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
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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!!!
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.
30-04-2022
Michio Kaku: 3 mind-blowing predictions about the future
Michio Kaku: 3 mind-blowing predictions about the future
What lies in store for humanity? Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku explains how different life will be for your descendants—and maybe your future self, if the timing works out.
Carl Sagan believed humanity needed to become a multi-planet species as an insurance policy against the next huge catastrophe on Earth. Now, Elon Musk is working to see that mission through, starting with a colony of a million humans on Mars. Where will our species go next?
Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku looks decades into the future and makes three bold predictions about human space travel, the potential of “brain net”, and our coming victory over cancer.
“[I]n the future, the word ‘tumor’ will disappear from the English language,” says Kaku. “We will have years of warning that there is a colony of cancer cells growing in our body. And our descendants will wonder: How could we fear cancer so much?”
Strangest Tree and Plant Species You Don't Believe are Real
Strangest Tree and Plant Species You Don't Believe are Real
Evolution has thrown up some odd but also some impressive looking plants and trees over time. Throughout the years, mother-nature has baffled us with her strange and unusual creations. With more than 298,000 species of plants on earth, we are surely going to find some bizarre plants among them.
IT HAS BEEN MORE THAN 10,000 years since the last fur-covered woolly mammoth feet lumbered across the Arctic tundra.
Once a keystone species of these frozen ecosystems, the legacy of mammoths now has to be painstakingly recovered from layers of ice and permafrost by anorak-clad scientists. But not for much longer.
On September 13, entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Churchannounced the creation of Colossal, a new gene-editing company bent on “de-extincting” the woolly using CRISPR. The company claims that rewilding of this species in the Arctic tundra could revitalize the region's grasslands as a major source of carbon sequestration, which offers a crucial tool in the fight against climate change.
“IT ISN'T DE-EXTINCTION AT ALL.”
With starting capital of $15 million and four-to-six years of research, Lamm tells Inverse the company could produce a “herd” of woolly mammoths calves for the first time since the Ice Age. This means the first baby mammoths could roam the tundra by 2027 or earlier.
But other scientists aren’t so convinced, including Tori Herridge, an evolutionary biologist working as a fellow at the Natural History Museum in London and science communicator. Before the company’s announcement, Herridge was approached to join Colossal’s advisory board but declined.
Herridge tells Inverse that this project could easily blow past some crucial ethical barriers if Colossal isn't careful.
“If [this technology] genuinely does what they hope it's going to do, that will fundamentally alter the way that we as humans interact with the natural world,” says Herridge.
And there’s another issue: it may not be a true mammoth at all.
Ben Lamm (left) and George Church (right) say they can bring back the mammoth, but is that really a good thing?Courtesy of Colossal
WHAT IS COLOSSAL?
Using cutting-edge technology to bring a species back from extinction might sound like Jurassic Park-level science fiction, but Colossal’s new project is actually not the first to attempt — or achieve this.
“COLOSSAL IS READY TO CHART THIS NEW FRONTIER OF SCIENCE AND BIOTECHNOLOGY.”
While the company’s use of CRISPR — a gene-editing tool that can snip and replace particular genes in an animal's DNA — is relatively novel, Herridge says that scientists accomplished small-level “de-extinction” years ago through cloning a recently extinct Pyrenean ibex.
What really sets Colossal apart from previous attempts, says Herridge, is their private funding.
Another secret weapon in their corner, according to Lamm, is geneticist and co-founder George Church. With a passionate interest in the woolly mammoth, a deep understanding of synthetic biology, and eight years of research on the topic under his belt, Church is a triple threat. Mix that expertise with $15 million, and Lamm is confident they’ve got a winning combination.
“De-extinction of the woolly mammoth will be the first time a species has been successfully brought back from extinction,” Lamm says. “Colossal is ready to chart this new frontier of science and biotechnology.”
ARE WE REALLY BRINGING BACK THE MAMMOTH?
