Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: evolution – Page 77

Revealing the invisible: Detecting variations in extragalactic magnetic fields

Magnetic fields are common throughout the universe but incredibly challenging to study. They don’t directly emit or reflect light, and light from all along the electromagnetic spectrum remains the primary purveyor of astrophysical data. Instead, researchers have had to find the equivalent of cosmic iron filings—matter in galaxies that is sensitive to magnetic fields and also emits light marked by the fields’ structure and intensity.

In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, several Stanford astrophysicists have studied infrared signals from just such a material—magnetically aligned dust grains embedded in the cold, dense clouds of star-forming regions. A comparison to light from cosmic ray electrons that has been marked by magnetic fields in warmer, more diffuse material showed surprising differences in the measured magnetic fields of .

Stanford astrophysicist and member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Acceleration and Cosmology (KIPAC) Enrique Lopez-Rodriguez explains the differences and what they could mean for galactic growth and evolution.

We can’t predict the future, but appreciating its uncertainties will make us happier

In it, he explores how we can make better, scientifically informed predictions about the world around us, using maths. “Mathematics can provide us with the objective tools to bypass the foibles of our own biology – the limitations imposed by our own thought processes, the compulsions that ultimately make us human, but let us down when it comes to making inferences about the world around us,” he writes. “They are humanity’s shortcuts: the preconceptions and cognitive biases, refined over millennia of evolution, that all too often lead us astray when we try to apply our brain’s old rules to our society’s new environments.”

No matter how tempting it is to think, “Ooh, that’s a bit spooky” when faced with a completely random coincidence or chance occurrence, we should all be expecting unusual things to happen all the time, he says.

Yates describes a person who, when browsing in a secondhand bookshop far from where they grew up, opens a copy of their favourite children’s book, only to find their own name inscribed inside. Yet, he says, “the law of truly large numbers” dictates that, just as someone wins the lottery almost every week, with enough opportunities, such extraordinary coincidences are far more likely to happen than you might think. “There are so many different types of coincidences that make us say: ‘Well, that’s extraordinary.’ But it’s not unlikely that some of them happen to us every so often.”

New research reveals the ancient origins of earth’s continents

Research has unveiled the pivotal moment 3.2 billion years ago when Earth’s continents began to form.

New research conducted by scientists at Curtin University has shed new light on the formation of Earth’s continents. This groundbreaking study, published in Earth Science Reviews, utilized Australia’s abundant lead-zinc ore deposits and a comprehensive global database to establish a timeline for the Earth’s evolution.

The study’s lead researcher, Dr Luc Doucet from Curtin’s Earth Dynamics Research Group, explained that their main objective was to determine when the continents as we know them today first took shape. To accomplish this, the team needed to understand how the Earth’s mantle had… More.

Dkosig/iStock.

Male Monkeys Have More Homosexual Sex Than Straight Sex, Study Shows

Gay sex – some humans do it, some penguins do it, and as it turns out, many monkeys do it. It’s only natural, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

By watching a group of rhesus macaques over a three-year period in Puerto Rico, scientists from the Imperial College of London found it was more common for the males to engage in sex with the same gender than with the opposite.

The researchers reported 72% of the 236 male monkeys either mounted, or were mounted, by other males, whereas only 46% participated in heterosexual sex.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Unveils 3D Visualization of 5,000 Galaxies

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled a stunning 3D visualization of 5,000 galaxies, providing a glimpse into the vast cosmic expanse.

The visualization, part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey, takes viewers on a journey through nearby galaxies to those in the far reaches of the universe, including one that has never been seen before by the telescope.

The area highlighted in the visualization represents a small portion of the Extended Groth Strip, which the Hubble Space Telescope initially observed. Although this region contains around 100,000 galaxies, the visualization specifically focuses on approximately 5,000 galaxies.

