetary intelligence). These are: (1) emergence, (2) dynamics of networks, (3) networks of semantic information, (4) appearance of complex adaptive systems, (5) autopoiesis. Different degrees of these properties appear as a world evolves from abiotic (geosphere) to biotic (biosphere) to technologic (technosphere). Image Credit: Frank et al. 2022.
“The biosphere figured out how to host life by itself billions of years ago by creating systems for moving around nitrogen and transporting carbon,” Frank says. “Now we have to figure out how to have the same kind of self-maintaining characteristics with the technosphere.”
There are some signs that we’re groping towards a mature technosphere, but they’re mostly crisis-driven. In 1987, we banned the ozone-harming class of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) after scientists found a hole in the ozone layer. Acid rain is caused by sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide and we’ve developed international agreements to limit them after scientists found that acid rain damages soil, trees, fish and other aquatic animals. DDT was used to kill pests and malarial mosquitoes but many countries banned their use when scientists found that it persisted in the environment and led to population declines in birds of prey, among other biosphere-harming effects.
This figure from the article shows timescales for interventions at different proposed levels of planetary intelligence. For so-called ‘mature biospheres’, feedbacks or interventions occur across a range of timescales from decades (DMS ((dimethyl sulphide) ocean temperature regulation) to millions of years for CH4 climate regulation. For ‘immature technospheres’ where the feedbacks or interventions are inadvertent, timescales occur on decades to century timescales. For ‘mature technospheres’ interventions are intentional and designed to maintain the sustainability of both the biosphere and the technosphere as a coupled system. Ozone replenishment and climate mitigation would occur on decades to century timescales while intentional changes in stellar evolution (if possible) would define the longest timescales at tens to hundreds of millions of years. Image Credit: Frank et al. 2022.
So there’s been some progress towards planetary intelligence. But those successes are mostly corrections to previous bad behaviour. Can we be more proactive?
We might be starting to. We’re developing systems to detect, catalogue, and deflect dangerous asteroids that pose a collision hazard with Earth. If we can do that, we can protect the entire biosphere from calamity, along with our own civilization. NASA and the ESA are working on planetary defence, and NASA launched a technology demonstration mission in 2021. If we can use technology to protect the entire planet, that must constitute a step toward a mature technosphere.
Some of these efforts are heartening, but we have a long ways to go, and this thought experiment can help us think more clearly about it. “We don’t have planetary intelligence or a mature technosphere yet,” Frank said. “But the whole purpose of this research is to point out where we should be headed.”
Are the development of planetary intelligence and a mature technosphere hallmarks of civilizations that make it past a “Great Filter?” Maybe. That idea dovetails with Frank’s other work in the search for alien technosignatures on distant exoplanets.
“We’re saying the only technological civilizations we may ever see—the ones we should expect to see—are the ones that didn’t kill themselves, meaning they must have reached the stage of a true planetary intelligence,” he says. “That’s the power of this line of inquiry: it unites what we need to know to survive the climate crisis with what might happen on any planet where life and intelligence evolve.”
For we lifeforms on Earth at this time, Anthropogenic Global Warming is the biggest threat to a sustainable biosphere. While we can debate what it is about our species that drives us to want more stuff, consume more stuff and create more pollution, the debate about AGW itself is over. It’s happening and we’re causing it.
There are some glimmers of planetary intelligence flickering on the horizon. But we’ve got a long way to go yet. Will we become intelligent enough to make it past the climatic Great Filter?
A new process for turning atmospheric carbon dioxide desorbed from an absorbent into dry ice reduces the energy input needed for carbon capture.
A new technology for capturing carbon dioxide from air, Cryo-DAC can use existing infrastructure at ports for ships that transport liquefied natural gas and infrastructure used to prepare city gas.
Carbon capture is playing an increasingly prominent role in plans to combat climate change. A new process for direct air capture, which involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, promises to greatly enhance the efficiency of the technology.
“Direct air capture has great potential for removing CO2 from the atmosphere on massive scales,” says Soichiro Masuda at the R&D/Digital Division of the Japanese energy-provider Toho Gas. “And it has evolved rapidly in the past several years.”