While CRISPR technology can do miraculous things, Herridge warns that it is still by no means a time machine.
“It isn't de-extinction at all — you're never going to bring back an extinct creature,” says Herridge. “It is not the de-extinction of the mammoth; it is the genetic modification of an elephant you are creating an entirely new synthetic organism.”
When it comes to gene editing, just because it looks like a woolly mammoth and moves like a woolly mammoth doesn’t mean it actually is a woolly mammoth. These mammoth-like animals will instead be more of a hybrid of this ancient species and their modern cousin, the Asian elephant.Shutterstock
Instead of reintroducing so-called authentic woolly mammoths to the tundra, Herridge says that what Church and his team are really doing is tinkering with the DNA of modern-day elephants to create something very similar to a woolly mammoth.
To do this, Church’s team has isolated 60 genes that helped woolly mammoths adapt to cold environments, including developing a shaggy coat, growing smaller ears and tail, and producing extra body fat.
Lamm says that these precisely edited genes will be inserted into the genome of Asian elephants using CRISPR. These “mammoth-like cells” can then, in theory, be inserted into the egg cell of an Asian elephant in place of its full-elephant nucleus.
“Electrical pulses are applied to the egg cell, which will simulate fertilization, and the egg cell will start to divide and grow, becoming an embryo,” says Lamm. Such future embryos could then be implanted in a surrogate elephant or an artificial womb for their 18-22 months-long gestation.
The final result? The world’s first “woolly mammoth” calves in 10 millennia.
HOW IT COULD GO WRONG
But before we get there, Herridge says there’s still a lot that could go wrong along the way. For example, reintroducing species to their native environments without disrupting those ecosystems is tricky even with modern species, but rewilding a species that’s been gone as long as the woolly mammoth could be the most difficult yet — not to mention that the environment they’re being reintroduced to is rapidly changing as temperatures across the world rise.
But while these are points to consider carefully, Herridge says there’s an even more salient ethical issue that this project must keep in mind.
“The worst outcome for me in the short term would be a sort of gung ho approach to implantation and uses elephants as surrogates,” says Herridge.
Moving too quickly in this gene-editing process could have deadly consequences.Shutterstock
According to Herridge, the only way to find out if you’ve done the right tinkering to create a “mammoth,” instead of an animal that might have several abnormalities or deformities, would be to see what kind of calf it creates. In that case, jumping to surrogacy too quickly without significant lab-bench experimentation first would be “unethical,” she says.
One way to get this right is to increase transparency wherever possible, says Herridge. This means releasing data from the Church lab more readily than has been done so far, she says.
HOW IT COULD GO RIGHT
Despite her concerns, Herridge is still optimistic about what we might learn along the way to producing baby woolly mammoths — whether we ever get there or not.
“The best outcome would be amazing collateral advances in our knowledge about mammoths and the ice age ecosystem [and] the application of those biotechnology tools to really press conservation issues for species that are close to extinction today,” says Herridge. “That's what I think would be the most important stuff.”
The quake was so ruinous, humans fled the area for 1,000 years.
The earthquake sent waves as high as 66 feet 5000 miles across the Pacific Ocean.
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
Archaeologists have found evidence of the largest known earthquake in human history — a terrifying magnitude-9.5 megaquake that caused a 5,000-mile-long (8,000 kilometers) tsunami and prompted human populations to abandon nearby coastlines for 1,000 years, a new study finds.
The earthquake struck about 3,800 years ago in what is now northern Chile when a tectonic plate rupture lifted the region's coastline. The subsequent tsunami was so powerful, it created waves as high as 66 feet (20 meters) and traveled all the way to New Zealand, where it hurled car-size boulders hundreds of miles inland, the researchers found.