A 500-million-year-old sea squirt is the evolutionary clue we need to understand our humble beginnings

A rare, half-billion-year-old fossil gives us a clue to how a bizarre marine invertebrate can possibly be related to humans. In a study published on July 6 in the journal Nature Communications, Harvard University researchers identified a prehistoric specimen in a collection at the Natural History Museum of Utah as a tunicate, or sea squirt. The preserved invertebrate, which was originally discovered in the rugged, desert-like landscape of the House Range in western Utah, can be used to understand evolution mysteries that go way back to the Cambrian explosion.

“There are essentially no tunicate fossils in the entire fossil record. They’ve got a 520-to 540-million year-long gap,” says Karma Nanglu, an invertebrate paleontologist at Harvard. “This fossil isthe first soft-tissue tunicate in, we would argue, the entire fossil record.”

Sea squirts can be seen swaying on the ocean floor with its potato-like body and two chimney-like parts called siphons that are used to feed and expel water. While there are at least 3,000 different species today, the crayon-point-size organisms are generally unknown to people—despite being our invertebrate cousins, says Nanglu. Like humans, they belong to the chordates, which share five essential physical features during development or when fully grown. Most tunicates hatch as swimming, tadpole-like creatures, but eventually attach to the ocean floor and lead a sessile lifestyle.

Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Provides Novel Insights into Gastric Cancer Progression

The findings are published in Cancer Cell in an article titled, “Evolution of immune and stromal cell states and ecotypes during gastric adenocarcinoma progression.”

“Understanding tumor microenvironment (TME) reprogramming in gastric adenocarcinoma (GAC) progression may uncover novel therapeutic targets,” wrote the researchers. “Here, we performed single-cell profiling of precancerous lesions, localized and metastatic GACs, identifying alterations in TME cell states and compositions as GAC progresses. Abundant IgA+ plasma cells exist in the premalignant microenvironment, whereas immunosuppressive myeloid and stromal subsets dominate late-stage GACs.”

“Gastric adenocarcinoma exhibits a high degree of heterogeneity with respect to both its phenotypes and molecular characteristics, but research around it has lagged behind other cancer types,” explained Linghua Wang, MD, PhD, associate professor of genomic medicine. “Most studies have concentrated on tumor cells and largely overlooked the immune and stromal cells within the tumor microenvironment, which are very dynamic and play critical roles in cancer progression. This study represents the largest single-cell RNA sequencing cohort of gastric adenocarcinoma to date and brings important new insights into how these cell populations impact disease progression.”

Mark “Superhero Copycat” Zuckerberg

A better world without Facebook and all its negative impacts would be a significant step forward. Facebook’s dominance and influence have often been associated with issues such as privacy breaches, the spread of misinformation, and the erosion of real social connections. By breaking free from Facebook’s grip, we can foster a healthier online environment that prioritizes privacy, genuine interactions, and reliable information. It is time to envision a world where social media platforms serve as catalysts for positive change, promoting authentic communication and meaningful connections among individuals.

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook (now Meta), recently celebrated reaching 100 million users in just five days with his new Twitter-like platform called Threads. However, this achievement doesn’t impress me much. Instead, it highlights Zuckerberg’s tendency to imitate rather than innovate.

While I used to admire him, I now realize that he doesn’t belong in the same league as my true idols. Comparing the 100 million sign-ups for ChatGPT to the 100 million Threads users is simply absurd.

Continue reading “Mark “Superhero Copycat” Zuckerberg” | >

Synthetic Evolution: Genetically Minimal Artificial Cells Prove “Life Finds a Way”

Scientists discovered that a synthetic cell with a reduced genome could evolve as quickly as a normal cell. Despite losing 45% of its original genes, the cell adapted and demonstrated resilience in a laboratory experiment lasting 300 days, effectively showcasing that evolution occurs even under perceived limitations.

“Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but… ife finds a way,” said Ian Malcolm, Jeff Goldblum’s character in Jurassic.

The Jurassic period is a geologic time period and system that spanned 56 million years from the end of the Triassic Period about 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 million years ago. It constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era and is divided into three epochs: Early, Middle, and Late. The name “Jurassic” was given to the period by geologists in the early 19th century based on the rock formations found in the Jura Mountains, which were formed during the Jurassic period.

/* */