Direct air capture complements other technologies that capture carbon from industrial emissions, but the lower levels of CO2 in atmospheric air make it considerably more challenging. “Efficiency has continued to be a challenge for direct air capture, as the steps that isolate CO2 from atmospheric air require the input of energy,” says Masuda. “Burning fossil fuel to provide the energy input ends up creating more carbon emission for the sake of capturing carbon.”
“Direct air capture technology is a key part of our corporate strategy to reach carbon neutrality by 2050,” says Masuda. Now, Toho Gas and Nagoya University, have started research and development into realizing carbon neutrality and have devised a way to largely overcome the problem of capturing carbon with an improved direct air capture technology called Cryo-DAC.
Diagram depicting the carbon cycle (left) of Cryo-DAC (right), the direct air capture technology developed by researchers at Toho Gas and Nagoya University.
A key advantage of recycling carbon by Cryo-DAC is that it can use existing infrastructure such as ports for ships that transport liquefied natural gas, along with the associated infrastructure used to prepare city gas for industrial and household use. Natural gas is imported in liquefied form at about −162 degrees Celsius. Japan is one of the world’s major importers of liquefied natural gas, accounting for nearly 20% of global imports.
“Ever since Japan first imported natural gas in 1969, we’ve been exploring ways to exploit the cold energy of liquid natural gas,” explains Masuda. “We think we’ve finally found a solution.” Liquefied natural gas is vaporized by exchanging heat with seawater; the cold energy generated in this exchange is used for industrial purposes such as liquefying industrial gases. Large amounts of the cold energy, however, was wasted.
Cryo-DAC uses cold energy, thereby minimizing the thermal energy needed for the process. Of the various types of direct air capture being developed worldwide, Cryo-DAC employs a method that captures and isolates CO2 with chemical absorbents. “The scalability of the chemical absorption method is well suited for collecting massive amounts of CO2,” says Masuda. “This involves collecting atmospheric air, absorbing CO2 in a solvent, and then isolating the CO2 from the solvent. This last step, however, requires large amounts of heat, creating carbon emission.”
Using dry ice to create a vacuum
The research team designed a new process that has a chamber in which CO2is sublimated into dry ice by using the cold energy of liquid natural gas. The new chamber is connected to another in which CO2 is absorbed in solvent; the phase change from CO2 to dry ice lowers the pressure inside, which causes the solvent and CO2 to evaporate. “As a result, CO2 can be recovered from the solvent at near room temperature, minimizing the thermal energy needed,” explains Yoshito Umeda, a professor at Nagoya University.
Schematic diagram of the cryopump used in Cryo-DAC.
The output of Cryo-DAC is high-pressure CO2 gas. Toho Gas plans to use the captured CO2 as a raw material for city gases that the company provides to its customers. “High-pressure CO2 is needed to produce methane, the main component of city gas, that can be obtained by reacting CO2 and hydrogen. While CO2 for methanation is typically prepared with compressors, Cryo-DAC has the potential to separate CO2 from air and generate high-pressure CO2 at low cost. Although city gas leaves a carbon footprint when burned, direct air capture with Cryo-DAC could offset these emissions,” says Masuda. “The International Energy Agency predicts that the demand for natural gas will continue to increase until 2050, unlike other major fossil fuels like oil or coal. We thus see Cryo-DAC as a key part of future gas infrastructure with net-zero carbon emission.”
The research is now a part of Japan’s Moonshot Research and Development Program, the Cabinet Office’s initiative to fund high-risk, high-impact research projects. The team includes collaborators at Tokyo University of Science, Chukyo University and the University of Tokyo, who are enhancing the materials and processes used in Cryo-DAC. The group is currently developing a solvent with higher absorption capabilities, as well as trying to achieve a continuous flow from CO2 sublimation to the output of high-pressure CO2. The aim is to establish the core technology by 2022 so that the system can operate continuously with a capacity of 1 tonne of CO2 per year in 2024. The group also aspires to design equipment for commercial use, and create detailed plans for implementing the system in a real-world setting by 2029.
