‘Dear Blue Peter… I can save lives’

At the age of nine few children know what they will go on to do with their lives. But for a scientist involved in one of the most revolutionary medical operations of recent times, his destiny appears to have been spelled out in a letter written 35 years ago, to a BBC children’s programme.

It had been a heck of a year for Professor Anthony Hollander. In 2008, after 20 years of research into helping arthritis sufferers he unexpectedly found himself being asked to urgently adapt his skills to help save the life of a woman in Spain.

The groundbreaking treatment, by a team of scientists and surgeons, gave the woman a new windpipe using her own stem cells. He had helped save a dying woman and the successful operation made headlines around the world. It was, by any measure, a career high.

After it was all over Mr Hollander got to thinking, and suddenly made a connection. In 1973, a nine-year-old Anthony Hollander had written to Blue Peter to tell them he had a “strange” belief that he knew how to “make people or animals alive”.

The letter, which by his own admission today was “eccentric”, went on to ask the programme to help him acquire the necessary materials to carry out these life-saving tasks.

The shopping list included a “model of a heart split in half” and “tools for cutting people open”.

Thousands of children wrote to the programme every week, but each one received a personal letter back, and Anthony was no exception.

The response from then editor, Biddy Baxter, was “fundamental” to his future, he now believes. She encouraged him to seek information for his idea from the family doctor.

It was not so much the advice itself that left an impression on the boy. It was that whisper of encouragement that he gleaned from having received a reply at all, and that the letter did not dismiss his idea. …

via BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | ‘Dear Blue Peter… I can save lives’.

Octuplets stun doctors at California hospital

A California woman shocked doctors by giving birth on Monday to octuplets, believed to be only the second set of eight babies born in the United States.

The six boys and two girls were doing well and were in stable condition in the neonatal intensive care unit, said Dr. Karen Maples at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower.

But two needed some help to breath with ventilators, she told a press conference.

The eight babies were born nine weeks prematurely by Caesarean section over a five-minute period, stunning a 46-member medical team that was expecting only seven babies.

They weighed between 1 pound 8 ounces (680 grams) and 3 pounds 4 ounces (1.47 kg) and doctors initially identified them by the letters A through H as they were born.

“We decided to proceed with the delivery in anticipation of seven babies. We had done some drills, some preliminary dry runs,” Maples said.

“Lo and behold, after we got to Baby G, which is what we expected, we were surprised by Baby H.”

Maples said she had been following the mother, who was not identified, since the first trimester of her pregnancy.

Citing patient confidentiality rules, the hospital declined to say whether the mother had become pregnant through fertility treatments, which can raise the likelihood of multiple births.

“It was a shock, especially with the eighth baby,” Maples said.

via NewsDaily: Octuplets stun doctors at California hospital.

Strange “flying fish” found in EL river (pic)

Here’s an interesting little story from one of our readers and a picture of a very unusual fish discovered in the Kwelerha River on the East Coast Resorts Road on Saturday. Christo Raath writes the following letter about the find (Click on the pics below to enlarge):My son saw this fish floundering in the shallows in the Kwelerha river on Saturday. It appeared sick and unfortunately died soon after he caught it (by hand). …

The picture has the Dispatchonline team scratching their heads. It seems to be a flying fish but we are not sure. Can you tell us what kind of species this is and what it was doing in the Kwelerha River?

We are also trying to mail the pictures to Rhodes University in Grahamstown and will hopefully have an answer soon!

via Dispatch Now 24/7 » Blog Archive » Strange “flying fish” found in EL river (pic).

Lies Take Longer Than Truths

A new technique that separates truth from lies finds it takes about 30 percent longer to fib.

The computer-based analysis, reported in The Times of London, showed that British test subjects took 1.2 seconds on average to speak reality in recent tests, while prevarications took 1.8 seconds.

The timed antagonistic response alethiometer test (Tara) was developed by Aiden Gregg, a psychologist at the University of Southampton. It involves questions answered on a computer using the keyboard, then an algorithm to see how users did. In 85 percent of cases, interviewees were slower when they lied. Gregg figures his approach could replace traditional lie detector methods, which he says criminals have caught onto.

“Habitual liars heard that people look away when telling lies, so they stare directly into your eyes,” he said.

A polygraph is not a lie detector, as LiveScience’s Bad Medicine Columnist Christopher Wanjek has explained. A polygraph detects physiological expressions associated with lying in some people, such as a racing heart and sweaty fingers. The determination of truth vs. falsehood is subjective, and polygraph examiners are often wrong. The National Academy of Sciences tested the traditional lie detector in 2002 and concluded “polygraph tests can discriminate lying from truth telling at rates well above chance, though well below perfection.”

The Times reports that the U.S. government is considering using Tara.

via Lies Take Longer Than Truths | LiveScience.