Until now, the largest earthquake ever recorded was the 1960 Valdivia earthquake, which hit southern Chile with a magnitude between 9.4 and 9.6, killing up to 6,000 people and sending tsunamis barreling across the Pacific Ocean. The rupture that caused the Valdivia earthquake was enormous, extending as far as 500 miles (800 km) in length. But, as scientists detail in research published April 6 in the journal Science Advances, the newly discovered ancient megaquake was even bigger, coming from a rupture roughly 620 miles (1,000 km) long.
"It had been thought that there could not be an event of that size in the north of the country simply because you could not get a long enough rupture," study co-author James Goff, a geologist at the University of Southampton in England, said in a statement.
Like the Valdivia earthquake, the ancient quake was a megathrust earthquake, the most powerful type of earthquake in the world. These earthquakes occur when one of Earth's tectonic plates gets forced, or subducted, underneath another. The two plates eventually get locked into place by friction, but the forces that caused the plates to collide continue to build. Eventually, so much strain gathers that the point of contact between the plates rips apart, creating a gigantic rupture and releasing energy in the form of devastating seismic waves.
Evidence for the giant quake was found in marine and coastal items — such as littoral deposits (boulders, pebbles and sand native to coastal regions) and marine rocks, shells and sea life — that the researchers discovered displaced far inland in Chile's Atacama Desert.
"We found evidence of marine sediments and a lot of beasties that would have been living quietly in the sea before being thrown inland," Goff said in the statement. "And we found all these very high up and a long way inland, so it could not have been a storm that put them there."
To get a better sense of what brought these deposits so far from the sea, the researchers used radiocarbon dating. This method involves measuring the quantities of carbon 14, a radioactive carbon isotope, found inside a material to determine its age. As carbon 14 is everywhere on Earth, deposits easily absorb it while they form. The half-life of carbon 14, or the time it takes for half of it to radioactively decay, is 5,730 years, making it ideal for scientists who want to peer back into the last 50,000 years of history by checking how much undecayed carbon 14 a material has.
After dating 17 deposits across seven separate dig sites over 370 miles (600 km) of Chile's northern coast, the researchers found that the ages of the out-of-place coastal material suggested that it had been washed inland some 3,800 years ago.
Further evidence also came in the form of ancient stone structures that the archaeologists excavated. These stone walls, built by humans, were found lying beneath the tsunami's deposits, and some were lying backward, pointing toward the sea, suggesting that they had been toppled by the strong currents of the tsunami's backwash.
"The local population there were left with nothing," Goff said. "Our archaeological work found that a huge social upheaval followed as communities moved inland beyond the reach of tsunamis. It was over 1,000 years before people returned to live at the coast again, which is an amazing length of time given that they relied on the sea for food.
As this is the oldest known discovery in the Southern Hemisphere of an earthquake and tsunami devastating human lives, the researchers are excited to probe the region further. They think their research could better inform us of the potential dangers of future megathrust quakes.
"While this had a major impact on people in Chile, the South Pacific islands were uninhabited when they took a pummeling from the tsunami 3,800 years ago," Goff said. "But they are all well-populated now, and many are popular tourist destinations. So when such an event occurs next time, the consequences could be catastrophic unless we learn from these findings."
A new global analysis of the last 19 million years of seafloor spreading rates found they have been slowing down. Geologists want to know why the seafloor is getting sluggish.
New oceanic crust forms continuously along rifts thousands of miles long on the seafloor, driven by plate tectonics. As subduction pulls old crust down, rifts open up like fissures in an effusive volcano, drawing hot crust toward the surface. Once at the surface, the crust begins to cool and gets pushed away from the rift, replaced by hotter, younger crust.
Painting of the Mid-Ocean Ridge with rift axis by Heinrich Berann based on the scientific profiles of Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen (1977).
This cycle is called seafloor spreading, and its rate shapes many global processes, including sea level and the carbon cycle. Faster rates tend to cause more volcanic activity, which releases greenhouse gases, so deciphering spreading rates helps contextualize long-term changes in the atmosphere.