“By using existing infrastructure for gas-consuming appliances and pipelines, we expect to transition smoothly to carbon neutrality without imposing a significant burden on our customers or the wider society,” says Masuda.
Darwin’s Natural Selection Theory May Not Be True, Gene Study Says
Darwin’s Natural Selection Theory May Not Be True, Gene Study Says
Researchers from Ghana and the University of Haifa, Israel, have published a breakthrough study that questions randomness in Darwin’s natural selection theory, in the Genome Research journal which may revolutionize human evolutionary history. According to the researchers, mutations have been misattributed to randomness, and this has been the backbone of the theory of evolution, until now. Instead, the researchers have been able to provide evidence of non-random mutations by showing “a long-term direct mutational response to environmental pressure.”
For over 160 years, the scientific community has followed Darwin’s natural selection theory, which basically says nature selects for new mutations in a totally random way. But a new study shows that it may not be randomness at all but environmental pressures that cause mutations.
Non-Randomness Versus Accidental Natural Selection Theory
This is in direct contradiction to Darwin’s longstanding theory of natural selection, which argues that all genetic mutations are random and accidental, and attributes beneficial traits being passed on through generations of breeding. For long, this has been a key tenet of neo-Darwinism, but we can now safely postulate that one helpful genetic mutation was not random at all – the human haemoglobin S (Hbs) mutation that protects against malaria.
Lead researcher Professor Adi Livnat, from the University of Haifa, Israel said:
“For over a century, the leading theory of evolution has been based on random mutations. The results show that the HbS mutation is not generated at random but instead originates preferentially in the gene and in the population where it is of adaptive significance. We hypothesize that evolution is influenced by two sources of information: external information that is natural selection, and internal information that is accumulated in the genome through the generations and impacts the origination of mutations.”
Professor Livnat is referring to the unique approach adopted by his team, wherein, the HbS mutation was isolated to distinguish between random mutations, and natural selection. In the mix, non-random mutations were added to detect “de novo” mutations, which literally mean “out of the blue” mutations that are present in an offspring but not inherited from either parent, reported The Daily Mail .
Interestingly, the HbS mutation was found to occur more frequently in populations where malaria is endemic, i.e., Africa, suggesting that certain mutations arise more frequently where they are of adaptive significance. The scientists behind the latest study hypothesize that evolution is influenced both by external information (natural selection), and internal information (generational genetic pools).
For over 160 years, based on Darwin’s natural selection theory, we have been taught that evolution through mutation is random and accidental, but the latest study shows that this isn’t true for malaria.
Lamarckism, Environmental Pressures and De Novo Mutations
This new thinking about natural selection has actually been around for a long time but the recent study proves it for the human hemoglobin malaria mutation.
Many scientists have written that complex and impressive adaptations in the eyes, brain, or hands, cannot be just attributed to randomness. Neither can the entire natural selection process be explained by Lamarckism, which posits that all beneficial adaptations come from direct environmental pressure. When the out-of-the-blue mutation hypothesis is applied to HbS, it is seen to provide protection against malaria for people with one copy, but causes sickle cell anemia in those with two copies, reported Salon.
"This shows empirically for the first time a directional response of mutation to a specific long-term environmental pressure . This sort of result cannot be explained by Neo-Darwinism, which is limited to explaining minor, gross-level effects on average mutation rates, not responses of specific mutations to specific environmental pressures. Therefore, the implications are that here there is an empirical finding that Neo-Darwinism really cannot explain, which challenges the notion of random mutation on a fundamental level,” added Dr Livnat.
Dr Livnat, and his lab manager, Dr Daniel Melamed, applied the de novo emergence of the HbS mutation to its origins, showing that the malaria-protective mutation actually originates de novo more frequently in sub-Saharan Africans , a population subgroup that has been exposed to centuries of malarial selection pressure, compared to that of the Europeans. Clearly, a random mutation would have equally random chances of appearing in both populations, as per Darwinian postulation, but that is not what actually happened.