A Strange Asteroid Is Stalking the Earth

A 10 meter-wide asteroid named 2009 BD discovered earlier this month is making a slow pass of the Earth, coming within 400,000 miles (644,000 km) of our planet. The near-Earth asteroid (NEO) poses no threat to us, but it is an oddity worth studying. Astronomers believe the rock is a rare “co-orbital asteroid” which follows the orbit of the Earth, not receding more than 0.1 AU (15 million km) away. It is stalking us.

On looking at the NASA JPL Small-Body Database orbital plot, it is hard to distinguish between the orbital path of the Earth and 2009 BD, showing just how close the asteroid is shadowing the Earth on its journey around the Sun…

In 2006, NASA announced that Earth’s “second moon” was an asteroid called 2003 YN107 (with a diameter of about 20 meters) and it was about to leave the vicinity of Earth, leaving its “corkscrewing” orbit around our planet for seven years, only to return again in 60 years time. 2003 YN107 was of no threat (and wont be in the future), but it is interesting to study these bodies to understand how they interact with Earth. Having NEOs in stable orbits around the Earth could be of benefit to mankind in the future as missions can be planned, possibly sending mining missions to these rocky visitors so we can tap their resources.

So far, little is known about the new 10 meter asteroid in our near-Earth neighbourhood, but it provides us with an exciting opportunity to track its laborious orbit to see whether it will eventually be ejected after making a close pass to the Earth’s gravitational field (as was the case with 2003 YN107 in 2006). From preliminary observations, 2009 BD is projected to shadow our planet for many months (possibly years) to come. Until November 2010 at least, the asteroid will hang around the Earth, within a distance of 0.1 AU.

It is worth emphasising that 2009 BD is of no threat to the Earth, its closest approach takes it 644,000 km from us. For comparison, the Moon’s apogee is 400,000 km, so 2009 BD is stalking us from afar, beyond lunar orbit.

via Strange Asteroid 2009 BD Stalks the Earth | Universe Today.

Dark flow: Proof of another universe?

FOR most of us the universe is unimaginably vast. But not for cosmologists. They feel decidedly hemmed in. No matter how big they build their telescopes, they can only see so far before hitting a wall. Approximately 45 billion light years away lies the cosmic horizon, the ultimate barrier because light beyond it has not had time to reach us.

So here we are, stuck inside our patch of universe, wondering what lies beyond and resigned to that fact we may never know. The best we can hope for, through some combination of luck and vigilance, is to spot a crack in the structure of things, a possible window to that hidden place beyond the edge of the universe. Now Sasha Kashlinsky believes he has stumbled upon such a window.

Kashlinsky, a senior staff scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has been studying how rebellious clusters of galaxies move against the backdrop of expanding space. He and colleagues have clocked galaxy clusters racing at up to 1000 kilometres per second – far faster than our best understanding of cosmology allows. Stranger still, every cluster seems to be rushing toward a small patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.

Kashlinsky and his team claim that their observation represents the first clues to what lies beyond the cosmic horizon. Finding out could tell us how the universe looked immediately after the big bang or if our universe is one of many. Others aren’t so sure. One rival interpretation is that it is nothing to do with alien universes but the result of a flaw in one of the cornerstones of cosmology, the idea that the universe should look the same in all directions. That is, if the observations withstand close scrutiny.

All the same colleagues are sitting up and taking notice. “This discovery adds to our pile of puzzles about cosmology,” says Laura Mersini-Houghton of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Heaped in that pile is 95 per cent of the universe’s contents, including the invisible dark matter that appears to hold the galaxies together, and the mysterious dark energy that is accelerating the universe’s expansion. Accordingly, Kashlinsky named this new puzzle the “dark flow”.

via Dark flow: Proof of another universe? – space – 23 January 2009 – New Scientist.

Cunning psychopaths manipulate their way out of jail

DESPITE the serious nature of their offences, psychopathic criminals get let out of prison sooner than others – in Canada, at least.

Psychopaths tend to be unusually adept at manipulating others, and even the legal system, to their advantage. “In prison, they push administrators to gain better food, resources, or to work outside on road crews,” says Kent Kiehl of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

To find out how effective psychopaths are at duping parole boards, Steve Porter of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, studied records of 310 male inmates from a Canadian prison. He found that those termed psychopaths, based on a standard psychological test, were up to 2.5 times as likely as other prisoners to get out of jail early. They were also “much more likely to then violate their parole than non-psychopaths”, he says.

Bob Hare of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who created the psychological tests, says parole boards may need help to tackle the problem. “Many prison officials have told me that they need better training about what a psychopath is,” he says.

via Cunning psychopaths manipulate their way out of jail – science-in-society – 25 January 2009 – New Scientist.

New evidence of the cult of Zeus is 3,200 years old.

Partying like it’s 999 B.C.