Dalton and her co-authors studied magnetic records for 18 of the world's largest spreading ridges, using seafloor ages and their areas to calculate how much ocean crust each ridge has produced over the last 19 million years. Each ridge evolved a little differently: some lengthened, some shrank; some sped up, but almost all slowed down. The overall result of Dalton's work is that average seafloor spreading slowed down by as much as 40% over that time.
(stock image only)
Today, spreading rates top out around 140 millimeters per year, but peaked around 200 millimeters per year just 15 million years ago in some places, according to the new study. The study was published in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.
The slowdown is a global average, the result of varying spreading rates from ridge to ridge. The study examined 18 ridges, but took a particularly close look at the eastern Pacific, home to some of the globe's fastest spreading ridges. Because these slowed greatly, some by nearly 100 millimeters per year slower compared to 19 million years ago, they dragged down the world's average spreading rates.
It's a complex problem to solve, made more difficult by the seafloor's slow and steady self-destruction.
"We know more about the surfaces of some other planets than we do our own seafloor," said Colleen Dalton, a geophysicist at Brown University who led the new study. "One of the challenges is the lack of perfect preservation. The seafloor is destroyed, so we're left with an incomplete record."
The seafloor is destroyed in subduction zones, where oceanic crust slides under continents and sinks back into the mantle, and is reforged at seafloor spreading ridges. This cycle of creation and destruction takes about every 180 million years, the age of the oldest seafloor. The crust's magnetic record tracks this pattern, producing identifiable strips every time the Earth's magnetic field reverses.
Dalton and her co-authors studied magnetic records for 18 of the world's largest spreading ridges, using seafloor ages and their areas to calculate how much ocean crust each ridge has produced over the last 19 million years. Each ridge evolved a little differently: some lengthened, some shrank; some sped up, but almost all slowed down. The overall result of Dalton's work is that average seafloor spreading slowed down by as much as 40% over that time.
The driver here might be located at subduction zones rather than spreading ridges: for example, as the Andes grow along the western edge of the South American continent, the mountains push down on the crust.
"Think of it as increased friction between the two colliding tectonic plates," Dalton said. "A slowdown in convergence there could ultimately cause a slowdown in spreading at nearby ridges." A similar process could have operated underneath the Himalaya, with the rapidly growing range slowing spreading along the ridges in the Indian Ocean.
However, Dalton points out, this added friction can't be the only driver of the slowdown, because she found slowing rates globally and mountain growth is regional. Larger-scale processes, like changes in mantle convection, could also be playing a role. In all likelihood, she concludes, it's a combination of both. To learn more, Dalton hopes to collect absolute plate speeds, rather than the relative speeds used in this study, which will better allow her to determine the cause of the slowdown.
OCEANISCHE SPREIDING GAAT STEEDS LANGZAMER - EN WETENSCHAPPERS BEGRIJPEN ER NIETS VAN
OCEANISCHE SPREIDING GAAT STEEDS LANGZAMER - EN WETENSCHAPPERS BEGRIJPEN ER NIETS VAN
Vivian Lammerse
Tragere spreidingssnelheden kunnen leiden tot een daling van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen door vulkanen. En dus willen onderzoekers hier het fijne van weten.
Wetenschappers hebben ineen nieuwe studie de zogenaamde ‘oceanische spreiding’ gedurende de afgelopen 19 miljoen jaar geanalyseerd. Het leidt tot een frappante ontdekking. Want uit de analyse blijkt dat de oceanische spreiding tegenwoordig een stuk langzamer gaat. Maar waarom?