“Mutations defy traditional thinking. The results suggest that complex information that is accumulated in the genome through the generations impacts mutation, and therefore mutation-specific origination rates can respond in the long-term to specific environmental pressures. Mutations may be generated nonrandomly in evolution after all, but not in the way previously conceived. We must study the internal information and how it affects mutation, as it opens the door to evolution being a far bigger process than previously conceived,” Livnat concluded.
Previous studies using Lamarckism as a theoretical base looked for immediate mutational adaptations to environmental stressors. Other studies, which found Lamarckism too limited in its scope, used only Darwinian natural selection and looked for random internal genetic mutations.
The current study gives scientists motive to reconsider current practices “of measuring mutation rates as averages across a multitude of positions on the genome.” This also opens up the field to study mutations other than HbS to see if the story of human evolution is actually random or smart by design!
Top image:This arc of five hominin skulls has been used for over 100 years to prove that natural selection theory is totally random and accidental, but a new study shows this to be false for a malaria mutation. Source: Smithsonian
It looks like I'm on somebody's list in the government. I'm on Wikileaks...a site that discloses secret documents and data of the US government so that the public can learn about it. It's about a UFO article on Before Its News site a few years back, and the email is addressed to a US gov spy (think tank) news site that pretends to gather world news info for the public, but really gathers it for the US government intel. I know this because this news site https://www.stratfor.com is in a lot of documents in Wikileaks...including to Hillary Clinton and many US presidents. So...big brother is watching. Lets hope those poor saps are learning from all this UFO and alien intel they are gathering, so it will make the change from within the government. Scott C. Waring
The global climate is warming, and Earth’s polar regions are feeling the effects. A new study of the South Orkney Islands shows that the region has warmed significantly since the 1950s. The rise in warming in the South Orkneys exceeds the overall global warming.
As the islands warm, plant life is spreading.
The South Orkney Islands lie about 600 km (375 miles) northeast of the Antarctica Peninsula’s tip. Britain and Argentina both lay claim to the group of islands. Both nations maintain research stations in the South Orkneys: Argentina has one on Laurie Island and Britain has one on Signy Island.
A study based on Signy Island data going back to the 1950s shows that the climate is warming and that the spread of vascular plants in the warming conditions is turning more of the island green, especially since 2009. The study is “Acceleration of climate warming and plant dynamics in Antarctica,” published in the journal Current Biology. The lead author is Nicoletta Cannone from the Università degli Studi dell’Insubria, Dip. Scienza e Alta Tecnologia, Italy.
While the South Orkneys are separated from Antarctica by about 600 km, they’re still in a polar climate. About 90% of the islands were glaciated as of 2009, and the summers are very short and very cold. Ice-covered seas surround the South Orkneys seas from late April to November.
But the new study shows that things are changing in these remote islands. According to the paper, the two species of vascular plants on Signy Island responded to the climate change acceleration with a “striking advance,” according to the report.
“This is the first evidence in Antarctica for accelerated ecosystem responses to climate warming, confirming similar observations in the Northern Hemisphere.”
From “Acceleration of climate warming and plant dynamics in Antarctica” by Cannone et al. 2022
The warming hasn’t been a continuous trend. There was one period of pronounced cooling in the years since the study began. The study points out that “… a short but intense cooling occurred from the Antarctic Peninsula to the South Orkney Islands…” between 1999 and 2016.
But air temperature warming resumed in 2012 on Signy Island, accelerating the expansion of the two vascular plant species. “We also hypothesize that the “pulse” climatic event of the strong air cooling detected in 2012 did not appear to influence the vegetation community dynamics on this island,” the authors write. “The lack of negative impacts of the strong pulse cooling event in 2012 on both species could be explained by their ability to perform photosynthesis at low ambient temperatures.”
This figure from the study shows the Summer Air Temperature at Signy Island. Blue dots are SAT between 1960 and 2011, and orange dots are SAT between 2012 and 2018. Image Credit: Cannone et al. 2022.
Other research shows that the same type of accelerated ecosystem responses from climate warming occurs in the Arctic. A 2018 research article reported that plants are increasing their northern range in the Arctic and getting taller. A 2020 paper showed that the warming climate creates terrestrial algae blooms in Antarctica. But the authors of this paper say theirs is the first research to document the advance of vascular plants in the Antarctic. They also say that ongoing climate change will significantly affect the region.