It’s not hard to see why Zeus was such a popular god with the ancient Greeks. He not only wielded a thunderbolt, but he also got into all sorts of trouble, including liaisons with humans and goddesses – much to the annoyance of his wife, Hera.

Greek gods were figures people could relate to, said archaeologist David Romano of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. And worshiping Zeus apparently involved some serious partying.

Working at the remote Mount Lykaion in Greece, Romano has found “evidence of a drinking party and possibly feasting” around a famous altar built on the 4,500-foot peak. These relics go back 3,200 years, about the time the earliest stone tablets started to refer to Zeus as the godfather of the gods.

“What’s new is this mountaintop altar had cult activity that’s continuous from the Mycenaean to the Hellenistic periods,” Romano said, meaning between the 14th and second centuries B.C. At various depths, he and colleagues have unearthed silver coins and other Zeus icons, including a tiny bronze hand with a silver lightning bolt.

Romano will speak on his latest finds tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Penn Museum.

Mount Lykaion is mentioned in myth as the birthplace of Zeus, Romano said, and it appears no one lived on the desolate peak, though the view is spectacular. For hundreds of years, people apparently hiked there for religious ceremonies and feasts.

Last year, Romano announced that the site contained primitive pottery shards that go back to the end of the Neolithic or New Stone Age period, more than 5,000 years ago, before the first Greek-speaking people arrived. He suspects this material stems from some sort of religious or cult activity. But no one knows if the deity before Zeus was a party animal, too.

via New evidence of the cult of Zeus is 3,200 years old. | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/26/2009.

Hillary Clinton favors diplomatic response to extraterrestrial life

Newly confirmed Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has long had an interest in UFOs and the existence of extraterrestrial life. She was given an informal briefing in August 1995 by billionaire philanthropist Laurence Rockefeller, on the best available UFO evidence. An August 4, 1995, memo by President Clinton’s Science Advisor, Dr Jack Gibbons, confirmed that the Clintons would be vacationing with Rockefeller at his Teton Ranch in Wyoming that summer, and they would discuss UFOs:

You will probably see Mr Rockefeller on your vacation in the Tetons. He will want to talk with you about his interest in extrasensory perception, paranormal phenomenon, and UFOs.

In the memo, Gibbons then attempted to dissuade the Clintons from pursuing Rockefeller’s agenda to disclose national security files concerning UFOs:

He knows that we are trying to be helpful in responding to his concerns about UFO’s and human potential … but I’ve made no secret about my conviction that we must not be too diverted from more earthly imperatives.

Both Clintons were involved in numerous attempts to force the release of national security files concerning UFOs. According to Grant Cameron, founder of the Presidential UFO website, the “Clintons tried to get UFO documents released as part of President Clinton’s 1995 Executive Order 12958.” Executive Order 12958, was similar to President Obama’s recent January 21, Presidential Memo on “Transparency and Open Government,  where he instructed government agencies and departments to relax rules governing the release of national security files.

Cameron has made numerous FOIA requests on Clinton administration files and found “that there are literally thousands of pages of UFO files.” He concluded that this is “clear evidence of an administration that was active but unsuccessful on the UFO front.”

… Next week, Hillary Clinton begins her first full week as the nation’s top diplomat. Her public statements and sustained interest in UFOs suggest that, if given the opportunity, she intends to create a very different national security policy concerning extraterrestrial life. As Secretary of State, Clinton will stress ‘galactic’ diplomacy over ‘future’ military confrontation with extraterrestrial life. That may represent a welcome departure to national security policies that have been secretly developed and implemented over six decades of the UFO phenomenon. – examiner

What sort of secrets about aliens is our government hiding, do you suppose?

Single cell ‘can store memories’

Just one brain cell is capable of holding fleeting memories vital for our everyday life, according to US scientists.

A study of mouse brain cells revealed how they could keep information stored for as long as a minute.

A UK specialist said that understanding these short-term memories might help unlock the secrets of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The finding was reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The difference between the brain’s long-term and short-term memory has been likened to the RAM of a computer and the hard-drive.

To perform normal functions, we need the ability to store, quickly and reliably, large amounts of data, but only a small amount of this needs to be retained in the longer term.

Scientists have spent decades working out which parts of the brain are responsible for these functions, and how cells manage this feat.

Original theories suggested the memories were retained by multiple cells forming “circuits” around which electrical impulses were fired for the necessary period.

More recent ideas have centred around the concept that even an individual cell could somehow hold on to information.

Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern looked at brain cells taken from mice using tiny electrodes to measure their function.

They found that a particular component of the cells in question, a chemical receptor, which, when switched on, tells the cell to start an internal signal system that holds the “memory” in place. …

via BBC NEWS | Health | Single cell ‘can store memories’.

How much information can one nerve cell store?  Is biological quantum computing used in memory storage that happens in a single neuron?