Oceanische spreiding Aangedreven door platentektoniek vormt zich voortdurend een nieuwe oceanische korst langs duizenden kilometers lange spleten op de zeebodem. In zekere zin zou je kunnen zeggen dat het aardoppervlak hier dus groeit. Maar onze planeet wordt niet groter, doordat de groei gecompenseerd wordt door subductie die elders plaatsvindt. Hierbij wordt de oude korst naar beneden getrokken. Uit de aardmantel komt warm materiaal omhoog in de vorm van magma, dat de ruimte die in de korst ontstaat, opvult. Dit magma zorgt vervolgens voor vulkanisme op de plaatgrens, waardoor er een nieuwe korst van gestold magma wordt gevormd. Eenmaal aan de oppervlakte koelt de korst af en wordt weggeduwd van de spleet waar vervolgens weer meer nieuwe korst kan ontstaan. En deze cyclus noemen we oceanische spreiding.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Snelheid De snelheid van de oceanische spreiding bepaalt veel mondiale processen, waaronder het zeeniveau en de koolstofcyclus. Wanneer de oceanische spreiding versnelt, kan dit leiden tot meer vulkanisme, waardoor er weer meer broeikasgassen vrijkomen. Wanneer de oceanische spreiding vertraagt, kan dit juist leiden tot een daling van de uitstoot van broeikasgassen door vulkanen. Kortom, het ontcijferen van de spreidingssnelheden helpt om langetermijnveranderingen in de atmosfeer in kaart te brengen.
Studie In het nieuwe onderzoek bestudeerde het team 18 verschillende oceanische ruggen waar oceanische spreiding plaatsvindt. In het bijzonder concentreerden de onderzoekers zich op ruggen in de oostelijke Stille Oceaan. De onderzoekers bepaalden de leeftijd van de zeebodem om zo te berekenen hoeveel oceaankorst elke rug in de afgelopen 19 miljoen jaar heeft gevormd.
Langzamer Uit de resultaten blijkt dat elke rug een beetje anders is geëvolueerd; sommige werden langer terwijl andere slonken. Maar opvallend genoeg was er één gemeenschappelijke deler: op bijna alle ruggen verloopt de oceanische spreiding tegenwoordig een stuk langzamer. De onderzoekers komen zelfs tot de verrassende ontdekking dat de gemiddelde oceanische verspreiding gedurende de laatste 19 miljoen jaar met maar liefst 40 procent is vertraagd.
Waarom? De prangende vraag is natuurlijk waarom de oceanische spreiding vertraagt. Dit is echter niet zo gemakkelijk te achterhalen, mede door de langzame en gestage zelfvernietiging van de zeebodem (in de eerder genoemde subductiezones). “We weten meer over de oppervlakken van sommige andere planeten dan over onze eigen zeebodem,” zegt onderzoeker Colleen Dalton. “Eén van de uitdagingen is het gebrek aan bewaring. De zeebodem wordt vernietigd, dus we beschikken niet over alle informatie.”
Subductiezones De onderzoekers hebben wel een theorie. Zo vermoeden ze dat we het antwoord in de subductiezones moeten zoeken. Als de Andes bijvoorbeeld groeit aan de westelijke rand van het Zuid-Amerikaanse continent, dan drukken de bergen op de korst. “Zie het als een verhoogde wrijving tussen twee botsende, tektonische platen,” legt Dalton uit. “Een vertraging van de convergentie zou daar uiteindelijk een vertraging van de verspreiding op nabijgelegen bergkammen kunnen veroorzaken.”
Combinatie Dalton wijst er echter op dat deze extra wrijving niet de enige oorzaak van de vertraging hoeft te zijn. Ook grootschaligere processen, zoals veranderingen in mantelconvectie, kunnen een rol spelen. “Naar alle waarschijnlijkheid is het een combinatie van beide,” zo concludeert ze.
Waarom de oceanische verspreiding dus vertraagt? Vooralsnog moeten onderzoekers ons het antwoord schuldig blijven. Om het mysterie te onthullen, hoopt Dalton in vervolgonderzoek absolute, plaatselijke spreidingssnelheden te verzamelen. Hierdoor denkt ze de oorzaak van de vertraging beter te kunnen bepalen.
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.
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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.
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
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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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