“This is the first evidence in Antarctica for accelerated ecosystem responses to climate warming, confirming similar observations in the Northern Hemisphere,” they explain in their paper. “Our findings support the hypothesis that future warming will trigger significant changes in these fragile Antarctic ecosystems.”
There are two species of vascular plants native to Signy Island. One is D. antarctica, a flowering plant known as Antarctic Hair Grass. The other is C. quitensis, another flowering plant that’s also called Antarctic Pearlwort.
This figure from the study shows how climate warming resumed at Signy Island after the 2012 cooling and accelerated the expansion of D. antarctica and C. quitensis. D1 through D5 represent plant sites of increasing density. D1 is the least dense site, and D5 is the densest site. Image Credit: Cannone et al. 2022.
“In the almost six decades up to 2018, D. antarctica exhibited a very large increase in the number of sites of occurrence, which doubled between 1960 and 2009 and then again between 2009 and 2018,” the authors write. C. quitensis expanded even more. “Colobanthus quitensis also showed a large expansion, even more so than D. antarctica in the last decade, involving both the number of sites of occurrence and their extent…” the paper says.
The number of sites with D. antarctica doubled between 1960 and 2009. Then it doubled again between 2009 and 2018. C. quitensis expanded even more than D. antarctica in the last decade.
This figure from the study illustrates the spread of both vascular plants native to Signy Island going back to 1960. The top row is D. antarctica, and the bottom row is C. quitensis. From the paper: “Distribution of D. antarctica and C. quitensis in 1960 (yellow dots) (A and D), 2009 (B and E), and 2018 (C and F) (green and magenta dots) in relation with the patterns of Holocene deglaciation and glacier boundaries and indicating the occurrence (magenta dots) or absence (green dots) of marine vertebrate disturbance in 2009 and 2018. Legend: dark blue, glacier boundaries as recorded in 2016; blue, glacier boundaries during the Little Ice Age; pale blue, terrains deglaciated between 6600 years BP and the Little Ice Age; white, terrains deglaciated before 6600 years BP.” Image Credit: Cannone et al. 2022.
The warming climate isn’t the only factor in this study. The image above shows areas of marine vertebrate disturbance. That refers to fur seals that inhabit the island. “In the last decade, the impact of fur seal disturbance on both species decreased, becoming almost negligible,” the authors explain. “During the last decade, both species expanded in response to air temperature warming and release from the limitation of animal disturbance.”
Climate change doubters might think they’ve found ammunition here. Some people might want to emphasize the reduction in animal disturbance as a factor in plant spread and downplay the effect of climate warming. The researchers don’t discount reduced animal disturbance, but it’s a secondary factor. “We also hypothesize that the accelerated population expansion of D. antarctica and C. quitensis could result from a combination of climate warming and the recently reduced impacts of animal disturbance. This hypothesis is compatible with observations in the Northern Hemisphere, in particular in Europe, where land-use change correlates with vegetation change but, as here, the primary driver of these responses was climate warming,” they write.
These are the two vascular plants native to Signy Island. On the left is D. antarctica and on the right is C. quitensis. Image Credit: L: By Lomvi2 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10372682. Image Credit: R: By Liam Quinn – Flickr: Antarctic Pearlwort, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15525940
What does increased native planet growth due to a warming climate mean for the future of the Antarctic? On the surface of it, there could be some benefits. Increased plant growth removes more CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. “Such climate warming may benefit some and possibly many native Antarctic terrestrial species and communities in isolation…” the researchers write in their paper’s summary.
But it’s not just native plants that will benefit. They’ve exploited their cold niche for a long time, and other plant species haven’t gained a foothold on Signy Island. That could change, and the change could be disruptive.
Climate warming “… will also lead to increased risks from non-native species establishment. These may outcompete native species and trigger irreversible biodiversity loss and changes to these fragile and unique ecosystems,” they say in conclusion.
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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 74 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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